Haddin cannot keep papering over the cracks in Oz top order

RUNS on the board in the first innings is Australia’s Plan A for setting up Test wins.

It hasn’t been happening, however. Not from the top six anyway.

Time and again wicketkeeper/batsman Brad Haddin has rescued the side from No. 7. Haddin’s average of 65.00 in the Ashes series is second only to Australia opener David Warner’s 77.66.

Yesterday Haddin advanced from his overnight score of 43 in Australia’s first innings of the fourth Test at the MCG to be last man out for 65. The 36-year-old vice- captain top- scored in his side’s modest total of 204.

It was Haddin’s fourth halfcentury of the series, and let’s not forget his century in the Adelaide Test either.

Most of Australia’s top six are struggling. George Bailey’s four-Test career at No.6 has been a failure so far, yielding 136 runs at 27.20.

Steve Smith at No.5, 50-Test veteran Shane Watson at No.3 and 36-year-old Chris Rogers are all averaging under 35.00 in the series.

Judging by the way Watson laboured through a bowling stint on Saturday, his groin strain may keep the allrounder out of the fifth Test starting in Sydney on January 3.

Watson’s fellow pacebowling allrounder James Faulkner is the obvious candidate to come back into the side if Watson is not fit.

Would one- Test player Faulkner bat at No.6, above Haddin? On Haddin’s current form, the step up would not bother him.

Australia have one more Test match before their tour of South Africa.

Coach Darren Lehmann wants first-innings runs from his specialist batsmen, especially if they are to confront topranked South Africa with their attack led by the two top-ranked bowlers in Test cricket: Dale Steyn and Vernon Philander.