This was a day of two halves, both belonging to Australia, the rout that was the second made inexorable by the vigour and impudence of the first. Against half an attack, in half a ground, Australia in the morning played half-and-half cricket, Test20 if you like. Four for 210 in half a day wasn't half bad for entertainment, and a half-day of Warner and his blunderbuss will always be as his name suggests, Warne-plus-a-bit. Imagine the day Australia boasts a player called Warnest.

But the battle was only half-won. Another wicket then might have led to a toppling, for Australia is like the Adelaide Oval, still rebuilding and waiting for the footings to set. Blessedly for Australia there was a constant in Clarke, its constant since he was appointed captain of Australia to universal lack of acclaim 15 months ago.

Clarke's figures tell their own epic tale, yet tell only a part. In Australia's 25 Test innings in the Clarke era, only 10 times has it reached 100 less than three wickets down. Following what seems always to be an experimental top order, there nearly always is work to be done. Some will say this argues for his elevation; I reckon it means leaving well alone. Updating the old cliche, Clarke is playing a captain's career.

Thursday was another classic of the genre. Australia (read Warner) began boldly, but suddenly was 3/55. Ed Cowan and Ricky Ponting were felled - literally - by crafty Kallis outswingers, and Rob Quiney's misfortune was to hit what others missed from Morkel in these preliminaries. Alarm rather than cathedral bells rang, muted only by the immediate laming of Kallis.

Clarke's first scoring shot was a tutorial. Moving back to Kallis, he left his stroke so late that wicketkeeper and slips instinctively threw their arms into the air, anticipating bowled or lbw. Instead, the ball skittered away to fine leg for four. A couple of hours later, the much-beset Tahir was half-way through a jubilant leap as he surely was about to skittle Clarke's stumps, only to see his blade intersect and send the ball to the backward point fence. So was another hundred duly raised.