Clarke makes a comeback with a ‘rusty’ knock

Former Australia captain Michael Clarke scored what he described as a ‘rusty’ 48 in his comeback match in Sydney club cricket on Saturday.

Clarke, 34, who bowed out of the game in August after the disastrous Ashes series in England, was dropped twice early batting at No. 3 for his old team Western Suburbs against Randwick-Petersham.

He was finally dismissed leg before wicket trying to work a ball through fine leg to Sam Doggett just two runs short of a half-century.

Clarke was dropped at second slip before he had scored and later was put down again at second slip while on 30 in his 135-minute innings, which included seven fours.

“It was nice, I enjoyed it. I batted for a good length of time and the body feels pretty good,” Clarke told reporters at the ground.

“My goal here is to come and try and contribute. Fortunately I made a few runs, I always want some more, but I’ll worry about anything past that after this game.

“I didn’t really have too many goals to be honest, it was more just to come back and play, walk out to the middle and as you would’ve seen there was certainly a bit of rust there.

“I didn’t feel great, but it was nice to spend some time in the middle and score some runs.”

One of the outstanding batsmen of his generation, Clarke said before his comeback game that he “missed the game”, and wanted to have a crack at making his mark in T20s.

While Clarke played in 115 Tests and 245 one-day internationals, he only took part in 34 T20 internationals during his first-class career.

Clarke is due to return on Sunday for the remainder of the club match with Randwick-Petersham.