The Australian team also faced defeat in the second Test match played against India. Like the first match, this match also ended on the third day itself.
Image Credit source: BCCI Photo
The way the Australian team was expected, this team could not perform that way on the tour of India. This team has faced defeat in both the opening matches in India. After the first Test match played in Nagpur, this team also got defeated in the second Test match played in Delhi. The Delhi Test ended on Sunday on the third day itself and after this match, captain Pat Cummins has raised questions on the thinking of his batsmen. Cummins has said that his batsmen lost their way.
Australia had scored 263 runs in the first innings of this match. Then India scored 262 runs in its first innings. After this, Australia got piled on just 113 runs in the second innings and India got the target of only 115 runs to win, which it achieved by losing four wickets.
Batsmen played risky shots
After losing the second Test by six wickets, Cummins said that most of his batsmen were not comfortable with playing risky shots like sweep and reverse sweep but they adopted this method to deal with the spinners. At least five Australian batsmen, including vice-captain Steve Smith, have been dismissed trying to play this shot on a low-bouncing pitch. Cummins said in the press conference after the match, I thought they (India) bowled really well. Batting was not easy, but maybe some players lost their way.
Cummins admitted that not all batsmen can adopt the same method on such pitches. He said, every batsman has a way of playing. I don’t think any one method will suit everyone in any given situation. Unfortunately, some of us got out with cross batting shots, which might not be our preferred approach.
mistake in first innings
Cummins admitted that batting first on this pitch, his team should have scored more than 300 runs. He said, looking back on it, scoring 300 would have been fantastic. 260 was a decent score but if we really want to get hold of the match, 300 should have been scored in the first innings.”
In the second innings, Australia lost their nine wickets in a single session. Expressing disappointment over losing nine wickets in one session, he said, “It is disappointing, in this match also we repeated the story of Nagpur’s second innings.” We were in a good position for most of the match but we scored less in the end.
Cummins said that in both the matches of the series, India’s lower order contributed brilliantly with the bat and it made a big difference in the match. Ravindra Jadeja and Akshar Patel in the first test while Ravichandran Ashwin and Akshar shared a century partnership in the second test. Akshar scored a half-century in both these matches.