Indian skipper Rohit Sharma rued the underwhelming batting display from his team for the nine-wicket defeat in the third Border Gavaskar Trophy 2023 Test against Australia, here in Indore’s Holkar Cricket Stadium. Despite the pitch being challenging, the Indian batters looked out of ideas as they could only score 272 runs in the two innings combined.
After being wrapped up for mere 109 runs in the first innings, India got a reprieve when the bowlers restricted Australia to a score of 197. However, the hosts could not turn up with the ball in the second innings as well, scoring only 163 runs on this occasion as Australia eventually won the fixture comfortably, by a nine-wicket margin.
Ruing the poor collective batting display, the Indian skipper said after the match “We need to understand (that) no matter what the pitches are, you have got to come out and do the job. We need to keep it simple and follow the plan. When we are playing on challenging pitches, we need to be brave.”
“When you lose a Test match, there are a lot of things which didn't go your way. To start with, we didn't bat well in the 1st innings. We understand how important it is to put runs on the board in the first innings and when they got an 80-90 runs lead, we had to produce another innings with the bat but we were not able to do that again,” Sharma further added.
India vs Australia, 3rd Test: India scored 272 runs in both innings combined.
(Photo: BCCI)
The Australian spinners worked wonders for the visitors, scalping 19 of the 20 wickets. While Matthew Kuhnemann got a five-wicket haul in the first innings, the second innings was all about Nathan Lyon’s brilliance as he dismissed eight Indian batters.
Whilst praising the opposition’s spinners, the 33-year-old batter said “We allowed their bowlers to bowl on one particular spot, not taking any credit away from their bowlers. Especially, Nathan Lyon, he kept challenging us by hitting the right lengths. When the bowler is trying to do that, we have got to be a little brave, which I thought we were not.”
Our Bowlers Were Collectively Good: Steve Smith
Leading the team in the absence of Pat Cummins, who flew back home to attend to a family health emergency, Steve Smith did a commendable job both as a batter, and more importantly, as a leader.
He credited his bowlers’ discipline for the victory, by saying “Our bowlers got the ball in the right areas and put India under pressure. I thought Kuhnemann was really good on the first day. All our bowlers contributed and bowled in partnerships. Yesterday (Day 2) India fought back and I thought we had to toil really hard, Pujji (Cheteshwar Pujara) played an outstanding inning but we really stuck at it, Nathan got all the rewards with 8 wickets but I think our bowlers as a collective were really good.”
India vs Australia, 3rd Test: Nathan Lyon scalped eight wickets in the second innings.
(Photo: BCCI)
Nathan Lyon was adjudged the player of the match for his exemplary display with the ball. After recording figures of 11.2-2-35-3 in the first innings, he unleashed his best version in the second innings by picking up eight wickets for only 64 runs.
“I don't have all the tricks or all the trades in the game but one thing I do have is belief in my stock ball and that is the biggest thing in world cricket. If you believe in your best ball then you can challenge the best players in the world for longer periods of time,” the off-spinner said.
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