Former Indian cricketer Kirti Azad admitted Australia defeated India in every department in the World Test Championship final at the Oval. Australia won by a huge margin of 209 runs as they came up with a collective effort while Indian players could not deliver in the summit clash.
Australia posted a massive score of 469 runs on the board after Rohit Sharma decided to bowl first in overcast conditions. Travis Head scored a piece de resistance knock of 163 runs whereas Steve Smith added 121 runs. The duo added a gargantuan alliance of 285 runs for the fourth wicket and smashed multiple records.
Furthermore, India could only manage 296 runs on the board in the first essay and thus conceded a big lead of 173 runs. Australia declared at 270-8 in the second dig and thus gave a mammoth target of 444 runs to the Indian team.
However, India was skittled out for only 234 runs in the second innings and ended up losing by a huge margin. Ergo, Australia dominated throughout the course of five days while Indian players could not deliver the goods.
Kirti Azad said on Sports Tak, “Australia defeated us in every department. Their bowling and batting were perfect. In the first innings, if we see the Australian bowlers, they were absolutely accurate, they kept bowling on the same line even if they were not getting wickets.”
Azad, who was part of the 1983 World Cup-winning team, added that Indian bowlers got carried away on the green pitch at the Oval.
“It seemed like our bowlers got overexcited. They couldn’t maintain the line and length they should have kept. So we lost the match in the first innings itself.”
Azad added it could have been a different story if the Indian bowlers had restricted Australia to 300-325 in the first innings. However, Head and Smith’s added a huge alliance for the fourth wicket for Australia, which took the game away from India.
“We did bowl a little better in the second innings but if we had bowled well and restricted them to 300-325 in the first innings, the match could have been made because India scored 296 runs.”
Azad feels Indian bowling was better in the second innings but the bowlers could not hit the right areas in the first essay.
“The bowling was good in the second innings but the first-innings lead was so much, that it didn’t seem possible. When Rahane and Kohli were playing, it seemed they could do it, and India have a deep batting lineup as well, but it was unfortunate that they threw away their wickets.”
India will now take on West Indies in July.
