Former Australian skipper Allan Border lambasted Australia’s batting after the visitors lost the second Test match against India by six wickets at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi on Sunday. Australia lost nine wickets for 52 on the third day’s morning as they employed the sweep shot but it led to their downfall.
The tourists were skittled out for a paltry score of 113 runs and it was the turning point of the game. The Australian batters didn’t show any resistance as they didn’t trust their defense.
Ravindra Jadeja ran through the Australian batting as he returned with figures of 7-42. Furthermore, Ravichandran Ashwin took three wickets in the second innings.
Only Travis Head and Marnus Labuschagne could get into the double digits but the rest of the Australian batters failed to get going against the spin duo of Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin.
Allan Border said while talking to Fox Cricket, “I’m angry about the way they went about it today. It was panicky, frenetic sort of batting, nobody got in there to stem the flow with some good defensive cricket. They were all just getting out playing sweep shot, reverse sweep to just about every ball.”
“You’re not playing on a flat belter where you can expand your game. When playing on a difficult surface, you’ve got to work out where your scoring options are and bat some time at the crease.”
On the other hand, former Australian opener Matthew Hayden reckons what they saw in the second innings of the Delhi Test was a disaster for the visitors.
“I can’t believe what I’ve just witnessed here. These are world-class players, and they’ve got everything to win and everything to lose in this session.”
“They did it so well last evening in those few overs. Strong scoring rate, good defence, proactive batting. But what we’ve seen here is a disaster for Australia. They’ve gone way over the edge in terms of their aggressive play.”
The third Test match between India and Australia will be played at the Holkar Cricket Stadium, Indore from March 1.
