As Day 3 progressed at Brisbane in the second test of the India tour of Australia, it was a sense of Déjà vu as Australians piled on the runs against the visiting Indian side. In the first hour of the game, India mustered the two early wickets of Mitchell Marsh and Brad Haddin. However, after that for the next 25 overs what transpired was absolutely disappointing for the Indian fans watching on.
Mitchell Johnson, along with Steve Smith, who has hit a purple patch in recent times, took the attack to the opposition, adding 148 runs onto the scoreboard. Smith was already in control before he began his assault with the pace bowler, so it was Johnson who turned out to be the surprise package, slamming a counter-attacking 88 off 93 balls. Mitchell Johnson has always had something of a reputation as a pinch-hitter, but this was spectacular even by his standards.
When he walked in, India were on top and were threatening to run away with a healthy and crucial lead. However, India tried to “bounce him out” and Johnson in return kept on tonking them with some aggressive pulls, proving the Indian decision to be quite a tactical blunder. On settling down, he then began to skip the wicket to Ravichandran Ashwin, and found the fence on several occasions.
This failure to get rid of the tail quickly is not new to India; in recent times, they have failed to kill off innings often. Since 2010, India have conceded 4695 runs in 145 tail-end partnerships, at an average of 34.77.
Melbourne 2011 and Wellington 2014 are some of the classic example of how India’s bowling had let the opposition out of jail in crunch situations like these; no surprise they lost crucial overseas tests, and this problem with bowling at the end of innings has meant that India’s record overseas has been very poor in recent times.
At stumps India were 71/1 and were still trailing by 26 runs, but India’s young group of players should have the talent to set a tricky target for the Australians. However, the tourists must be wary of yet another batting collapse; losing wickets in quick succession has been just as much of a problem for India as taking wickets late on in an innings. For instance, India started Day 2 at 311/4, only to lose their last six wickets for 97 runs.
Going into Day 4 India not only need to reduce the deficit, but also need to build an inviolable lead of at least 350 runs before the home team openers walk out. The story doesn’t end there, as the bowlers also need to come out again and take ten wickets. Hopefully, they won’t repeat the same mistakes.
So for India, a lot of hard work is indeed needed and it remains to be seen as to whether the young batsmen can push themselves when the pressure will try to take a hold of them.
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