The Australian skipper, Tim Paine did not hold back in accepting that the hosts played “poor and sloppy cricket” against India and as a result, they suffered an 8-wicket loss in the Boxing Day Test. Paine said Australia needs to rectify the problems they are having in their batting order ahead of the 3rd Test, starting January 7 “somewhere in Australia”. Australia was bundled out for 195 and 200 in the two innings of the Boxing-day Test as they managed to avoid an innings defeat but suffered an 8-wicket loss in the 2nd Test.
India chased down a meager target of 70 runs with 8 wickets to spare and leveled the series after losing the Adelaide Test. This is also the first time since 1988-89 none of the Australian batsmen managed to go past the 50-run mark in a Test match at home. Apart from their batting struggles, Australia was quite poor on the field as well, dropping quite a few catches in both the innings combinedly.
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Talking about his team’s performance at the post-match presentation ceremony, Tim Piane said, “Obviously, we are disappointed. We played some poor cricket, sloppy cricket for a major part of the game. Credit to India, they forced us into mistakes with the bat, ball and also on the field. And when you do that against a quality team, it costs you.”
The Indian bowlers were quite relentless and disciplined which help them to pick 20 wickets despite not having the likes of Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma and Umesh Yadav (for the most part of the second innings). Mohammed Siraj, on debut, stepped up and managed to scalp 5 wickets, while R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Jasprit Bumrah chipped in with crucial wickets.
Tim Paine credited the India bowlers for keeping up the pressure throughout the Boxing Day Test. He said, “Need to credit India as they put us under pressure. We have issues with the batting and need to get it sorted.”
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It was remarkable to see Ajinkya Rahane leading India front the front as be scored a century, especially in the absence of Virat Kohli, hence, India managed to bounced back from the Adelaide horror where they were bundled out for their lowest-ever Test score of 36.
