London: Gloom has hit the Australian team after their defeat to India at the Oval on Sunday. After their series win over India, they had expected to beat India, especially in English conditions. The demoralising 36-run defeat has put them under bit of a pressure as their victory over West Indies by 15 runs was also not impressive.
“We probably just kept losing wickets when we were trying to up the run rate, and then as you know, when new batters come in, the run rate creeps up slowly. When it gets to 10, 12 an over, it cranks up pretty quickly, as well. Maybe a couple too many runs to chase, but also I felt as though we were in a decent position as we were moving along, we just lost wickets at the key times,” remarked Australian skipper Aaron Finch, admitting that his team had failed to rise to challenge.
“I think India bowled really well with the new ball. I thought if we could have some wickets in hand and some batters in toward the back end of the innings, we could potentially do some damage,” added Finch.
Indian skipper Virat Kohli revealed that his team wanted to beat Australia especially after their show in India. “We were more motivated to win today because of the fact that we lost the series in India, being 2-0 up, and there was no Mitchell Starc, either. So him coming in makes their bowling line-up even stronger. So I think we had to be at the top of our game, as I said, and couldn’t have asked for a better game in all three departments, set the tone the way we wanted to with the bat up front, getting a very good opening partnership.”
Finch feels that not taking early wickets was the reason behind their defeat. “I think not getting wickets early on was probably key there. To have them guys batting deep into the innings, that just gives them so many options where they can shuffle (Hardik) Pandya up the order and Dhoni, so yeah, I think they played it really well, and probably negated our biggest threats early on.”
Finch also pointed out that when chasing a big score many things have to go right. “We probably just let them get a few too many runs, and like I said before, when you’re chasing a total, a lot of things have to go right. You have to have an in-batter go really deep and a few cameos around that player, as well, and we just kept losing wickets at crucial times, unfortunately.”
Australians now move on to Taunton to take on the unpredictable Pakistan. They are hoping to beat Pakistan at all cost, or two defeats that too to subcontinent giants will be tough to overcome in their mission to retain the World Cup.
