Lahore: Australia coach Andrew McDonald has dismissed concerns over the team’s failure to win Test matches from dominant positions after Pat Cummins’ side were frustrated by Pakistan in the Karachi draw.
Australia fell three wickets short of victory and a 1-0 series lead in the second Test despite setting a 506-run chase and bowling more than 171 overs.
They have now tallied five such failures to bowl out teams on day five for victory in their last 19 tests.
Interim head coach McDonald said Australia had failed to take their chances in Karachi but had at least managed to create them. “We’ve had good confirmation that the style of cricket we want to play is going to hold up,” he told reporters.
“But if you put yourself in those (winning) situations continually, we’ll find a way through them.
“There were missed opportunities on that final day but we gave ourselves a real good look at it, and that’s what I’m really proud of.” McDonald said morale was high in the Australian camp as the deadlocked series heads to the final match in Lahore, which hosts its first test since 2009.
Paceman Mitchell Starc’s reverse swing helped set up Australia’s ultimately fruitless push for victory, and McDonald said the left-armer would be given another crack if fit for the decider in Lahore from March 21-25.
“Reverse swing is pivotal in terms of opening that game up for us,” he said.
McDonald praised Mitchell Swepson’s debut in Karachi but said selectors would look at the Lahore surface before deciding whether the legspinner would get another chance to bowl with regular spinner Nathan Lyon.
Swepson took two wickets in the first innings but finished with unflattering match figures of 2-188 after several chances went begging off his bowling in the second innings.
