Two 300-plus scores, two occasions of the Indian batsmen coming good, but somehow the bowlers have just not been able to back the good work by the batsmen. There were extras bowled, a few catches dropped and yet again India failed to break partnerships at the right time.
Bowling frailties aside, India captain MS Dhoni believed the onus lay on the batsmen to score heavily in the games to follow if they are to force a result in their favour. “We will have to score a few more runs. Either we need to put pressure on the batsmen and look for 330 or chase down the score by making the opposition bat first. We will have a look and decide what suits us the best,” Dhoni said.
“As a team, you have to win from here on irrespective of which department is not doing well. For that, I feel we will have to score 20-30 more runs. That will put a lot of pressure on the batsmen because the moment you take your guard right from the first ball, on the back of your mind you will be thinking of scoring 330 or 340 runs to be on the safer side.”
With Australia going 2-0 up in the series, Dhoni was of the view that they had to go for the kill. The acceleration in scoring might come at a bargain of being bowled out cheaply, but that was the only way India could get themselves back in the series, reckoned the Indian captain. “The position that we are in, we will have to score more runs and definitely we will go hard. At the same time, you have to realise how hard you want to go. Today, we started our slog earlier and it is definitely something that we had in our mind and we did apply it in this game. It didn’t work but hopefully in the next game, we can come out and play a bit more freely because we know we have to score more runs. We may in the process get bowled out for 280, but if we have to look to win, we will have to look to score on the higher side. Or the other option is that we win the toss and field first and maybe chase down the total.”
Another point of concern is India’s score acceleration in the last ten overs. They did score 90-plus at the WACA, but it was just 75 with the loss of six wickets here at the Gabba. Dhoni reckoned it was a case of the opposition bowling well at the death that didn’t allow the Indian batsmen to score freely. “We tried our best to score in the last ten overs, but at the end of the day what is important is the execution,” he said. “I feel Australia bowled well in the last ten overs. If you keep losing wickets, it becomes more and more difficult for the new batsman to come in and straight away play the big shots. It is one of the most difficult things to do, especially when the bowlers are executing their plans and bowling good yorkers and using the length of the boundary to good effect. More than the sixes and the boundaries, you can look for those twos and threes, especially in the big grounds in Australia. In that case, in six balls you can easily get eight to ten runs.”
Dhoni though had some special words of praise for Ajinkya Rahane who he believed kept the scoreboard ticking in the middle overs. “Rahane is rotating the strike pretty well, but what is important for him is to keep continuing the good work because that will help him a lot and the team as well. We need to see if he can do the same on slower pitches, but he has improved a lot on his batting when it comes to that middle order batting. He is rotating the strike well and still able to play the big shots. He is not someone who will consistently clear the boundary, but he can hit through the gaps and get those twos and threes whenever needed. Overall, he did a very good job batting at that position.”
