Allan Border, a legendary Australian captain, criticised Australia’s “panicky and frantic” batting in the second Border Gavaskar Trophy Test and expressed his shock at the outcome. India overcame Australia by six wickets in the second Test within three days to grab a 2-0 series lead on Sunday thanks to Ravindra Jadeja’s greatest bowling numbers in an inning in Test cricket (7-42) and Ravichandran Ashwin’s spin masterpiece.
“I’m disappointed, I’m shell-shocked, I’m angry about the way we went about our work today,” Border told Fox Cricket.
Career-best Test figures for Ravindra Jadeja _#WTC23 | #INDvAUS pic.twitter.com/ikHe85pfez
— ICC (@ICC) February 19, 2023
Australia had been much better in the second Test, scoring a competitive score in the first innings before having India 139/7 on day two. But Axar Patel’s 74 changed the face of the match, leaving the visitors with just a one-run lead in a match. On day three, Australia went from 1/65 to all out for 113, attempts to sweep Indian spinners backfired as Steve Smith, Matthew Renshaw and captain Pat Cummins all got dismissed while trying to play the same shot.
“It was panicky, frenetic batting. No one tried to get in there and stem the flow with some good defensive cricket. They were just getting out playing sweep shots, reverse sweeps to just about every ball. You just can’t get away with that on this sort of track. You’ve got to have a method where you play within your limitations. You’re not playing on a flat belter where you can expand your game. When playing on a difficult surface, you’ve got to work out where your scoring options are and bat some time at the crease,” Border said.
Australia’s hopes of securing the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in India for the first time in 19 years were thwarted after collapsing to a second straight Test defeat. India retained the Border-Gavaskar Trophy for the fourth straight time with a six-wicket win at the Arun Jaitley stadium by taking an unassailable 2-0 lead in the four-match series. The third Test of the series will take place from March 1 to 5 at the Holkar Stadium in Indore.
