OUTSMARTED
The captain of the Australian cricket team, Michael Clarke, has admitted that his team was completely outsmarted by India in the first test match which was played at Chennai.
Australia was defeated by India by 8 wickets in the first test match. At one point of time, the Australian team was on the verge of losing the match by an inning.
Australia had lost 9 wickets at 175 in the second innings and they were still trailed by 17 runs. But, the last pair of Moises Henriques and Nathan Lyon added 66 runs and made sure that India would have to bat again.
India got a target of 50 runs which they achieved after losing a couple of wickets.
Talking to the reporters in the post match press conference, Clarke said, “We got completely outplayed by them. We batted quite well in the first innings and had started well with the ball as well. But, it was Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s great knock which took the game away from us. Virat Kohli also batted superbly for his hundred.”
“The pitch was a decent one. The odd ball was turning and bouncing and batting was a bit tough. But, we should have scored more runs in the second innings. A few of our batsmen got good balls, but, some of them played bad shots too.”
When asked if one more spinner should have been included in the XI, Clarke said, “Pace bowling is our strength. So, we went with it, but, unfortunately, that didn’t work in this test match.”
“We will see the pitch at Hyderabad. If that pitch will also be dry like this one, we will definitely consider playing two spinners in the second test match.”
The Australian team management had included three fast bowlers and only one spinner in the XI in the first test match.
