Batting coach Michael Di Venuto on Tuesday said the Australia batters trying to get quick runs in the second innings of the Delhi Test was a blunder that cost them the game.
Di Venuto said Australia’s batting plans were working well till a dramatic collapse saw them lose eight wickets for 28 runs. Steve Smith’s dismissal to the sweep shot triggered the collapse as Australia were all out for 113 in 31.1 overs, giving India just 115 runs to win the Test, which the home side did in 26.4 overs with six wickets to spare.
“Plans certainly weren’t wrong. Our plans are good, but if people go away from their plans they’re going to get in trouble, as we saw,” Di Venuto said here on Tuesday.
“We were almost ahead of the game, and the feeling just looking at it was, ‘geez, if we just get another 50 runs real quick’, which you can’t do in this country. We’ve spoken about that, so it’s not like it’s something new.
“But pressure does strange things and we saw a lot of people go out and try and sweep their way to a score. It’s not all doom and gloom, but the 90 minutes of batting certainly wasn’t anything special.”
Many Australian batters perished while trying to sweep and Di Venuto admitted that the shot carried a high percentage of risk for players who aren’t adept at playing it. Di Venuto said most of the Australian batters erred in using the shot as a method of trying to get off strike rather than trusting their defence to survive.
“It was pretty obvious where we went wrong. With batting, it’s a pretty similar analogy — you’ve got to swim between the flags (play safe)in this country (India). If you go outside the flags in your game plan, you’re going to get in trouble.”
He also cited the skill with which opener Usman Khawaja swept his way to a series average of 150-plus in Pakistan last year and almost 50 on the subsequent Test campaign in Sri Lanka. “It’s smart, he’s not using it as a form of defence and I think that’s what happened towards the backend (of Australia’s second innings). People weren’t trusting their defence.”
Written with PTI inputs
