Australia did what was required to stay in the series with a devastating display of spin bowling, but normal service could yet resume at IndoreFor a day, at least, the tables turned. To this point Australia’s tour of India had been marked for the visitors by two batting collapses under the scrutiny of spin: one when the first Test was almost gone, the next when the second Test was very much in their keeping. To begin the third match in Indore, though, with one last chance to stay in the series, the Australians found themselves able to out-India India.A couple of early wickets, a pitch as even-tempered as post-midnight Gary Busey, and suddenly there were shivers running through the home...
Management gets a convenient chance to try Travis Head at the top without being seen to have made a definitive call on WarnerSo David Warner is heading home, arm busted and ambitions dented but that radiation-proof determination surely intact. Anyone who knows the feeling of broken bones could see what had happened as soon as he was hit by a Mohammed Siraj short ball during the Delhi Test. The way he yelped and flinched when the physio gently squeezed his arm reflects exactly that bright flash of pain that seems to start in the marrow and end between the temples.It was strange then that the initial response from Australia’s captain and coach was that he might recover for the third...
With a nine-day break before the third Test begins coach Andrew McDonald hopes his under-fire team will be able to find clarityThe morning after the night before is when clarity kicks in. You shuffle into the main part of the house and suddenly you can see the snowdrifts of bottles that you didn’t notice accumulating. You spot the burn marks on the carpet, the crack in the bottom window, the slice of chocolate cake smeared along the blade of the ceiling fan. You know that this version of you is the person who has to deal with it. With clarity, nothing is clearer than regret.The morning after Australia’s match-surrendering batting collapse in Delhi, regret was palpable. Not just at failure...
Fewer than six full days of cricket have been played yet already Australia have no chance of winning the Border-Gavaskar trophyWhen a team implodes the way Australia did at the weekend – with calculated aggression, appalling shot selection, and lemming-like devotion to inept strategy – questions are bound to be asked. Where did it all go wrong? Who’s to blame? What happens next? Continue reading...
Visitors have gone 2-0 down, largely thanks to a preconceived idea of playing sweeps to India’s spinners, come what mayA week ago in Nagpur, Australia’s batting collapse in the first Border-Gavaskar Test came while trailing badly with no realistic route back. It was not ideal but broadly made sense. A week later in Delhi, their collapse was the second surrender of ascendancy in the match. In the second innings they had allowed India’s last three partnerships to reduce Australia’s three-figure lead to a single run. In the third innings, the visitors were 66 ahead on a pitch where 180 might well have been enough, only to lose their last nine wickets for 59.Over the previous year and a half, as...