I like to think that I’m relatively independent. However, even if I am convinced that I’ve made the right decision or positive that my opinion is valid, it’s always a comfort when someone else agrees.
I understand that everyone sees the world through their own eyes (duh) and that differences of opinion are healthy, but some issues are so crystal clear to me that I am completely unnerved when I can’t find a single person who gets what I’m on about.
There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that Australia batted an hour too long in Delhi.
Not a day goes by without another ‘expert’ popping his head up to condemn the current attack, but even though it’s starting to really piss me off, I can’t for the life of me understand how anyone could honestly believe that we could get ten Indian wickets in under two sessions on that pitch.
It’s always driven me crazy when bowlers are slated for their poor performance in a match despite the fact that neither team could take a wicket.
Quite often in the same games successful batsmen patiently explain to journos that their meticulous preparation and never say die attitude means that such an innings is always just around the corner.
Before you roll your eyes and think that I am trying to belittle Australia’s batting performance in Delhi, let me make myself very clear.
Spending two days on the field in sweltering conditions before you bat is not ideal. On top of that, we were 1-0 down in the series, with several top order batsmen undoubtedly putting themselves under plenty of pressure to get some runs and silence the critics. To put all of this aside and get Australia back into the game was an extremely impressive team batting effort.
I am assuming (danger!) that as it became clear we had batted well enough to be a real chance of winning, there was some discussion in the rooms about our best plan of attack.
As well as the battle for the Border-Gavaskar trophy, the two teams have been arguing throughout the series about which captain is the most defensive, so everyone would have been desperate to out-manoeuvre the Indians and put it beyond doubt.
Just for the record, during Australia’s first innings of 577, both of the Indian captains had a go, and both of them should thank their lucky stars that Virender Sehwag got them out of jail. Rick on the other hand, has inspired Australia to believe they can win a Test even when the fat lady has left the building, as we did in Adelaide against the Poms and the SCG with South Africa on their last tour.
The best way to put this battle of the captains to bed would have been to challenge the Indians to set us a target on the final day.
By declaring our first innings closed around tea on day four (or about 500 runs), an Indian team playing to win could have been 300 plus in front with 60 or 70 overs to bowl us out.
If they opted out and still played for the draw, case closed.
I have no doubt that we could have successfully chased down almost anything given the conditions, and I sincerely hope that the batsmen believed the same because both sides have subsequently admitted that the pitch didn’t deteriorate as much as they thought it would.
I bet if you ask the bowlers in each team how easy it was to bat on they would have some pretty colourful opinions.
The added bonus, of course, of inviting the Indians to set up a final day run chase would have been that Rick’s instruction to the bowlers would have been very simple.
Keep the run rate under control. Wickets would have been irrelevant.
Batting on clearly denied the Indians an opportunity to win and ‘saved the test,’ but I was under the impression that being scared of failure was the one thing that could get in the way of success. The best-case scenario for Australia now is a drawn series, and I find that extremely dissatisfying.
Having scoured the net in vain for any sign that someone else thinks we got it wrong, I’m convinced that I must be overlooking something obvious that would explain everything.
After all, I’m a bowler, so what would I know?
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