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Australia’s shoddy over rate began to haunt captain Ricky Ponting and his men at the worst possible time on day four of the final Test against India in Nagpur.
The Australians had given themselves an outside chance of pushing for a come-from-behind victory which would retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy when they reduced the Indians to 6-166, an overall lead of 252.
But an over rate that crept along at the usual snail’s pace of around 13 overs per hour dipped down towards 12, meaning that after tea the tourists could not employ a pace bowler.
Under ICC code of conduct regulations a captain can face a ban of several matches for serious over rate offences.
They include either the a tardy rate over the course of multiple matches, or a very low rate during an individual match.
So instead of using Mitchell Johnson, Brett Lee or Shane Watson, Ponting and vice captain Michael Clarke were forced to call on Cameron White, then Mike Hussey, to bowl at the opposite end to outstanding debutant Jason Krejza.
“We were behind in our overs, we’d used our fast bowlers before the tea break and had some success, the consquence or offshoot of bowling our fast bolwers for most of the day before that was that we were down in our over rate,” Australian coach Tim Nielsen said.
“We had a responsbility to catch that up.
“On top of that they had a good partnership after tea that took momentum away from us and that’s the way the day panned out.
“Everybody’s aware of the consequences of the captain being more than six overs down at the end of the match – the captain then is put in a place where he can be suspended.”
The lack of pressure from both ends allowed Indian batsmen Mahendra Dhoni and Harbhajan Singh to wriggle clear and build India’s lead.
Former Australian captain Ian Chappell has heavily criticised both captains for the over rates in this series.
“The over-rates were appalling again,” Chappell told website Cricinfo in reference to Indian rates on Saturday.
“The Indians really showed the true colour of cricketers. They are just not bothered by fines.
“They were quite prepared to slow the over-rate in the morning and even use it as a tactic.
“That is ridiculous. You shouldn’t be allowed to use it as a tactic.
“Until the administrators suspend the captain for a couple of Tests, they are not going to get anywhere with over rates. They haven’t got anywhere with fines because fines don’t work. They need to start suspending the captain.”
In commentary, fellow former skipper Allan Border indicated his dismay at the hole the Australians had dug for themselves.
“I am glad Ricky can’t read my mind right now because he is not going to like it,” Border said.
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