Assistant coach Daniel Vettori of Australia acknowledged that their attempts to enforce a follow-on were thwarted by the tenacious partnership between Indian tailenders Jasprit Bumrah and Akash Deep.
Assistant coach Daniel Vettori of Australia acknowledged that their attempts to enforce a follow-on were thwarted by the tenacious partnership between Indian tailenders Jasprit Bumrah and Akash Deep. He also defended the decision to not declare the home team’s first innings in the third Test, which appears to be headed for a draw. The stubborn 39-run unbroken combination between Bumrah and Akash Deep spared India’s blushes as the tourists escaped a follow on a rain- plagued day four on Tuesday, with the Indian hitters—aside from KL Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja—failing once again. At the news conference held after the game, Vettori stated, “I believe the only way to force the game was to force the follow-on.””The desire to take that last wicket was desperate. After Jadeja was fired, we believed we had a great chance, but Bumrah and Deep were a true fighting tandem.
“Unfortunately, just the amount of time that’s been lost from the game has made it difficult,” he explained.
India still needed to score 33 runs to escape the follow-on that could have cost them the match when Akash Deep, making his debut in Australia, came in to bat at 213 for 9. He and pace leader Bumrah led India to 252 for 9, confounding the home squad.
Australia finished day three at 405 for 7, but instead of declaring their innings, they decided to bat, using up a significant amount of game time on a day four that was impacted by rain.
Vettori responded, “No, I think we always acknowledge that first innings runs are going to be vitally important in this game,” when asked if declaring was an option.
“We’ve seen on these days that the weather can blow past and you can continue with your activities, but then it can settle in, so you really don’t want to plan for that.”So I think the conversation was mainly around, let’s make the most of this first innings, trust a very good bowling unit to be able to deliver on this wicket like they did today.” The fact that pacer Josh Hazlewood was unable to play the remainder of the match due to a calf injury dealt Australia a serious setback.
According to Vettori, Australia’s game plan was impacted by losing one of the world’s top bowlers, but the rain breaks relieved the speed pair of Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc of any extra strain.”Weather allowed us to function in terms of breaks with Mitch and Patty able to come back on many occasions. It would have been much more difficult to handle if there had been 90 overs. The luxury of bowling Nathan (Lyon) is always ours. Thus, that allayed some of the anxiety.
“Because of the breaks, it didn’t feel like we pushed them too hard, and it was a tricky situation at the end there where the ball was incredibly soft and getting wet, but to try and push them just that little bit longer to try and get that last wicket.”So far, it feels like the usual, but that was probably the only occasion when we felt they were a little longer,” he continued.
