India’s much celebrated batting line-up was reduced to little as Australia romped to an opening Test 122-run victory at the MCG this week.
It was a fine victory for the inconsistent Aussies, who bowled India out in both innings for a grand match total of just 451 runs.
Quicks James Pattinson, Ben Hilfenhaus and Peter Siddle grabbed 19 of the wickets in a fine bowling display on a pitch which did suit them. However, they made the most of the conditions and put in fine performances, which hint new bowling coach Craig McDermott has them doing the right things.
Australia captain Michael Clarke heaped praise on his fast bowlers, after the Aussie batting line-up once again had its issues.
“They’ve got a lot of class players, their batting order is as strong as any batting order in the world, so for our bowlers to have success I think they deserve a lot of credit,” Clarke told reporters after the victory.
“It helps when you’ve got three fast bowlers bowling with great control, good pace. That makes a big difference.”
Australia made 333 and 240 in the Test, which hardly set up the win. In the second innings they were 4-27, invoking memories of the 47 all out suffered in Cape Town, before Ricky Ponting and Mike Hussey revived the scoreline.
However, Clarke defended his batsman’s performance whilst still praising the bowlers, when he added: “If we can knock over such a strong batting line-up like India for the amount of runs we have in this Test match, there’s got to be something in the wicket as well.
“It can’t just be our batters. We copped a bit of criticism for being four for not many again in the second innings. There’s reasons for Cape Town. There’s reasons for Hobart (Australia’s collapse to lose to New Zealand).
“They’ve been bowling-friendly conditions. I’m really happy with our batters’ plans. We’re doing all the right things. It’s just about having the confidence and freedom to continue to back ourselves.”
Without doubt, question marks will remain over Australia’s batting line-up however the bowlers appeared set in stone for now. But the fightbacks of veterans Ponting and Hussey in Melbourne mean they are unlikely to lose their places for now, although Shaun Marsh failed in the first Test.
India on the other hand has its own issues, with skipper MS Dhoni lamenting his side’s batting performance, including the difficult second innings chase which fell well short of the target.
“We should have been able to chase 300 with the kind of batting we’ve got, so another bad start to a Test series,” said Dhoni.
The India captain went on to claim his batting line-up “flopped”.
“Our batting flopped in both the innings. We have to show more consistency,” Dhoni said.
“We need to score more runs. Otherwise, it would be very difficult for us to win. We need to apply ourselves a lot more and if we do that I have no doubt that we would come back strongly.”
Dhoni did praise the Aussie bowlers, when he added: “You have to give credit to Australia’s bowlers for the way they bowled. They kept a nagging line outside the off-stump and that’s why they got us.”
But he did admit, his side’s inability to knock off Australia’s tailenders was an issue in the match too.
“Our bowlers brought us back in to the game. We were short by 50-odd runs in the first innings. Their lower-order scored some runs, if we had got them (out) earlier, we would have had 50-60 runs less to chase,” he said. “We need to find way to get their lower-order out cheaply.”