Thumping victory

Congratulations to Pat Cummins and his team for their thumping victory over Rohit Sharma by 10 wickets at Adelaide to level the 5 Test match series to one all.

At the end of play on Day 2 itself, when our top order batsmen caved in for 5 for 128, it was a foregone conclusion that the end was near. Still we had some hope that Pant, in partnership with Reddy, would put up a fight to stitch some worthwhile partnership.

Alas, it seems Pant was in a hurry to catch some flight and started poking at each and every ball, without respecting the Oz bowlers. Though Reddy played a gem of an innings, the way he too poked the bouncer to get caught out to an innocuous ball, was totally disappointing. In fact, he richly deserved to score his maiden 50 at Adelaide. Anyway, with out top 5 batsmen failing in both the innings, the writing was on the wall at the beginning of Day 3 play.

We feel it is time for the batting coach to teach our batsmen, especially the tail-end, how to leave bouncers, which are harmless. Incidentally, the most disappointing aspect of this Day-Night Test was our team’s inability to play just 81 overs in two innings, which is pathetic.

Vinay Mahadevan,

Chennai, India