Australia, at 23/2 in their second innings, trail India by 129 runs. It looks a lot more than that as India's Ravindra Jadeja has already picked up two wickets and can't wait to pitch on the rough and bowl India to victory.
Australia head coach Darren Lehmann wants his batsmen to put into practice on the final day on Monday whatever they have practiced in Dubai prior to the series. They practiced on pitches that resembled what they would get in India as the Test progressed.
Australia, at 23/2 in their second innings, trail India by 129 runs. It looks a lot more than that as India's Ravindra Jadeja has already picked up two wickets and can't wait to pitch on the rough and bowl India to victory.
Speaking to reporters on Sunday after the penultimate day's play, Lehmann said: "We'll have to save this game. It was tough to lose those two wickets, there were some good balls from them (India). It is a good challenge for the group. What we've put in at practice, obviously we've got to do that on Monday and deliver on the big stage. Once the ball gets a little bit softer it plays pretty well, so there's no real demons in the track. It's a case of us applying ourselves much like Pujara and Saha did."
Asked what advice he'd give to his team for a fifth-day pitch, the 47-year-old former left-handed batsman said with a smile: "Try and stop it (ball) hitting the stumps. They're good enough to come up with a plan to combat Jadeja, but we've worked on that and you'll probably see it on Monday). Now they've got to believe in what they're doing as a group. A couple of good balls, and that can happen in a game of cricket. Really for us, it's a great challenge. I mean, it's been a great Test match, great Test series, so the challenge for our group is putting on a couple of partnerships and really get ahead of the game."
Australia bowled 210 overs and still did not take all 10 Indian wickets. They waited for more than 77 overs to separate Cheteshwar Pujara and Wriddhiman Saha. They went wicketless for two full sessions on Sunday. Lehmann said his bowlers worked really hard.
"You bowl 210 overs, I don't think that has happened too often. India do that very well, you know they bat long periods of time here in India. If anything, it probably highlights our first innings where we probably needed to bat a little bit longer. But the bowlers were fantastic, chopped and changed as best as they possibly could in the conditions. We'll see how they pull up at the end of the day and make a decision. We will worry about Monday first and look ahead from there on the toll on bowlers."
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 "Darren Lehmann")
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