In the aftermath of Australia’s third loss to India in the ongoing five-match T20I series, former Australian player Simon Katich shared his insights on the match and the reason for Australia’s loss in the match that eventually means India have now taken an unassailable 3-1 lead with one match to go.
Despite a commendable effort by captain Matthew Wade, scoring 36 runs off 23 balls, the Australian team fell short in their chase of 175, finishing at 154/7 in 20 overs.
Reflecting on Australia’s recent struggles, Katich highlighted the absence of Glenn Maxwell in the fourth T20I, emphasizing that his presence could have made a significant difference.
“Australia lost the game by 20 runs as there was no Glenn Maxwell in the team for the fourth T20I,” said the former Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) Head Coach.
Furthermore, Katich addressed a recurring weakness in the Australian batting lineup against spinners. He observed that throughout the series, the Aussie batters struggled to handle spin, often opting for cross-batted shots instead of playing straight. Despite the limited spin on offer, Katich suggested that a different approach could have been beneficial for the team.
Talking of the match, while the pitch eventually seemed like a high-scoring one, but the batters found it difficult to time the shots and it started to become difficult to bat on. Despite that, India’s rising star Rinku Singh pulled off another brilliant performance as he scored 46 runs from 29 balls and needed a brilliant ball to dismiss the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Team India batter. India in the end put-up 174 runs on the board.
Australia got off a flying start in chase of 175 thanks to Travis Head, scoring 40 runs in 3 overs. But after that they started losing wickets in regular intervals to Ravi Bishnoi and Axar Patel. In the end, despite a valiant effort from Matthew Wade, Australia could only score 154 runs and lost the match and series.
