Darren Lehmann: First innings wasn't big enough
Had Australia scored another 50 to 100 runs in their first innings they would still have been in the game, coach Darren Lehmann has said. The former Aussie batsman also backed wicketkeeper Matthew Wade, despite the latter dropping Wriddhiman Saha who went on to score a century.
The visitors were restricted to 451 despite centuries by skipper Steve Smith and Glenn Maxwell, and India piled 603/9 declared in reply to take a firm grip on the game on the back of Cheteshwar Pujara double ton and Saha's century.
“If anything it (the workload of the bowlers) heightens our first innings where we needed to bat a little bit longer," Lehmann told a news conference. "It's 500, 550 on those sort of wickets. Isn't it? Bat for 150 overs plus. We fell short by 50, 60 runs and 15 or 20 overs. That's the challenge for the group to get there and make sure when they're batting in those scenarios they go big, bigger.
"That was the same issue with England (when they toured India recently and failed to win a Test). Now we find ourselves in a position where we've got to fight hard on the last day to save the game."
Australia also put down a couple of catches, with Wade dropping Saha when on 51. "Wadey kept really well on the whole ... he'll have a look at it and review it and see where he went wrong. He's been excellent throughout the whole series on difficult wickets," the coach said.
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