India suffered a painful 184-run defeat at the hands of Australia in the Boxing Day Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) on December 30. With this Australia took a 2-1 lead in the five-match series. Australia set a challenging target of 340 runs in the MCG Test. They posted 474 runs in their first innings and 234 in their second, while India were dismissed for 369 and 155 in their respective innings.
India's big defeat against Australia in MCG Test
Yashasvi Jaiswal spearheaded India's fightback on Day 5 of the Boxing Day Test with a valiant 84-run knock. However, timely wickets from Australian bowlers Pat Cummins and Scott Boland effectively stifled India's hopes. India suffered a batting collapse following Rishabh Pant's contentious dismissal, with the team losing their last eight wickets for a mere 42 runs to end up on a losing side.
Meanwhile, right after the match, India captain Rohit Sharma revealed big reason behind team's hapless defeat against Pat Cummins' men. He openly admitted that the it was Australia's last wicket partnership which cost India the MCG Test. Australia were reeling at 90/6 but Marnus Labuschagne's gritty 70-run knock followed by Cummins' 41, Nathan Lyon's 41 and Scott Boland's 15 steadied Australia's boat. But what frustrated Indian bowlers the most was the last wicket 61-run partnership between Lyon and Boland which rallied Australia to 234.
Rohit Sharma discloses turning point in India vs Australia's 4th Test
"It is pretty disappointing. It's not that we went in with the intent of giving up the fight. We wanted to fight till the end and unfortunately we couldn't do it. It'll be tough to assess just the last two sessions. If you look at the overall Test match, we had our chances, but we didn't take them. We had Australia 90 for 6. We know things can get tough, but we want to play tough cricket from hard situations. I don't want to look at one situation. We were not good enough. I went back to my room and thought about what else we could have done as a team, but we threw everything we had, but they fought hard, especially that last-wicket partnership, which probably cost us the game there," Rohit said in the post-match presentation.
"We knew 340 wasn't going to be easy. We tried to set a platform and keep wickets in hand for the last two sessions, but they bowled perfectly as well. We wanted to go for the target, but we didn't set the platform from our side. There are ways to win games and we fell short in finding ways to win games," he added.
The defeat in the MCG Test has taken a hit at India's WTC final chances. India have dropped to third place in the standings with a win percentage of 52.77. To maintain their chances of reaching the final, they must now win the final Test. Meanwhile, Australia have strengthened their position in second place and improved its win rate to 61.45, boosting their chances of qualifying for the final.