Former captains slam Australia’s batting

SYDNEY: Former Australia cricket captains Allan Border and Michael Clarke on Monday denounced the team's batting performance against India, calling the second innings collapse “panicky” and ill-executed.

Spin bowler Ravindra Jadeja had figures of 7-42 as he tore through Australia’s batting in the second Test in Delhi on Sunday to enable India to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the four-match series.

Australia repeatedly employed cross-bat sweep shots on a turning Dehli wicket and paid the price as they tumbled to 113 all out in their second innings after resuming on the third day at 61-1.

“I’m disappointed, I’m shellshocked and angry about the way we went about our work,” Border told Fox News. “It was a panicky, frenetic sort of batting,” said Border, who scored more than 11,000 Test runs and was renowned for his tenacious batting.

Australia captain Pat Cummins said the post-match team review would look at why his players kept employing the sweep, accelerating their collapse. Cummins was among Jadeja’s victims as four Australian wickets fell for no runs with the score on 95.