Proving yet again that I'm not Pakistani, I watched the first session at the pub in country New South Wales.
And I can tell you that the entirely white Australian audience broke out with an eruption of joy when Shaun Marsh ran himself out. The decision to bat India out of the game was treated as un-Australian, needlessly defensive.
Realistically India was never going to chase even the overnight score down. But by batting on so long, Steve Smith ensured that he'd only get one new ball to dismiss India with instead of two. Even if he had batted on for six overs of run-a-ball slogging and had the rain delay, he'd still have got 88 overs with, crucially, 8 overs with a second new ball.
To me, this shows that Steve Smith is really no student of Test cricket and has confused ODI and Test targets and their viability.
I make the odds as follows:
a) IF AUSTRALIA HAD DECLARED OVERNIGHT
45% Aussie win
50% draw
5% Indian win
b) IF AUSTRALIA HAD SLOGGED FOR 5 OVERS TODAY, THEN DECLARED
55% Aussie win
40% draw
5% Indian win
c) THE ACTUAL DECLARATION
15% Aussie win - relies upon Indian mental frailty
85% draw
0% Indian win
A number of Indian posters on this thread think that the brilliance of Kohli and Rahane in the first innings made Smith go on the defensive with his declaration.
I think the opposite. I think that Kohli's interview really got up the noses of the Aussies more than people who want an IPL contract are willing to let on in public, and that they thought:
1) "We're not going to give you the slightest chance of drawing the series".
2) "Youse (Aussie you plural) claimed that you nearly won the First Test, but it was only because we declared and let you chase a target. But you never earned it, you disrespectful b*******, yet you act like you had a near-victory. Bu**** you, if you want to win from now on you'd better bowl us out to set it up."
doesn't feature in top 10 Indian 4th innings averages
)
