Australia stand guilty of not following their leaders’ own advice after a another third-innings lapse in Christchurch which threatens to end their summer on a low note.
Pat Cummins’ side are in all sorts heading into day four of the second Test at Hagley Oval.
Set 279 for victory, Australia stumbled into stumps on Sunday at 4-34, needed a mighty rearguard action to avoid a second straight drawn series following their home capitulation to West Indies.
Sunday’s scorecard made for sorry reading compared with just a day earlier, when the tourists established a 94-run first-innings buffer.
There were whispers on the banks of the picturesque ground on Saturday afternoon that unless New Zealand’s bats found some ticker, the Test – and the series – could be done that night.
The Black Caps put paid to those ideas with a mighty display with the bat.
Four of the top five – Tom Latham, Kane Williamson, Rachin Ravindra and Daryl Mitchell – made half-centuries as Australia let their foot off the accelerator.
Again.
In the aftermath of the first Test in Wellington, Cummins and Andrew McDonald urged the side to improve their third innings efforts.
“There’s been a few games over the last couple of years where we just had the opposition, right where we want them and probably just gave them half a look back into the game,” Cummins said.
“Absolutely I think it’s something we can get batter at.
“Particularly around that third innings where the game seems to speed up a little bit, (we need to be) ruthless.”
McDonald was singing from the same songsheet, saying Australia had “underachieved with the bat, which has left games open”.
“It’s probably more particularly in the third innings of games,” he said. “We’ve had some chances in the third innings to really shut out the opponent and we’ve left the door ajar at times.”
In Wellington, a third-innings lapse didn’t cost Australia.
There, they followed up their 383 with a meagre 164 – with Nathan Lyon top-scoring – to give the Black Caps a sniff.
That didn’t cost Australia, with Lyon taking 6-65 to see off New Zealand’s attempted chase.
At Hagley Oval, it could be a different story.
Australia let New Zealand off the hook as the hosts amassed 372 – their highest score of the series by 176 runs.
Cummins threw the ball to eight of the XI, leading the way himself with 4-62.
Lyon made little impact until a crucial role cleaning up a free-swinging tail, improving from 0-40 to finish with 3-49.
Even Marnus Labuschagne had an over as a medium-pacer, earning a Bronx cheer for a rank wide with his opening delivery.
The end result was a chase of 279 – Australia’s largest since the opening Ashes Test last year – which was begun with a top-order collapse that left the tourists on the ropes.
Source Agencies
