Afterheavy criticism of their play in the first two Tests,the tourists could scarcely have handled the Indore assignment better. It was a triumph in particular for stand-in captain Steve Smith,match award-winner Nathan Lyon,and a spirit-lifter for Pat Cummins,as he spends time at home with his mother in palliative care.
“It is very satisfying,I thought it was a great team performance all the way from day one,” Smith said. “We screwed up in Delhi. We had an opportunity there and let that slip,but we had a good break and a good preparation coming here.
“It was just about getting our mental states right,we’ve done a lot of work it was just about trusting ourselves,trusting our methods,playing the game for longer periods of time and having faith that we’ll succeed and taking the result out of play.
“We know with this group we have got a lot of quality players and if we are trusting ourselves and playing to our methods for a long period of time then we are going to have more success than we’re going to fail.”
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India,assured of their place with a win here,must now win the final Test in Ahmedabad to be assured of qualifying. Captain Rohit Sharma said Lyon (match figures of 11-99) deserved to be considered the best overseas bowler he has faced in India.
“I think he should be at the top in my opinion,” Rohit said. “I have not played against Warne,Murali,but to me in the current crop he is the number one bowler from overseas to come and play here in India,because he has got so much consistency in his line and length. Doesn’t give you too much.