Bengaluru, Australia captain Aaron Finch said on Sunday that their series against India was a good learning curve for the side. Australia lost the final ODI by seven wickets and thus conceded a 2-1 defeat in the series.
The visitors only managed to score 286/9 batting first despite Steve Smith scoring 131.
“The wicket started to spin quite a bit,” said Finch in the post-match presentation ceremony. “The quicks started sliding on a little bit at the end. If we had 310ish, then our spinners could put some pressure in the middle.
“Again, we just keep losing one wicket too many at every stage of the game. Our momentum gets stalled, but it’s a great learning curve to play against the best in the world in their conditions.”
Australia were never in a position to defend the total with the India getting partnerships worth more than 65 runs each from the top three. Indian captain Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma put up 137 runs for the second wicket.
Australia were particularly hurt by the fact that their premier pacers, Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins, had a bad day in the office. The pair ended up conceding 30 runs in the 16 overs that they bowled.
This meant that Finch had to experiment with part-timers like Labuschagne and himself.
“(Ashton) Agar bowled great lines and length, and he’s always on the stumps, so the batsman has to take risks of the good balls. You are bowling at world-class players, but I thought we’d pitch a few overs of part-time spin, but that wasn’t to be,” he said.
