Coming to chase 340-run target in day five, India were bowled out for 155 runs, losing the Boxing Day Test by 184 runs against Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). With this, Australia have taken a lead of 2-1 in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) down under with the fifth and the final game to be played in Sydney from January 3 to 7 in 2025. After the tough loss, Indian skipper Rohit Sharma expressed his disappointment over the team's poor performance in the post-match press conference.
With just 38 overs remaining in the Test, India were in good position to draw the match with121/3 on the board at the start of the third session. However, the batting order completely collapsed as the visitors lost the last seven wickets for just 34 runs in 20.4 overs. Speaking at the press conference after the match, Rohit Sharma said, “It is mentally disturbing when you can’t do what you have come to do. It is pretty disappointing. There are ways to win games and we fell short in finding ways to win the game here. We wanted to fight till the end and unfortunately we couldn’t do it,” as quoted in News18.
I went back to my room and thought about what else we could have done: Rohit Sharma
India gave a tough fight to Australia in the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne. In the second innings, Australia were six down for 91 runs and lost nine wickets for 173 runs before Nathan Lyon and Scott Boland turned the match around with their partnership. After getting early breakthroughs, India failed to bowl out Australia under a lead of 300 runs.
“We had Australia 90 for 6. We know things can get tough, but we want to play tough cricket from hard situations. But we were not good enough. I went back to my room and thought about what else we could have done as a team. But we threw everything we had, they fought hard, especially that last-wicket partnership, which probably cost us the game there,” Rohit Sharma said.
