Cricket Icon Sachin Tendulkar stunned by Australia’s surprise call to hold back Glenn Maxwell during a stiff chase against India in a World Cup 2019 match on Sunday, 9 June, saying the defending champion's that move really worked in favor of the Men in Blue at The Oval in London.
Chasing 353 at The Oval, Aaron Finch led Australia badly struggled to hit big shots against India’s strong spin attack, even David Warner probably played the slowest innings of his career.
In this crisis situation, the five-time champions needed someone to play the big shots and change the momentum, and Tendulkar felt Maxwell was a great option but Australia did a mistake, which helped India eventually, who defeated Australia by 36 runs.
Tendulkar told India Today on Monday, 10 June, “That [holding Glenn Maxwell back] was a wrong move, I believe that worked beautifully in India's favor. At the stage, I completely understand that you needed a left hand-right hand combination. But when that can work is when you need 6 or 7 runs an over and Usman Khawaja comes and rotates the strike.”
He further explained, “But you needed someone to play the big shots and change the momentum. When Maxwell walked in, he took no time to strike at 300. At that stage, the body language of India players also changed. Suddenly a red flag was waved. And Chahal did it beautifully again. He's had a fair amount of success against Maxwell.”
Tendulkar also believes that Mitchell Starc's inability to move the ball on a flat Oval wicket let Australia down against India on Sunday. He added, “When Starc is not bringing the ball back in, he is not as effective. He is not that threatening when he is not able to do that. I have been Starc bowl much better. He becomes effective when he is bowling 145-plus. He is full up and swinging it back to hit the stumps.”
The batting maestro signed off by saying, “The ball was not swinging that much. I think that was something Australians were hoping didn't happen. Australia was hoping for an early wicket, considering the platform India was building at that point in time.”
(With India Today Inputs)
