morgieb
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So some notorious Australia's 4th innings defences in recent years:
England v Australia 3rd Test 2019 - lost by 1 wicket defending 359
Australia v India 3rd Test 2020/21 - drew despite having 131 overs to bowl at (and India were arguably closer to victory than Australia were)
Australia v India 4th Test 2020/21 - lost by 3 wickets defending 328 on the last day
Australia v England 4th Test 2021/22 - drew with 102 overs to bowl at
Pakistan v Australia 2nd Test 2021/22 - drew with 172 overs to bowl at - which is the most overs survived in a 5 Day Test
That's 5 4th innings matches Australia have failed to win in the space of 20 Tests. That is a lot of failures in situations where you'd expect Australia to win. And I say the only real tough 4th innings wins Australia pulled off were these two Tests against England, and even then England took them quite a bit closer than what you'd think.
And other than this Test in 2018 I can't think of any situations where Australia survived with the boot on the other foot in a long time. Though admittedly they've had far fewer chances.
OK some of them were understandable. The Stokes match had choky elements but England had a lot of time and Stokes played an absolutely crazy knock. Surviving 105 overs isn't that difficult especially when the amount of rain and grass left on the wicket had it playing like a Day 3 pitch. And here you had an ATG knock from Azam on a flatty. But still I think bar maybe the Sydney Test pretty much every other decent side in the world would've won the Test from that position. To happen so often in such a short period of time is an absolute indictment on an otherwise excellent Australian attack.
So what gives? Does Australia just not like a Plan B? Is the lack of quality white ball domestic cricket hurting Australia under pressure? Are the pitches on which the situations happened too flat? Are the situations they put sides in allowing for miracle performances? Is it just main mental weakness? It's clearly not just a coincidence at this point though.
England v Australia 3rd Test 2019 - lost by 1 wicket defending 359
Australia v India 3rd Test 2020/21 - drew despite having 131 overs to bowl at (and India were arguably closer to victory than Australia were)
Australia v India 4th Test 2020/21 - lost by 3 wickets defending 328 on the last day
Australia v England 4th Test 2021/22 - drew with 102 overs to bowl at
Pakistan v Australia 2nd Test 2021/22 - drew with 172 overs to bowl at - which is the most overs survived in a 5 Day Test
That's 5 4th innings matches Australia have failed to win in the space of 20 Tests. That is a lot of failures in situations where you'd expect Australia to win. And I say the only real tough 4th innings wins Australia pulled off were these two Tests against England, and even then England took them quite a bit closer than what you'd think.
And other than this Test in 2018 I can't think of any situations where Australia survived with the boot on the other foot in a long time. Though admittedly they've had far fewer chances.
OK some of them were understandable. The Stokes match had choky elements but England had a lot of time and Stokes played an absolutely crazy knock. Surviving 105 overs isn't that difficult especially when the amount of rain and grass left on the wicket had it playing like a Day 3 pitch. And here you had an ATG knock from Azam on a flatty. But still I think bar maybe the Sydney Test pretty much every other decent side in the world would've won the Test from that position. To happen so often in such a short period of time is an absolute indictment on an otherwise excellent Australian attack.
So what gives? Does Australia just not like a Plan B? Is the lack of quality white ball domestic cricket hurting Australia under pressure? Are the pitches on which the situations happened too flat? Are the situations they put sides in allowing for miracle performances? Is it just main mental weakness? It's clearly not just a coincidence at this point though.
