After narrowly missing out on the World Test Championship final, Justin Langer looking back laments Australia’s slower over-rate, which docked four of their points as ‘really slack’ and disappointing. He also added that it was an attitudinal thing and Australia need to learn it as soon as possible.
During the second Test against India, at the iconic MCG, Australia fell short of the over-rate, two overs behind the required rate, which then had four World Test Championship points docked away from them. While that decision didn’t quite hurt them immediately during the Test series, the impact of those four lost points has ultimately cost them a place in the WTC final, with New Zealand qualifying instead.
Cross-country rival New Zealand finished with 0.3% ahead of Australia, which ultimately booked them a place against India in the encounters at the Ageas Bowl in Southampton. Australia’s head coach Justin Langer slammed the Australians for the slow over-rate incident as really slack and something attitudinal.
“I remember we were in the team room afterwards and I spoke to Painey (skipper Tim Paine) and Dene Hills, our analyst, about it. I was a bit grumpy about it and I thought ‘imagine if this cost us the World Test Championship,’ Justin Langer told SEN, reported Cricket Australia.
“And we had that in our control, that’s an attitudinal thing. At the time, we probably thought it’s not that big a deal – the players get fined – but that cost us the World Test Championship (Final) after what had been two really good years for Australian cricket where we were ranked No.1 again,” he added.
Langer also added that they realised that their over rate was down, which is something that they realised after the game. However, Langer insisted that after that game, there was a clear instruction in the dressing room to not commit the same error during the series yet again. While Australia didn’t err with the over-rate, the one instance ultimately could end up going down in the history books, for the wrong reasons.
“It wasn’t until after the game that we realised our over rate was down. Now, that’s really slack on our behalf. And I mentioned it to the players afterwards that two overs down could cost us the World Test Championship. And so, we have to get better at that and make sure it doesn’t happen in Sydney and Brisbane,” he added.
