India vs Australia: Tim Paine criticises MCG pitch after Australia's crushing loss
Australia captain Tim Paine criticised the pitch at the Melbourne Cricket Ground after his team faced a crushing loss against India in the Boxing Day Test on Sunday.
World No.1-ranked India have taken a 2-1 lead in the four-match series and retained the Border-Gavaskar trophy.
India set up their victory with an imposing first-innings tally of 443/7, which was scored in almost two days of batting on a slow-paced pitch. Cheteshwar Pujara's patient 106 included a 170-run stand with Kohli (82) for the third wicket.
In reply, Australia crumbled for 151 as Bumrah claimed 6/33. India's second innings of 106/8 declared gave the touring team a 398-run advantage, with more than five sessions remaining in which to bowl Australia out a second time.
"We've rolled up some wickets that have taken away from our strengths, which is pace and bounce," Paine told Macquarie Sports Radio Cricket after the match.
"You never go to India and get served up green wickets. They've come out here and we've served some wickets up that really suit them. Having said that, they've outplayed us and we've got to go to Sydney and improve," the wicket-keeper added.
Praising the Indian pace attack, Paine rued Australia's "inexperienced top-6".
"It's a bit disappointing. I thought we took a big stride forward in Perth but with an inexperienced batting line-up, you are bound to have an innings like we did in the first innings. We are going to learn from it. We are probably playing against the best pace attack in the world right now and our top-6 is pretty inexperienced. We should find positives and move forward," Paine said at the post-match presentation.
"After watching the wicket for the first two days, I knew that the pitch will crumble and it will be difficult to bat on. Full credit to India, they won the toss and batted on a pitch we weren't sure about," he added.
