By IANS
Perth : Australian coach Tim Nielsen hoped that his team will create a world record of 17 consecutive Test wins despite being outplayed by India on the third day of the Test here Friday.
India set a target of 413 runs for Australia to win and at the end of third’s days play the hosts need a further 348 runs with eight wickets in hand.
Only West Indies have scored in excess of 413 runs in the fourth innings to beat Australia, when they scored 418 for seven at St. John’s in 2003.
But Nielsen was optimistic and felt that the target was still achievable. “In the back of their minds they think this will be a pretty special thing to do,” he said. “That tends to fire them up a little bit and get them enthusiastic.”
“One way or another, if we play well enough, we’ll give ourselves the chance to chase down a really big total and get the record we’re looking for,” he said.
“It’s an achievable result for us and we feel as though we’ve got the quality of batsmen and pretty good conditions on our side.”
Nielsen felt that the final two days won’t be easy and the said that couple of hundreds from the players will make it easy. “Ricky (Ponting) and Michael (Hussey) will be vital in that regard to set it up for us,” he said.
“The good thing is the wicket’s still in pretty good shape, the outfield’s fast and we’ve seen that when batsmen get in they find it easier to score.”