Spidercam in focus as Lehmanm defends sloppy Smith

Australia coach Darren Lehmann said more thought needed to be given to the positioning of the "spidercam" TV camera after his captain Steve Smith spilled a key catch in the fourth Test against India on Thursday.

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The spidercam is suspended on a network of wires above the field, enabling broadcasters to show a bird's eye view of the action.

Just before lunch and with Lokesh Rahul on 46, Smith failed to hold on to a top edge from the Indian opener and pointed upwards, clearly uttering a profanity along with the word "wire".

"It was just the wire and camera moving as the ball was coming down," Lehmann told reporters.

"And then he had the sun, it was a pretty difficult catch with that. You still would love him to take it but he didn't."

To rub salt into Smith's wounds, Rahul went on to score his maiden Test century, finishing with 110 as India reached 342-5 in reply to Australia's 572-7 at close of play on the third day.

Lehmann, who is a fan of the technology, said the camera just needed to be moved out of the eyeline of the fielder when the ball went behind the wickets.

"Normally what happens with a hook shot or a pull shot it's deep leg side and that's where the camera's behind, or a top edge which is exactly what happened," he said.

"We just have to get the position right that's all.

"And you've got to remember players can move it and get it out of the way, so it's a bit of everything."

Channel Nine and Cricket Australia had earlier in the day issued a joint statement saying the ball had not hit the wire.

Ruing his players’ dropped catches Lehmann said, "Yes, it was disappointing to not take those chances. They are tough chances, but you still have to take those on a wicket like this where we needed to speed the game up today. We need to take those chances and that's now two Tests in a row. There is still a lot of time in this game.

"We fielded pretty well last summer. It's been two odd Test matches to be honest, because we fielded quite well in the first two. Now we have to create more chances to get 20 wickets and that's not what you need on such kind of wickets. We've got to make sure we take those chances and we haven't."

There was a little turn and uneven bounce when Nathan Lyon came on to bowl, but not enough to trouble the Indian batsmen. The Australian coach though expects it to change as the match progresses.

"It's a good wicket. I think it'll break up and spin and go up and down until the end of the game. But that depends on how the game moves ahead. We will probably have to be pretty aggressive to set something up, but only time will tell," he said.

"I reckon it'll turn more and Lyon and Steve Smith will be bowling a lot more. It's going to be really interesting day after tomorrow. We would have loved a couple more wickets today but give them credit that they played really well. We've got to work hard tomorrow," Lehmann said.