Australia pacer Mitchell Johnson on Sunday revealed that his side gambled on Rahul Dravid's orthodox batting style to get the better of him in the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne.
"I kept it outside the off-stump for him. That was the plan, to be patient to him because we knew he was a patient type of batsman," said Johnson at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
"Unfortunately, a dropped catch in the gully and then a catch off a no-ball was disappointing," he added.
Dravid was twice let-off on nought in the first innings of the Test, which India lost by a massive 337 runs, both off Johnson. In general, he scored at five runs per hour.
He ultimately fell to part-time spinner Andrew Symonds after labouring to 16 runs against a miserly spell by Johnson and pace partner Brett Lee.
Johnson said he is constantly telling himself not to get overawed by the reputation of the Indian batsmen.
"I remember the game in the DLF Cup. I was more excited about bowling with Glenn McGrath at that time. I wasn't thinking about the reputation of the Indian batsmen," he said.
"I think in this Test I gave it a little more though. I backed myself and didn't think much who was at the other end. I think once you start thinking about who you are bowling to, you might start to struggle. I just backed myself," he added.
Johnson has a good success rate against India. In nine one-dayers against the Indians, Johnson has claimed 19 wickets, including career-best figures of 5 for 26. In a solitary Test match, he has conceded just 46 runs from 28 economical overs and claimed three wickets at 15.33.
Johnson was wicketless in the first innings but he believed he had bowled as well as he has ever in his still nascent Test career.
"I really thought my rhythm was good in this game, perhaps the best I have ever bowled. I was hitting the areas where I wanted to. The back-up of Brett Lee and Stuart Clark was tremendous and it just made a lot of things easier," he recalled.
Despite going wicketless in the first innings, Johnson was persisted with in the second innings and he claimed three Indian scalps.
"It was a little bit of relief to get those wickets. I didn't have much luck in the first innings. But to get the ball to reverse swing like I did at the end was a good sign for me," he said.
Johnson acknowledged team's bowling coach Troy Coolley's help in getting his seam and wrist position right for the game.
"In the first innings, I didn't swing the ball. When we were batting, we [with Coolley] we had a bit of discussion about seam and wrist position. It started to work for me, I started reversing the ball. In the second, I did and get my wrist up nice and straight."
Johnson said he was over the moon after the team's success in Melbourne but cautioned his mates against getting complacent.
"They are a great batting side. You have greats like Sachin Tendulkar and Dravid and guys like Yuvraj Singh. So they are definitely going to bounce back from this."
"But we are going to try and be patient and do as we did by keeping the pressure on him," he said.
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