Sydney, Nov.9 : The Australian press have lambasted India's negative tactics in the ongoing Nagpur Test, saying that the overriding defensive approach could kill the game.

Australian cricket writers also accused India of treating Test cricket with contempt.

India, which is already one up in the series, needs a draw in Nagpur to regain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy from Australia.

Australia's hopes of levelling the four-Test series suffered a setback when they were bowled out for 355 on Saturday in reply to India's first-innings total of 441 on the third day and needing an extraordinary effort to win the match and square the series.

Australia trail 1-0 after their 320-run defeat in the second Test in Mohali. The matches in Bangalore and New Delhi were drawn.

"Does Test cricket want to survive? Does it even care? Nothing has been more tedious in the current series than the juvenile finger pointing about negative cricket," The Sun-Herald columnist Peter Roebuck wrote Sunday. "And the problem has been that the accusations have all been justified.

"Both sides have played a boring game, aiming wide of the sticks whenever it suited them, stifling stroke play, killing the game. The Sun-Herald said, "The Australians were curtailed by India's negative tactics and failed to seize the initiative on the third day having added only 166 runs in almost three excruciating sessions."

The Sunday Telegraph said while India took control of the match, "it wasn't a great advertisement for Test cricket."

"Dhoni regularly employed ultra-cautious fields in a bid to short-circuit Australia's bid for quick runs to keep a match it must win moving," it said.

ANI