Cricket Highlights, 14 Mar: India vs Australia (4th Test)

India vs Australia (4th Test)

Australia has not been able to win a Test series on Indian soil for 19 years. Pat Cummins’ team was defeated in the first two matches of this series as well. It was conceivable that India would win the series. But the Aussies have fought very well in the last two matches. After defeating India in the third match, the visitors pulled off a draw in the fourth match. However, Rohit Sharma’s team has lifted the trophy of the series despite the draw.

The fourth and final match of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad ended in a draw. Rohit Sharma’s India won the series by 2-1 as a result of this draw.

Sri Lanka lost against New Zealand in Christchurch on the day of India’s draw. As a result, the final of the Test Championship has been confirmed for India. Last year’s finalists will take the field against Australia in this year’s Test title mission.

It was already understood that this test was going toward a draw. The last day was very formal. The two captains accepted the decision of truce 19 overs before the scheduled 90-over game for the day.

After winning the toss, Australia’s acting captain Steven Smith decided to bat in Ahmedabad. The visitors got off to a great start coming down to bat. In particular, opener Usman Khawaja played a brilliant innings of 180 runs and hinted at making Australia’s score big. Cameron Green also scored a century in the middle order. He was dismissed for 114 runs.

In the end, Australia was all out for 480 runs. Indian bowler Ravichandran Ashwin scalped 6 wickets. Apart from this, Mohammed Shami picked up 2 and 1 wickets taken respectively by Axar Patel and Ravindra Jadeja.

In response, India also showed an emphatic counter-batting display. In 2019, Virat Kohli scored a century in the Tests. Apart from him, opener Shubman Gill also scored a century. Gill scored 128 runs and Kohli made 186 runs playing firmly to keep the team safe. Axar Patel scored 79 runs. As a result, the hosts were all out after collecting a huge score of 571 runs.

India took a lead of 91 runs. Nathan Lyon and Todd Murphy took the highest number of 3 wickets each for the visitors. Besides, Matthew Kuhnemann and Mitchell Starc took 1 wicket each.

Batting in the second innings, the Aussies ended the 4th day’s game by collecting 6 runs. Then the Aussies lost the wicket of night watch batsman Matthew Kuhnemann at the start of the fifth day. Then Travis Head and Labuschagne batted well together. For the 2nd wicket, these two put on a great partnership of 139 runs.

Head returned to the pavilion scoring 90 runs, but Labuschagne left the field unbeaten on 63 runs. Steven Smith was also unbeaten on 10 runs. Aussie skipper Smith announced the innings after making 175 for 2 wickets. In other words, he gave India a target of only 85 runs to win.

But, there were only 10 minutes’ game left. As a result, the umpires called the two captains. After the issue of time was raised before them, both the captains shook hands and accepted the draw.

Earlier, India defeated Australia by innings and 132 runs in the first match of the series. The hosts dominated the second test as well. Rohit Sharma’s team won by 6 wickets in the spin magic of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja.

The Aussies captain was changed from the third Test due to Pat Cummins’ family problems. Steven Smith served as acting captain in these two Tests. The result happened to be good for them after that. Australia beat India by 9 wickets in the third Test. And the fourth test ended up on a draw.

After the Test series, the two teams will meet again in the first of the three-match ODI series on March 17.

India vs Australia Scoreboard

Australia (1st Innings) – 480/10 (167.2)

India (1st Innings) – 571/10 (178.5)

Australia (2nd Innings) – 175/2 (D) (78.1)

Result – Match Drawn

Player of the match – Virat Kohli

Player of the series – Ravindra Jadeja & Ravichandran Ashwin

India vs Australia Playing Xis