Rain eventually prevailed in denying the Gabba Test a blockbuster finish on day five as Australia and India drew the match on Wednesday. It also means the five-match Border-Gavaskar Trophy series will head to Melbourne for the Boxing Day Test, with the scoreline interestingly placed at 1-1.
Rain was always a constant theme in the match at Brisbane, and only 22 overs of play was possible on day five. After bowling out India for 260 to take a 185-run first-innings, Australia declared its second innings at 89/7 and gave the visitors’ a target of 275 runs in a bid to get an unlikely victory.
India reached eight for no loss in 2.1 overs, with KL Rahul and Yashasvi Jaiswal, unbeaten on four each, seeing out 13 balls before bad light meant the players had to go off and tea break was called upon. After that rain came in, and ensured no further play was possible. Fittingly, handshakes happened between the two teams amid a rain interruption to draw the match, where just 216.1 overs of play happened across five days.
Resuming day five from 252/9, after avoiding the follow-on, Akash Deep and Jasprit Bumrah were at it again to reduce the deficit for India. Akash and Bumrah added eight more runs in four overs and took their last-wicket partnership to 47 before Travis Head snapped it.
Coming from round the wicket, Head got a slider to move across Akash and beat his outside edge after drawing him forward. In this process, Akash’s backfoot came out of the crease and Alex Carey completed a sharp stumping to end India’s innings and give Australia a big lead, as the batter was dismissed for 31 off 44 balls.
The 47-run stand for the last wicket between Akash and Bumrah is also a new record for India in terms of tenth-wicket partnership in Tests against Australia at the Gabba, going past the previous record was 33, between Manoj Prabhakar and Javagal Srinath in 1991/92.
Just as Nathan McSweeney and Usman Khawaja, who turned 38 on Wednesday, were ready to come out and bat, a lighting alert near the Gabba meant everyone was forced off the field and lunch was taken in.
After clinching a lead of 185 runs, Australia had a highly eventful, 18-over second innings. They came out to play their shots in a quest to get runs at a fast speed and were dismissed in quick succession by India’s pacers. But with a big lead in hand, Australia found 274 good enough total to declare, thanks to cameos from Carey, Head and Pat Cummins.
For India, Jasprit Bumrah took three wickets to take his match figures to nine. It also got Bumrah to take his tally of wickets in Australia to 53, which is now the new record for most wickets taken by Indian bowler in Tests in this country, eclipsing Kapil Dev’s 51 scalps.
He got excellent support from Akash Deep and Mohammed Siraj, who chipped in with two scalps each. Bumrah provided the first breakthrough by getting some inward movement on a length delivery, and take the inside edge of birthday boy Usman Khawaja to rattle the top of off stump. He came back to have Marnus Labuschagne slash away from the body and nick behind to Rishabh Pant.
Akash was next to strike, as Nathan McSweeney flashed at an outside off stump delivery and edged behind to Pant. Mitchell Marsh’s promotion to number four didn’t work as Akash found his outside edge and Pant completed another catch.
Siraj came in to have Steve Smith strangled down the leg side, as Pant completed a brilliant diving catch. Head and Carey hit quick boundaries before the former went for a big heave, but gave a top-edge to across-moving Pant, who took his fifth catch of the innings. It’s also the fourth instance of Pant taking five or more catches in a Test innings, which is the joint-most for any Indian keeper in Tests alongside MS Dhoni.
Cummins had an entertaining stay at the crease, hitting a four and six off Akash and giving the same treatment to Siraj, before being foxed by a slower ball from Bumrah and was caught by cover for 22 off just 10 balls. Five balls after he got out, Cummins called back the batters in to declare Australia’s innings and set stage for an exciting finish, which didn’t happen due to rain.
Brief scores: Australia 445 and 89/7 dec (Pat Cummins 22, Alex Carey 20 not out; Jasprit Bumrah 3-18, Akash Deep 2-28) draw with India 260 (KL Rahul 84, Ravindra Jadeja 77; Pat Cummins 4-81, Mitchell Starc 3-83) and 8/0 in 2.1 overs
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