Australia vs India: 3rd Test- Who Said What
India won their 150th Test match.
Prior to the fifth and final day of the third Test match at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) between Australia and India, there were forecasts of rain and the hosts somewhat fathomed saving the match. However, that wasn’t the case as the game eventually began and it took Virat Kohli and Co 27 balls to win the match by 137 runs and take an unassailable 2-1 lead in the four-match series.
Rain threatens to play spoilsport
The pre-lunch session didn’t see any play taking place due to persistent rain and hence an early lunch was taken at 12:15 pm local time- 15 minutes prior to the scheduled time. All this while, the pitch was covered. At 12:21 pm local time, the covers came off and there was still 34 minutes remaining in the lunch break. 29 minutes later in 12:50 local time, the fifth day’s play eventually got underway.
The Aussies started the day with an overnight score of 258/8 in 85 overs. Even as Nathan Lyon was not out on six from 38 balls, Pat Cummins had an incredible time with the bat on the fourth day, having scored 61 runs from 103 balls and arguably the home team’s best batsman in the entire Test match if not the series. However, fate had something else in store for both of them as play resumed.
India get home comfortably
Ishant Sharma started proceedings on the day and gave three runs in the day’s first over. Lyon and Cummins also played out the next two overs thereafter. Nevertheless, in the second ball of the 89th over, Bumrah found Cummins’ outside edge and picked up the ninth and penultimate Australian wicket. Cheteshwar Pujara didn’t do any mistake whatsoever in grasping the leather at the first slip region.
At that point in time, Tim Paine and Co required 138 more runs. In the very next over, Lyon perished to fast bowler Ishant Sharma, caught by wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant and the dismissal brought the curtains down on the match. Most importantly, India won their 150th Test match and retained the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. The fifth Test starts on Thursday, January 03 at Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG).
Tim Paine, the Australian captain, said
It’s a bit disappointing. With an inexperience batting line-up you are bound to have an innings like we did in the first innings. The guys are working really hard and we have a huge challenge ahead of us in Sydney. The conditions will be different in Sydney. The pitch was very good. After watching the wicket for 2 days, I knew pitch will crumble. Pat (Cummins) has been superb all series. We all know what quality he has. He has been fantastic for us. We want more guys to perform like him. It’s been an interesting year, a difficult year. In the next few months, some world class players will be available. We have to work really hard to win the new year Test.
Virat Kohli, the Indian captain, said
We are not gonna stop here. This will give us more confidence and we play more positively in Sydney.We want to win last Test match as well, if an opportunity comes our way. We don’t want to be complacent. It’s good thing that I don’t read any comment. We were pretty clear that we will bat third on this pitch as pitch was only getting worse. Jasprit has been brilliant for us, The three seamers have broken a record for the highest number of wickets in a calendar year. Jasprit was unlucky not to get wickets in Perth. Team management calmed him down and he won us the test match. Agarwal was amazing. His composure was outstanding. Pujara was outstanding too. It is all about taking pride in your roles which are given. We have to play good cricket to be in the position right now. We have never been in this position and now is the time to express even more.
Jasprit Bumrah, the Man of the Match, said
It is a great feeling. I always wanted to play Test cricket. I am really happy to contribute to team’s success. I always focus on consistency. My aim is to always focus on inconsistency, We train very hard and we are used to bowling a lot of overs in Ranji Cricket so body is doing well. It was always a dream to play Test cricket. I started learning slowly, hopefully, the start has been good. I hope it will keep getting better.
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