New Delhi: India retained the Border-Gavaskar Trophy with a 2-1 series win as the captains agree to an early draw in the fourth Test. Australia declared the inning at 175/2 and umpires called off the game as a draw. The interesting thing was the final overs of the game were bowled by Chetershwar Pujara and Shubman Gill.
Draw was the likely result after India played almost the whole fourth day and on a batting-friendly surface like this, it was unlikely that two innings would be completed in one day. Travis Head missed on a century as he got out to a spinning delivery by Axar Patel on 90 off 163. Marnus Labuschagne played a patient inning of 63* off 213, with a draw in mind. There was no hurry for the Australian batters as Labuschagne and Steve Smith just looked to defend the ball.
With this result, India is through to the finals of the World Test Championship 2023 as Sri Lanka lost the first Test match against New Zealand by the barest of margins. India will now face Australia at the Oval in the finals starting on June 7.
The day started well for India as Ravichandran Ashwin dismissed Matthew Kuhnemann. It was followed by a 139-run stand between Labuschange and Head. The partnership led the base for the early draw.
It was an interesting draw overall with Usman Khawaja playing a knock to remember and scoring 180 runs, followed by a century by Cameron Green. For India, Shubman Gill scored a ton and Virat Kohli ended the drought with a Test century after three years and went on to score 186(364). Among the bowlers, Ravichandran Ashwin picked six in the first inning and Axar Patel got Kuhnemann as his 50th Test wicket.
Shubman Gill today bowled his first Test and only 10th First Class over, while Pujara showed his leg spin skills for an over as the day ended with smiles.
Virat Kohli was awarded the Player of the Match for his grit and the knock of 186 runs. While there were contenders like Usman Khawaja and Axar Patel, Ashwin and Jadeja were given the joint Player of the Series award.
