India earns a draw

It was a disappointing performance from the Australians on and off the field, mostly off the field, that saw the Indians play out the last day of the third test match at the MCG to finish on level terms with Australia.

Dhoni and Smith after declaring Draw [Source: AP]

Australia took more than an hour in the first session of the day to declare their innings which perhaps cost them the match eventually. In the end when they declared on 318/9, India needed 384 runs to chase to win the match in a maximum of 70 overs. Right from the onset India never tried to go for a victory. And that was sensible for there was no use losing while trying to chase down an improbable target in test matches. Only two results were possible, either a draw or a victory for Australia.

Australia made the perfect start as they got India reeling at 19/3. Shikhar Dhawan was out for a duck; KL Rahul, who was promoted up the order managed to score 1 before getting out to a strange shot which was caught by Shane Watson in the first slip running quite a few metres behind. Murali Vijay was a tad unlucky to be given out on 11. But from then on, it was a different game altogether. Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane played some excellent cricket and set India on a nice platform to save the test match. Except a couple of big run out chances Kohli played safely. And at tea, it seemed that there might not be any need of playing the whole of the fifth session.

Virat Kohli [Source: AP]

But in cricket, things can change very quickly. Virat Kohli (54) got out very quickly after tea. He was caught at square leg when he tried to flick the ball when Ryan Harris made an occasional mistake of straying down to the leg side. The disappointment was quite clear on his face for it was a shot that got him number of runs. But you can get out even when you are playing to your strength. Cheteshwar Pujara came on and looked better than his previous outings and played on for a long time before getting out to Mitchell Johnson. He scored 21 but more importantly he played out 70 deliveries as India needed to play out the day. Next to go out was Ajinkya Rahane on 48 while playing a pull shot to Josh Hazlewood. Again it was a shot that had got him loads of runs in this match but not this time. And suddenly India was staring at another defeat. At 142/6, and exactly 15 overs still to be bowled, what was needed was a bit of responsible batting which was absent in the batting display of the Indian lower middle-order. But on this occasion Dhoni and Ashwin played out 11 of the remaining 15 overs before there was a decision taken mutually by the two captains to shake hands and end the proceedings.

It was an intriguing day of test match cricket although it was very much un-Australian. Had they played few overs less, they could have gone at the Indians for 10 more overs but they just ran out of time. And they have their think tank to blame for not winning this match. It was there to be won for the Australians. For the Indians all that can be said is “Well Done Boys”. Finally there was something to show for.

• About the Author

About Argha Ghosh

An ardent follower of sports and die-hard Manchester United fan, Argha's ultimate dream is to watch a Manchester derby from the Stretford End at the Old Trafford.