Wow.. What a thrilling final day!!! It could have been more thrilling had Australia declared earlier. Never the less, their bowlers were fantastic first up. Picking up 3 quick wickets. After that India was only looking for a draw, and rightly so! Kohli and Rahane batted brilliantly. Pujara also showed some resistance. And then Ashwin and Dhoni managed to bat around 12 overs to make sure Australia won't win. Smith thought his bowlers can't run through India's weak tail in the last 4 overs and decided to shake hands with the batsmen.
Test Match started with India restricting the Kangaroos on the first day. But they lost the grip as the Aussies scored freely on day 2. Not to forget wayward bowling by the Indian quicks. But thanks to Murli Vijay's solid start and Kohli-Rahane's counter-attacking yet very sensible partnership, India were short by just 65 runs of Australia's mammoth first innings total of 530. Indian bowlers improved their performance in the second innings, bowling good line and length. At the end of day 4 match was evenly poised with Aussies leading by 326 odd runs and 98 overs still to go on day 5. With 3 wickets in hand everyone expected that Australia will bat for another 6-7 overs, score quick runs and declare the inning. But the young Australian skipper had some different plans. Without showing any urgency they batted for 2 hours (till lunch) extending their lead to 384.
3 early wickets and India given up the record chase. Bat 70 overs and drew the test match was the objective for them and they did it at the end!!!
Kohli and his Statement--
The Australians are known for their aggressive and attacking cricket and so is Virat Kohli. The spat started when Johnson threw the ball at stumps and which hit Kohli's calf, Mitch Johnson apologized instantly but Kohli didn't take it well, he was disturbed he was dropped, once he settled his nerves the verbal battle began between him and few Australians. Kohli went ahead and made it public, by stating 'There is no reason to respect the Australians who don't respect me.' and he continued saying, "whatever target they give we will try and chase it down. We will play for the win"
May be this statement by Kohli set Johnson on fire. And even Steve Smith must have had a little doubt what if Indians really chase it down, because they came really close in the first test. May be that's why he didn't declare the innings earlier.
The Australians were fired up by Kohli came hard at him and other Indians, but couldn't manage to wrap up the innings in the 66 overs that they bowled.
Hope that the Indian bowlers will continue their form of 'bowling in one area ' in the last test match. And Vijay, Kohli, Rahane continue their red hot form, wherein Pujara and Dhawan need to get some runs in the Sydney test.
It was really fascinating to watch the full test match.. Even if that meant waking up early morning at 5, in this chilly winter. Wish it could have been early declaration by Australia to see a result of one team winning rather than a draw. Never the less it was a real thriller!
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