Melbourne: Australia regained the Border-Gavaskar Trophy after India hung on for a tense draw in the third Test in Melbourne on Tuesday. India were never in the hunt on the final day after Australia took till lunch to declare at 318 for nine, leaving them to chase 384 runs for victory off 70 overs. Their task became even more Herculean when they were reduced to 19 for three in the ninth over and from there it was a matter of survival.
The match was called off with four overs remaining when India were 174 for six with skipper M.S. Dhoni on 24 and Ravi Ashwin on eight. It was the first drawn Melbourne Test in 17 years. The Australians have won the four-match series with one Test left to play in Sydney next week after winning in Adelaide and Brisbane. “India have some very good batters in their side, it was still a very good wicket and we really didn’t want to give India a sniff,” Australia skipper Steve Smith said of his declaration decision.
“We’ve got another series win, which is what we were after, and hopefully we can finish well in Sydney,” he added. The draw means that India have not won at the Melbourne Cricket Ground for 33 years.India resisted for a time through Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane, who shared in a record 262-run stand in the first innings, but once Kohli was dismissed to break an 85-run partnership, pressure again mounted on the tourists, who have a notorious reputation for lower-order batting collapses.
“We lost early wickets, we put pressure on ourselves and we had to fight it out and overall it’s a good performance by the team,” Dhoni said. Kohli was out to a poor shot on the first ball after tea, spooning a catch straight to Joe Burns at square leg off Ryan Harris for 54. Mitchell Johnson then bowled Cheteshwar Pujara (21) with a gem of a delivery. Earlier, India had a disastrous start to their innings and lost Shikhar Dhawan (0), Lokesh Rahul (1) and Murali Vijay (11) to slump to 19 for three in the ninth over.
Scorecard
Australia (1st innings): 530
India (1st innings): 465.
Australia (2nd innings): D. Warner lbw b Ashwin 40, C. Rogers b Ashwin 69, S. Watson c Dhoni b Ishant 17, S. Smith c Rahane b Yadav 14, S. Marsh (run out) 99, J. Burns c Dhoni b Ishant 9, B. Haddin c Dhoni b Yadav 13, M. Johnson c Rahane b Mohammed Shami 15, R. Harris c Dhoni b Mohammed Shami 21, N. Lyon (not out) 1. J. Hazlewood (not out) 0. Extras (lb 13, w 2, nb 5) 20. Total (for nine wickets decl. in 98 overs) 318.
FoW: 1-57, 2-98, 3-131, 4-164, 5-176, 6-202, 7-234, 8-303, 9-317.
Bowling: U. Yadav 22-3-89-2, Mohammed Shami 28-4-92-2, I. Sharma 20-5-49-2, R. Ashwin-28-4-75-2.
India (2nd innings): M. Vijay lbw b Hazlewood 11, S. Dhawan lbw b Harris 0, K. Rahul c Watson b Johnson 1, V. Kohlic Burns b Harris 54, A. Rahane c Marsh b Hazlewood 48, C. Pujara b Johnson 21, M.S. Dhoni (not out) 24, R. Ashwin (not out) 8. Extras (lb 6, nb 1) 7. Total (for six wickets in 66 overs) 174.
FoW: 1-2, 2-5, 3-19, 4-104, 5-141, 6-142.
Bowling: M. Johnson 15-3-38-2, R. Harris 16-8-30-2, J. Hazlewood 15-3-40-2, N. Lyon 12-0-36-0, S. Watson 6-1-14-0, S. Smith 2-0-10-0.
Man of the Match: Ryan Harris.
