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Wounded Warriors defy Australia on the final day of The Pink Test defending their way through to a historic Draw

 

Paine-Ashwin 

Australia Vs India, 2020-21 – 3rd Test

Final Score

Australia: 338 & 212/6d

India: 244 & 334/6

Match Drawn



 

In an extraordinary final day, we saw the bruised Indian cricketers pull up their socks to defy the hosts with some resilient defensive batting. Starting the day at 98/2 needing 309 runs to win the Test match, India lost their Captain, Ajinkya Rahane cheaply of the bowling of Nathan Lyon scoring just 4 runs. Then, Wicket Keeper Rishab Pant along with Pujara stitched together a 148-run partnership. Pant was eventually dismissed by Lyon scoring 97 runs in very quick time. We saw a typical Pant Innings with lots of gorgeous and outrageous strokes and also providing some simple chances which the Aussies which they were not able to grab. 9 overs later, the gritty innings of Pujara came to an end playing down the wrong line of Hazlewood loosing his off stump. He scored 77 runs of 205 balls. With Jadeja injured, Ravi Ashwin walked in after the loss of Pujara’s wicket. On the other end Hanuma Vihari had a hamstring issue which dried up the strike rotation due to his inability to run. The pair batted out 42 overs stitching an undefeated 62 run partnership to steer India till the end of the day snatching a draw from the jas of defeat. The pair faced a barrage of short pitch deliveries with Ashwin taking blows on his chest and rib cage. During their long stay, Ashwin rode his luck after the substitute Abbot dropped a fairly simple catch at Square Leg. Vihari on the other hand kept defending until he nicked one to Paine who dropped his 3rd catch of the day and in turn dropping the match of Mitchel Starc.



A five-day Test match going down to the last hour of play with all three outcomes possible is a rarity in nowadays. After a long time, we were able to witness a classic five-day Test match. While the first two matches were kind of a friendly affair but this Test saw the bitter side of the Aussies with barrage of short balls, crowd abuses towards Indian cricketers and finally Tim Paine getting into a conversation with Ashwin from behind the stumps. The conversation was captured on stump mic where Paine quoted, "Can't wait for you to to get to Gabba" just to get a fitting reply from Ashwin saying, “Can't wait to get you to India, it'll be your last series”. The Aussie skipper went on to drop another catch following the conversation, letting the Indians scrape through to a draw. With the series level at 1-1, the fourth Test at the Gabba will be a match of bragging rights with India, current holder of the Border-Gavaskar trophy would want to retain it while the Aussies will be looking for redemption. With everything up for grabs, it will be important to see how team India’s playing 11 will look like given the number of injured players in the squad.


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