Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: Rain eventually prevailed in denying the Gabba Test a blockbuster finish on Day Five as Australia and India drew the third Test match in Brisbane on December 18. It also means the five-match Border-Gavaskar Trophy series will head to Melbourne for the Boxing Day Test, with the scoreline interestingly placed at 1-1.
Rain was always a constant theme in the match at Brisbane, and only 22 overs of play was possible on day five. After bowling out India for 260 to take a 185-run first-innings, Australia declared its second innings at 89/7 and gave the visitors’ a target of 275 runs in a bid to get an unlikely victory.
India reached eight for no loss in 2.1 overs, with KL Rahul and Yashasvi Jaiswal, unbeaten on four each, seeing out 13 balls before bad light meant the players had to go off and tea break was called upon. After that rain came in, and ensured no further play was possible. Fittingly, handshakes happened between the two teams amid a rain interruption to draw the match, where just 216.1 overs of play happened across five days.
Resuming day five from 252/9, after avoiding the follow-on, Akash Deep and Jasprit Bumrah were at it again to reduce the deficit for India. Akash and Bumrah added eight more runs in four overs and took their last-wicket partnership to 47 before Travis Head snapped it.
Coming from round the wicket, Head got a slider to move across Akash and beat his outside edge after drawing him forward. In this process, Akash’s backfoot came out of the crease and Alex Carey completed a sharp stumping to end India’s innings and give Australia a big lead, as the batter was dismissed for 31 off 44 balls.
The 47-run stand for the last wicket between Akash and Bumrah is also a new record for India in terms of tenth-wicket partnership in Tests against Australia at the Gabba, going past the previous record was 33, between Manoj Prabhakar and Javagal Srinath in 1991/92.
Just as Nathan McSweeney and Usman Khawaja, who turned 38 on Wednesday, were ready to come out and bat, a lighting alert near the Gabba meant everyone was forced off the field and lunch was taken in.
