BGT '24
India-Australia third Test ends in a draw as rain plays spoilsport
Brisbane/IBNS: The third Test between India and Australia in the Border Gavaskar Trophy ended in a draw in Brisbane after rain forced the umpires to call off the final day's play.
India scored 8-0 in hunt for the target of 275 when rain stopped play for the second time on day five.
Discounting India's sporadic heroics with the bat and Jasprit Bumrah's sensational bowling, Australia largely dominated the third Test, which was frequently obstructed by poor weather conditions on all playing days.
Despite Bumrah's six wickets in the first innings, Australia's Travis Head (152) and Steven Smith (101) powered the hosts to put up 445 in the inaugural innings.
Wicketkeeper-batter Alex Carey's quick 70 down the batting order led Australia to further consolidate their advantage.
India's batting display was no different from most of the occasions in the BGT 2024 as their top order barring KL Rahul suffered a collapse against the Australian quicks.
Rahul's 84, allrounder Ravindra Jadeja's 77 and a gritty 16 from 61 balls by Nitish Reddy saved India's grace while a surprise partnership between Jasprit Bumrah and Akash Deep for the 10th wicket helped India to avoid the follow-on.
In quite an unexpected knock for his teammates, Akash Deep scored 31 from 44 balls to take India to 260 in the first innings.
Australia scored a quick 89-7 in the second innings to set 275 as target for India.
Aussie captain Pat Cummins' 22 from 10 balls and wicketkeeper-batter Alex Carey's 20 from as many balls helped Australia to challenge India with a reasonable target.
Indian pace bowlers rattled Australia's top and middle order in the second innings, riding on vice-captain Jasprit Bumrah's 3-18, Akash Deep's 2-28 and Mohammed Siraj's 2-36.
Aussie skipper Pat Cummins, who picked four wickets in the first innings, regretted missing out on a chance to take a lead in the series banking on their massive total in Brisbane.
"Would be better to be 2-1, a lot of rain, nothing we can do about it. We set a huge total and felt like we were right ahead of the game throughout," said Cummins at the post-match press conference.
India captain Rohit Sharma, who felt the match could have headed in any direction if rain didn't stop the play on day 5, says, "... going to Melbourne at 1-1 pretty much gives us that confidence to go out there and pull things towards us."
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