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Australia sealed their World Test Championship (WTC) final spot after a convincing nine-wicket win over India in the third Test of the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Indore.
With this win, Australia have finally bounced back in the Test series making the series 2-1 after disappointing losses in the first two Tests. Despite Australia having a chance of defeating India in the fourth Test in Ahmedabad to level the series 2-2, India have retained the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, having won the previous series against Australia at their home in 2021.
After winning the toss and opting to bat first, India’s batting collapsed on the first day of the Test, with left-arm spinner Matthew Kuhnemann picking 5/16 from his nine overs. With the ball turning square from Day 1 of the Test match, Indian batters were clueless in their plans and were bowled out cheaply on 109 in 33.2 overs.
In reply, Australia were 156/4 at stumps on Day 1, with opener Usman Khawaja scoring a fighting 60 off 147 balls to help the visitors take a vital first-innings lead. For India, left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja took all the first four wickets claiming 4/78 from his 32 overs in the first innings.
Resuming the innings on Day 2, Peter Handscomb (19 off 98) and Cameron Green (21 off 57) remained unbeaten till drinks with Australia at 186/4. However, they lost their remaining six wickets under just 11 runs, with off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin (3/44) and pacer Umesh Yadav (3/12) running through Australia’s lower middle-order to bowl them out at 197 in 76.3 overs.
Despite a comeback from the Indian bowlers on Day 2, Australia took a crucial first-inning lead of 88 runs, which was quite big considering the pitch offered at Indore was helping the spinners. Apart from Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne (31 off 91) and Steven Smith (26 off 38) were the other two batters who contributed with the bat to Australia’s total.
In the second innings, India desperately needed an improvement in their batting performance to make something out of this match, having conceded the first-inning lead.
However, India had a poor start in the second innings too with veteran off-spinner Nathon Lyon removing both the Indian openers in quick succession. Coming from round the wicket, Lyon first removed Shubman Gill (5 off 15), who came down the track to eventually get bowled, while Rohit Sharma (12 off 33) was trapped lbw in front of the stumps.
Coming in to bat at No.5 ahead of Shreyas Iyer, Jadeja (7 off 36) was trapped lbw by Lyon with a ball coming in with the arm crashing on to hit the middle and leg stump, while Virat Kohli (13 off 26) missed a short-pitched delivery while trying to pull Kuhnemann to get lbw. At Tea on Day 2, India were 79/4 in 32 overs, with Cheteshwar Pujara the only player looking comfortable at the crease.
Iyer (26 off 27) started the final session on Day 2 with an aggressive intent by smashing Kuhnemann for a couple of sixes by pulling him over deep mid-wicket. Just when it looked like Iyer was helping India to extend their lead, he was caught off Mitchell Starc coming round the wicket, with Khawaja taking an outstanding diving catch fielding at short mid-wicket.
Meanwhile, it seemed that Pujara was batting on a different pitch altogether as he scored boundaries at regular intervals and reached his 35th half-century off 108 balls. At the other end, Lyon removed wicket-keeper batter KS Bharat (3 off 8) and Ashwin (16 off 28) as things kept getting difficult for India.
Pujara scored a magnificent 59 off 142 balls, hitting five fours and a six before getting caught off Lyon as Smith took a brilliant diving catch fielding at leg slip. After his dismissal, Lyon removed both Mohammed Siraj and Yadav on a duck as India were bundled out at 163 in the second innings at stumps on Day 2.
Lyon was the standout bowler for Australia in the second innings picking 8/64 from his 23.3 overs, while Starc (1/14) and Kuhnemann (1/60) took one wicket each.
With Australia needing just 76 runs to win the Test match, India were hoping for a miracle on Day 3 in Indore. On Day 3, Australia started their innings on the worst possible note as Khawaja was caught behind for a duck by Ashwin on the second ball of the first over.
As expected, both Ashwin and Jadeja were getting help from the pitch as the ball was turning sharp with some uneven bounce. Labuschagne and Travis Head kept fighting and focused on survival during that difficult phase as they managed to add just 13 runs from the first ten overs.
However, the momentum was shifted completely when the umpires replaced the ball after noticing that a part of the seam had come off. In the very next over after the ball was replaced, Head smashed one four and a six to Ashwin, while Jadeja gave away two boundaries from the other end as Australia completed 50 runs in 14 overs.
Rohit then brought Yadav into the bowling attack but it was too late as both Head and Labuschagne were well set to score boundaries against him. Later, on the first ball of the 19th over, Head used his feet to hit Ashwin down the ground for a four, while Labuschagne scored the winning runs on the fifth ball of the over by lofting Ashwin over mid-on for a boundary.
Head missed his fifty with just one run and remained unbeaten on 49 off 53 balls, hitting six fours and a maximum, while Labushagne was not out on 28 off 58 balls with six fours.
Nathon Lyon was awarded Player of the Match for his outstanding figures of 3/35 and 8/64 in the first and second innings respectively.
With this win, Australia registered their first victory of the series and their first win in India after the 2017 Test win in Pune. They now stand at the top of the WTC points table with 68.52 percentage points which means that they will finish the current WTC cycle in the first place, irrespective of the result in the final Test of the series against India.
India are currently in the second position in the points table with 60.29 percentage points. For India to qualify for the WTC final to be played at The Oval in June, they need to defeat Australia in the fourth Test of the series starting from March 9 at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.
However, if India loses another game against Australia or the match ends in a draw, it will allow Sri Lanka to qualify for the WTC finals if they beat New Zealand 2-0 in an away series starting from March 9 in Christchurch.
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