Aussies claim 2-0 series win after thrilling draw

Andrew Ramsey

Rahane, Kumar hang on after Australians take five post-tea wickets to set up tense SCG finish

For the second time in as many Tests, Australia’s bowlers were unable to find a way through 10 Indian batsmen but the drawn result did little to detract from a series that delivered stirring success in the most emotional of circumstances.

Set an improbable 349 on the final day of the fourth Commonwealth Bank Test at the SCG, India appeared bound for defeat and a three-nil series loss when they crashed to 7-217 inside the last hour on an unpredictable pitch.

But the tourists’ last recognised batsman Ajinkya Rahane (38no) forged a 51-minute eighth-wicket stand that – try as they might – Australia was unable to budge and captain Steve Smith called a halt to hostilities one delivery shy of the scheduled end.

Given the sadness and uncertainty that had surrounded the Australian players not more than a month ago as they felt the shock and grief over the death of Phillip Hughes, to have regained the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in such an emphatic manner is more triumphant than the two-nil scoreline suggests.

Similarly, while India’s bold batting has ensured that each of the four Tests has remained keenly fought, the inescapable truth is that in three of those games they were set declaration targets by the home team, their bowlers having been unable to take sufficient wickets.

That Australia declared their second innings on the overnight tally of 6-251 was only marginally less of a surprise than the fact that India – for the sixth time in eight innings in the series – had been unable to capture 10 wickets.

The challenge the home team chose to set the tourists this time around was to score 349 runs from 90 overs on a pitch that was scarred by footmarks and dry as a chip.

That was almost 50 runs more than the existing record for a successful fourth-innings run chase at the SCG.

Just how tricky the assignment would prove became self-evident 23 minutes into the day’s play when Nathan Lyon began his first over and even the ball seemed to stand up and take notice.

It certainly caught opener Murali Vijay’s attention as it pitched roughly in line with his off-stump, spun at almost 45 degrees and bounced so spitefully that it was rib-cage high as it passed the wide-eyed batsman and into the gloves of Brad Haddin who made smart ground to snare it.

From there, the Indians made a conscious effort to take to the spinner every half chance they saw. Anything that was vaguely flighted, Vijay and his partner Lokesh Rahul would scamper down the pitch to nullify the threat or – if they could make it close to pitching point – lift him down the ground.

A couple of times, Vijay made such sweet contact he landed Lyon in the crowd.

But the odds were increasingly stacked in the bowler’s favour as Rahul found when he foray forward and was unable to stop the ball spitting at him and clipping his right hand – which the first innings century maker instinctively tried to remove from the bat handle – and looping to leg slip.

It then seemed an Australian win would become but a procedural matter – aided by a procession of Indian batsmen – when Rohit Sharma pushed tentatively at the next ball and offered a fine edge to the ‘keeper.

However, the variable bounce that was to play as vital a role as the exaggerated turn worked in India’s favour as the catch found its way beneath Haddin’s waiting hands and on to his right thigh as Lyon wheeled in disbelief.

For a time – almost two hours to be pedantic – the Australians were left to fear their victory window might already have blown shut.

Especially in the half hour after lunch – which saw India make measure progress towards 100 for the sole loss of Rahul – when Shaun Marsh at very short cover narrowly failed to successfully intercept a stinging drive from Vijay who had scored 42 and was threatening to provide his team an unlikely launch pad.

It was the 17th catch the Australians had turfed in the Commonwealth Bank Series, and exasperated onlookers were heard to wonder aloud when, perhaps if, the next one would be taken. As he’s done pretty much on cue and most other times this series, Smith provided that emphatic answer in the subsequent over.

Sharma’s listless attempt to glide Shane Watson to third man failed to take into account Smith being stationed wide as the solitary slip and clearly discounted his capacity to levitate horizontally while plucking the ball in his right hand with the timeless grace of an astronaut on a spacewalk.

That moment of genius lifted the last day crowd of around 15,000 into life, their enthusiasm fired further by the appearance of India captain Virat Kohli – the batsman capable of getting India close to the target – to join Vijay in a reprise of their famous if ultimately fruitless union on day five in Adelaide.

Just as expectation rose and anticipation peaked … suddenly, nothing happened.

The sight of Kohli at the other end seemed to convince Vijay he could become the silent partner, and it took the opener 14 overs to find the four runs required to notch his fifth half-century of an impressive series.

Come the tea break, the scenario confronting both teams was hauntingly similar to the same point of the series opener in Adelaide.

Back then, not even four weeks ago, India was 2-205 needing 159 runs from 37 overs to win and take an early favouritism to retain the Trophy.

They then lost 8-110 in a calamitous final two hours as Nathan Lyon ran rampant.

The equation at the final break in Sydney, to at least get themselves on the series scoresheet was 189 runs from 33 overs with the same pair – Vijay and Kohli – unbeaten at the crease.

And then history began repeating on itself. Vijay gave away his four-and-a-quarter-hour vigil by needlessly waving at a short ball only to gift an edge to Haddin, and six overs later the valued wicket of Kohli had the Australians buoyant and resurgent.

The fact that a batsman the class and in the impeccable form of Kohli had found timing and touch elusive against disciplined bowling in deteriorating conditions provided the final judgement that only one team was now able to win this Test.

And when he edged Mitchell Starc low to slip where Shane Watson completed a deft catch to his right – putting to rest concerns that the decline in Australia’s fielding had become terminal – the home team knew that win was there to be plucked.

The degree of difficulty for batsmen a rung or two below world-class was personified by Suresh Raina, whose first Test back after more than two years in exile ended in the most forgettable circumstances with a third-ball duck to add to the first-baller he managed on Thursday.

It was a contribution matched by ‘keeper Wriddhiman Saha although he was as much of a victim of the pitch when trapped in front by a delivery that almost rolled under his feet.

India’s best hope then appeared to be Ravi Ashwin who had scored a handy half-century in the first innings, but even though he lasted more than half an hour the fact he scored just a single in that time meant the bottom half of India’s scorecard was starting to look like binary code. Which meant Rahane and Kumar had almost 12 overs to negotiate to prevent India’s card-carrying tailenders Mohammed Shami and Umesh Yadav from facing the music.

They did it. But their defiance will stand as one of India’s few wins for the series. (Cricket Australia)