Opener KL Rahul’s unbeaten 51 and Ajinkya Rahane’s whirlwind 38 off just 27 balls ensured that India chased down the meagre target of 106 by eight wickets and without much alarm on the fourth day of the fourth Test in Dharamsala against Australia, winning the series 2-1. It was an emphatic and memorable victory for India in a closely-fought series and they regained the Border-Gavaskar Trophy after four long years.
Resuming at 19/0, Rahul and Murali Vijay made brisk progress towards the target before Australia’s Pat Cummins decided to have a say in proceedings. The pacer who has been brilliant for Australia throughout this series got Vijay to poke outside off with India’s score on 46. In the same over, Cheteshwar Pujara was dismissed for a rare duck after he was run out, falling short of a Glenn Maxwell direct hit.
This brought out captain Ajinkya Rahane who seemed determine to ensure there would be no more stutters. He smashed Cummins away for two consecutive fours and then well all out, smashing Cummins for two big sixes. The runs were coming in a burst and India moved closer and closer to the target. Fittingly, it was KL Rahul who hit the winning runs, getting three off Nathan Lyon to bring up his sixth fifty of the series and give India the series.
Brief score:
- Australia 300 (Steve Smith 111, Matthew Wade 57; Kuldeep Yadav 4/68, Umesh Yadav 2/69) and 137 all out (Glenn Maxwell 45, Matthew Wade 25 not out; Ravindra Jadeja 3/24, Ravichandran Ashwin 3/29) lost to India 332 all out (Ravindra Jadeja 63, Cheteshwar Pujara 57; Nathan Lyon 5/92, Pat Cummins 3/94) and 106/2 (KL Rahul 51 not out, Ajinkya Rahane 38 not out, Pat Cummins 1/42) by eight wickets