OH SO CLOSE
INDIA have recorded their first Test win in Australia since 2008, with a tense 31-run victory at Adelaide Oval putting the tourists in the box seat to taste unprecedented success against Tim Paine’s shattered team.
India, hunting their maiden Test series win in Australia after 11 fruitless tours spread across almost 71 years, hold a 1-0 lead in the four-match showdown after nervously turning the screws yesterday.
Australia resumed at 4-104 on day five, requiring a further 219 runs to overhaul an imposing target of 323 and complete a record-breaking chase. Virat Kohli, clearly frustrated by a third-umpire verdict and some dropped catches that had the potential to prove costly, snaffled an edge at first slip to reduce Australia to 9-259.
Kohli celebrated Pat Cummins’s dismissal by hurling the ball at the ground, rightfully bullish given the victory equation was as simple as restricting the final-wicket stand to 62 runs or less.
The post-lunch session was extended by half-an-hour as India searched for their last wicket, finally delivered when offspinner Ravichandran Ashwin had Josh Hazlewood out edging in the final over before tea.
Nathan Lyon cut a distraught figure, finishing 38 not out after being dropped on seven.
“It’s pretty shattering. I’m really proud of the fight of our lower order,” Paine said.
“Over the five days, we had a number of opportunities to get ahead of the game and failed to.
“We take a lot of confidence from today. The way our guys fought was sensational. We just needed someone in our top six to go big like (Cheteshwar) Pujara did.”
Pujara, who scored 123 and 71 while spending 11 hours at the crease, was named man of the match.
“I wouldn’t say I was cool as ice but you just try not to show it,” Kohli said. “The odds were stacked against them once we got Pat Cummins out. “They gave it a go, tried their best but we executed our plans — eventually.” Expectations of a dramatic finish grew as Australia fought hard in two gripping sessions.
Ashwin fluffed his lines before striking late, Paine suffered a finger injury that he later insisted wasn’t serious, and chirpy keeper Rishabh Pant made it an Indian record 11 dismissals for the match while missing two crucial chances. The visitors created a breakthrough whenever Australia looked to have shifted momentum in their pursuit of a result that history suggested was impossible, with the highest chase in an Adelaide Test remaining the 6-315 that Australia achieved in 1902.
Paine’s miscued pull shot to the fifth ball he faced after lunch, having earlier offered counterpart Pant a chance on seven, looked like a hammer blow. But Cummins and Mitchell Starc shared a 41-run stand to create fresh doubt in India’s minds.
Starc went down swishing at Mohammed Shami, only for Cummins to rebuild again in a 31-run partnership with Lyon.