🏏India vs Australia - 4th Test: NMS, Ahmedabad: Day 5 - Page 29🏏 - Page 25

We're done now. Australia can technically declare 10 minutes early. The umpires agree to call it off. Handshakes all-round. The 4th Test ends in a draw and India win the series 2-1. India too good. They deserve to retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Australia will kick themselves for their collapse in Delhi that cost them a rare chance at a series win in India. But India's spinners were far too good in the first two Test matches. The two teams will meet again in the World Test Championship final at the Oval in England in June.

Neil: "India should've sneakily gone for the 84 in 16 overs because I assume Australia "declared" to lose 2 overs for change of innings?" Rohit joked that he would call for the light roller but they ended it by mutual agreement. Otherwise Australia would have kept batting obviously.

Vijaykumar: "I can imagine Chris Broad sharpening his knives before writing up the pitch report " It will be interesting to see how this is rated following Indore. Only 20 wickets fell to bowlers in 5 days.

Nathan Lyon on Star: "It's been a tough challenge. We knew it was going to be tough but it's been rewarding. I think our group can take a lot out of it. There's areas where we can improve but some proud moments along the way. [This pitch] was a pretty tough surface. There wasn't a lot in it. It can be quite challenging but it's up to us bowlers get the guys caught on the crease and trying to get them to play false shots. A totally different surface to the first three wickets."

Shubman Gill on Star: "[Lyon] is always on his mark. He tests your patience so much. Especially when I was batting to him on day three and the first session was quite challenging for me and Rohit. Just the areas that he bowls. He doesn't give much to the batter for someone who is consistently bowling outside off stump, he doesn't give half volleys or short balls. That's quite amazing. As a batter it's quite difficult to score runs off him."

India coach Rahul Dravid on Star: "It was a really hard fought series, there were moments where we were put under extreme pressure by a really good cricket team and we responded. Whenever we needed someone to step up and put in a special performance, we found it. Rohit led the way in the first Test with a brilliant hundred and it was bookended by Virat Kohli's brilliant 186. In the middle we had performances from Ashwin, Jadeja, Axar, Shubman there. I've probably missed out a few. I think our fight stood out. Whenever we were under pressure with our backs to the wall we had to respond and we always found that. It's one of the heartening things about coaching this team. People want to stand up and take responsibility. [How do you prepare for the WTC final?] We just qualified at lunchtime today. I wasn't counting my chickens before they hatched. We'll celebrate this for starters. It is going to be a challenge. There's going to be a lot of logistics involved given the IPL final is only a week before the WTC final. We'll think about it."

Steve Smith: Did end slowly. Was a pretty flat at the back end. The boys had a great time. The hospitality has been amazing, The crowd has been amazing. We started to play better as the series went on. The madness in one hour in Delhi cost us that game. The wicket here was too flat for us to force a result. The spinners bowled really well. Murhpy and Kuhnemann bowled with compusure. Lyon bowled his best in the first innings here, the best I have seen him bowl. I am getting a bit old.

Congratulations to India for winning the series 2-1 🥳

Congratulations to Virat Kohli for the Player of the match award.👏

Congratulations to Ravichandran Ashwin for winning the Player of the series award.👏

Next up

3 ODIs between India and Australia starting from 17th of March at 1:30PM IST.

Cheers..

Only WTC matters.....

Congratulations on the series win which was never in doubt..

IND 571

AUS 480 & 175/2 d

Match drawn

PLAYER OF THE MATCH

Virat Kohli

PLAYER OF THE SERIES

Ravindra Jadeja

PLAYER OF THE SERIES

Ravichandran Ashwin

Player of the Series in Ind-Aus series in India since 2011

2013: R Ashwin (29 wkts, 20 runs)

2017: R Jadeja (25 wkts, 127 runs)

2023: R Ashwin (25 wkts, 86 runs) & R Jadeja (22 wkts, 135 runs)

And that's it. All of a sudden the two players and the adjudicators on the field have decided that this it it. The fourth Test is drawn. India take the series 2-1. They have qualified to the finale of the 2023 WTC as well. Lot of smiles on the faces of the Indian players as well. The Aussies won't be crestfallen as well. They have fought bravely in the second half of the series.

The dream for India never materialized on day 5 as there was no fairytale end. The Aussies also didn't see any nightmares as the sleeping beauty continued to stay dormant. The ball kept low but it was cancelled by the slowness off the track as Australia mitigated everything thrown at them by the troika of spinners. Australia lost Kuhnemann early. But Labuschagne doused every bit of hopes with his dour and dogged show. Head also showed character and scored a fine fifty. He fell to Axar but Smith came in and put up another defensive clinic. In the end with more than an hour left on the clock for stumps, the two teams called it truce as Australia declared! That would have meant an innings changeover would have consumed 10 minutes and the mandatory 15 overs would have remained. Such camaraderie between the two sides! India have pocketed their 16th sonsecutive series win at home. These two have booked their berths now for the 2023 WTC final. Australia had done it first and NZ helped India today with their thrilling win over SL.