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AHMEDABAD: India won their fourth series in a row against Australia after a fourth and final Test lit up by an epic 186 by Virat Kohli ended in a draw on Monday in Ahmedabad.
The hosts won the series 2-1 and the world’s two top-ranked teams will do battle again from June 7-11 at The Oval in the World Test Championship final.
Even before the players shook hands on day five, India knew they had reached the WTC decider thanks to New Zealand’s thrilling last-ball win over Sri Lanka earlier in the day.
It will be India’s second successive WTC final, having lost the inaugural edition to New Zealand in 2021.
Australia reached 175-2 in their second innings in the final session of play at the world’s biggest cricket stadium when the players of both teams called it a day.
“It was fantastic right from the word go,” India captain Rohit Sharma said of the series at the presentation ceremony. “You saw how exciting it was. In all the Test matches that we played, there was something in it for everyone.
“After playing good cricket for 40-45 days, we stand here with the result, which we are quite happy with.”
Travis Head (90) and Marnus Labuschagne (63 not out) snuffed out India’s push for a victory on the final day with a stand of 139 after nightwatchman Matthew Kuhnemann fell early for six.
India’s hopes of a third victory in the series hinged on a batting collapse but the wicket at the Narendra Modi Stadium did not deteriorate as much as their spinners would have liked.
Australia had sent out Kuhnemann to open the innings with Head on Sunday after opener Usman Khawaja hurt his knee while fielding. Kuhnemann, who faced 35 balls for his six runs, was unlucky to be given lbw to a Ravichandran Ashwin delivery which, replays confirmed, would have missed the stumps.
Axar Patel denied Head a century by hitting the top of his off stump with a ball from the rough but Australia had reached safety by then.
“That was a pretty flat wicket that one,” said Australia’s stand-in captain Steve Smith, who led the side in the last two Tests after regular captain Pat Cummins flew home to be with his mother who passed away last week.
The match belonged though to Kohli, who hit a masterful knock on day four to end a Test century drought of 1,205 days since his previous ton. The marathon 364-ball knock blocked every chance of a potential defeat for the hosts after Australia posted 480 on a vastly different pitch from the previous three Tests.
“I think in Test cricket I wasn’t able to play with my tempo and template that I have played with for the last 10 years for a while now,” said the man-of-the-match Kohli.
SCOREBOARD
AUSTRALIA (1st Innings) 480 (U. Khawaja 180, C. Green 114; R. Ashwin 6-91)
INDIA (1st Innings) 571 (V. Kohli 186; N. Lyon 3-151, T. Murphy 3-113)
AUSTRALIA (2nd Innings, overnight 3-0):
M. Kuhnemann lbw b Ashwin 6
T. Head b Axar 90
M. Labuschagne not out 63
S. Smith not out 10
EXTRAS (B-4, LB-1, NB-1) 6
TOTAL (for 2 wkts decl., 78.1 overs) 175
DID NOT BAT: U. Khawaja, P. Handscomb,C. Green,A. Carey,M. Starc, N. Lyon, T. Murphy
BOWLING: Ashwin 24-9-58-1, Jadeja 20-7-34-0 (1nb), Shami 8-1-19-0, Axar 19-8-36-1, Yadav 5-0-21-0, Gill 1.1-0-1-0, Pujara 1-0-1-0
RESULT: Match drawn
SERIES: India clinch four-match series 2-1.