11th Janauary, 2021 has turned into an historic day in Indian cricket. A day that is going to be remembered for centuries.
India has tied the historical third test at the SCG. With the help of Steve Smith’s remarkable 146, Aussies put up a score of 338 on the board. In an answer to that, Indian team came out to bat but were bowled out for just 244. Already having a lead of 94 runs, Australia came out to bat on Day 3 and once again with their run machines, Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne changed the batting gears to put up a score of 312-6 and declared their innings on Day 4 thus letting visitors to chase a humongous total of 407.
As the scenario seemed almost impossible, Rohit Sharma played a crucial 52 runs knock of 98 balls while, Shubhman Gill scored 31 runs of 64 deliveries. After the two openers departed, Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane tackled the Australian attack until the end of Day 4. On the final day, Day 5, India lost an early wicket in the form of Rahane who was only able to manage 4 runs from 18 balls. Then, something crazy happened.
Rishabh Pant came out to bat and probably played the innings of his career as he scored 97 runs of 118 balls which included twelve 4s and three 6s. With this innings, he also broke Syed Kirmani’s record to become the highest run-getter on Australian soil as an Indian wicket keeper-batsman at a mere age of 23. But after he got out, their was a pin-drop silence among the Indian fans. But, who knew that a boy who had failed to prove himself before will make history.
It was Hanuma Vihari who came in to bat. And, stood like a wall in-front of the wicket. The best tribute one can give to the living legend, Rahul Dravid on his birthday. Hanuma Vihari remained not out for 23 runs of 161 balls which included four 4s and he had a S/R of 14.29. On the other hand, after Pujara got out for 77, Ravi Ashwin was the man who steadily played on the other end as he remained not out for 39 runs of 128 balls which included seven 4s as India finished at 334/5 thus bringing the match to a historic tie.
Ravindra Jadeja remains the unsung hero of the match whose spell of 4-66 in the first innings and his direct hit run out to Smith will be remembered as the finest run outs in Test cricket. On the Aussies side, the frustration and dejection was clearly visible on their faces after all, they were not able to win a ‘sure-win’ game of test cricket against India. The bowlers were not even happy and rather, more dejected of their captain, Tim Paine.
His constant unwanted sledging to Indian cricketers and dropping three catches out of which two were consecutively dropped that came from Rishabh Pant’s edge didn’t prove his worth of being an Aussie captain. With this tie, the series remains at 1-1 with the 4th test to be played at Brisbane from 15th to 19th Jan. Regarding injury updates, Hanuma Vihari will be missing the 4th test and also the England series later due to a hamstring tear.