Half-centuries from Travis Head and Marnus Labuschagne helped Australia draw the fourth and final Test of the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy against India at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Monday. With this, India has won the four-match Test series 2-1 and have retained the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Australia started the final session on 158/2 after Tea, with Labuschagne (56*) and Steve Smith (0*) unbeaten. Indian bowlers failed to produce a wicket in the final session and both sides agreed to end the match as a draw with Australia at 175/2, with Labuschagne (63*) and Smith (10*) unbeaten at the crease. Ravichandran Ashwin and Axar Patel took a wicket each for India. Earlier after Lunch, Australia resumed their innings with a score of 73/1, Travis Head and Marnus Labuschagne were on the pitch with scores of 45* and 22*, respectively. The second session was almost an exact copy of the first session with a minor change in detail. Ravichandran Ashwin struck the first blow in the first hour of the game, but after that, the effortless Australian batting did not allow Indian bowlers to gain any sort of momentum in their favour.
In the second session, the boy from Gujarat, Axar Patel struck the second blow sending Travis Head (90) back to the pavilion. The nervous nineties seemed to get into Travis’s mind as he went to play a drive leaving a wide gap open between his pad and bat. The ball turned sharply and went crashing into the stumps. Axar Patel became the fastest Indian player to pick up 50 wickets in terms of balls bowled (2,205 balls).
Axar broke the 139-run stand between Labuschagne and Head. Australia was 153/2 at that point. Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne went on to carry Australia for the remaining session. In the first session, as a night watchman, Kuhnemann (6) failed to survive for as long as Australia would have hoped for. It was Ashwin who picked up his wicket. Australia was 14/1 at that point.
Head and Labuschagne carried Aussies through the remainder of the session without any loss of wickets.
Earlier, India gained a 91-run lead over Australia after they were bundled out for 571 in their first innings. Virat Kohli brought an end to his century drought in Test cricket, scoring his 75th international century and his 28th in Tests. This was his first century in Tests since November 2019. In his marathon effort, he scored 186 runs in 364 balls, consisting of 15 fours. Shubman Gill also scored a century, smashing 128 runs in 235 balls. Axar (79), KS Bharat (44) and Cheteshwar Pujara (42) also played some important knocks, which helped India gain a lead over Australia.
