India clinch Border-Gavaskar Trophy by 2-1 after final Test ends in draw
Indian cricket team on Monday clinched the Border Gavaskar Trophy by 2-1 after the fourth Test match with Australia was declared a draw. The series win became more special as India qualified for the World Test Championship earlier today. The good news for the Indian team came as New Zealand dramatically defeated Sri Lanka in Christchurch, by two wickets.
The fourth Test turned out to be very different from the other three as the batsman had a clear free hand. The centuries by Usman Khawaja and Cameron Green gave Australia a huge push and by the end of the first innings, they had a massive score of 480 on the scoreboard.
Indian batters didn’t flinch seeing the high score and started aggressively with Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill hitting some confident shots in the beginning. After Rohit’s early loss, Gill continued the thrill with Pujara and gave the team strength to stand against the high score.
Gill completed his fifth century and on Day 4 Virat Kohli also followed through and with a whopping score of 186. At the end of the day, Kohli and Axar Patel ensured that India has a lead of 91 runs.
On the final day, Australian batters entered the ground with expectations of draw. Travis Head and Marnus Labuschagne played a good innings of 90 and 63 and on the score of 175-2, the players shook hands to call off the match at the draw.
India will now meet Australia in the finals of the World Test Championship at The Oval on 7 June.
Brief Scores:
Australia: 480 and 175 for 2 in 78.1 overs (Travis Head 90, Marnus Labuschagne 63 not out; Ravichandran Ashwin 1/56, Axar Patel 1/36).
India: 1st innings: 571 all out.
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