Sports, in general, teaches us that it’s never over till it’s actually over. It tells us that anything can happen and nothing can be ruled out till the end. But sometimes our mind overrules that fact and tells us that it’s just not possible to rescue it from this situation. At the end of day 4 in the 3rd Test of the Border Gavaskar Series, It was kind of that situation. Team India finished the day at 98/2 chasing the mammoth target of 407 with Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane at the crease.
More than the mammoth target, it was a daunting prospect of facing the Australian attack consisting of Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazelwood and Pat Cummins for the minimum allocated overs for Day 5 i.e. 97 overs. Not only that India was also hurt by injuries to Rishabh Pant and Ravindra Jadeja due to which the duo didn’t even take the field in the second innings. All the Things just seemed like pitted against them.
Everything that could go wrong had gone wrong. There is an ever-growing injury list, a lot of dropped catches, various decisions going against your side, the deplorable crowd situation, and plenty more. During a long tour, It’s easy to think that everything is going against us & just feel deflated and defeated. But this side has shown again and again that when they are pushed to the walls then they bounce back even stronger and they believed when most of the people didn’t.
Pujara was coming into this innings with some pressure. Despite being the hero of the previous series, he didn’t have the greatest of tours till now. He got to his first half-century of the series in the first innings but was heavily criticized for his “intent”. He was criticized for playing the way that got him thousands of Test runs and many people unfairly targeted him despite the fact that he was the joint highest scorer in the first innings. He came out determined and stuck to what he knows the best. He ground out a classy inning of 77 from 205 balls and was looking assured throughout the time he was there. He even hit Cummins for three consecutive fours in an over. He showed yet again how valuable he is to this team.
Pant always seems like one whose head is on the chopping board. Let’s accept that he’s not the best keeper around but he has shown time and time again that he’s good enough to be in the side as a batsman. When he came out to bat after the early fall of Captain Rahane’s wicket, It never felt like the third result of the win was ever possible. But with his flamboyant knock of 97, he made that result seem possible. He changed the course of the match and his game really made Australia look for other options. He instilled a belief in fans all around the world that all three results are possible & that’s something not many people can boast of doing. In a way, Pant’s innings was the perfect Yin to Pujara’s Yang.
Hanuma Vihari was also under huge pressure. He didn’t have a great series and was playing for his place. There were people who didn’t even want him to play this Test and wanted the team to pick KL Rahul over him. He failed to get a big knock in the first innings and even worse was the fact that he had got run out in that. He came out just a couple of overs before the second new ball was taken and to make matters worse, he ended up injuring his hamstring while taking a quick single. Things took a more drastic turn when Pujara got out the very next over and he was left with one leg & the tail in order to save this Test match. He showed a lot of guts and grit throughout his innings of 23 from 161 balls and one cannot stop appreciating his knock. His concentration was immense and he managed to guide India towards safety. He calmly negotiated every challenge thrown out at him and deserves to be slotted back into the lineup when he comes back fit.
Ravichandran Ashwin at the post day PC after Day 4 had said that Team India has an opportunity to show what mettle they are made of and he himself backed up his words with a performance that was filled with a lot of grit and determination. He walked out to the crease at the fall of Pujara’s wicket and from the beginning, Australia targeted him with a lot of short balls. He is one of the better players of short ball in this team and is a sort of compulsive puller and hooker but the match situation was such that he had to curb that instinct and take the blows on his body. One of the sharpest blows was handed out by Cummins which hit his ribs. He was in pain but he remained unflustered and resolute in defence. He took the blows on his chins and kept on defending ball after ball. The way he negotiated Nathan Lyon was just a masterclass in itself. He never allowed Lyon to dominate him and displayed a great way to handle him. Later on, we came to know from his Wife, Prithi about how he was also fighting terrible back pain and he was in discomfort throughout the innings. It adds more value to his already memorable knock of 39 off 128 balls and makes us all be in awe of his determination to guide India to a Draw.
The partnership between Vihari and Ashwin was of 62 runs made off 259 deliveries and they managed to bat out almost four hours, in the end, to ensure that India got a famous Draw in the New Year’s Test at Sydney Cricket Ground in 2020. They showed a lot of application and grit throughout the innings. They kept egging each other on in Tamil throughout the course of this partnership. They also shared the responsibilities of facing the bowling from one end for a good period of time as Ashwin was negotiating Lyon and Vihari was negotiating the quicks from the other end. This effort was something that showed that this team would never lay down and would keep on fighting till the end. It would surely be classified as an effort that led India to a famous hard-fought draw and a tale, I am sure many of us would proudly tell to our future generations. And Let’s not forget the key lesson that this match and in particular this day taught us all. “In Cricket or Life, It’s never over till it’s actually over.”
