On Saturday, Virat Kohli defied Australia, giving India hope of an incredible victory in the World Test Championship final match that was held at The Oval.
At the end of the fourth day of the match, India’s score was 164-3 and they needed an additional 280 runs to achieve what would be a record-breaking total of 444. The fifth and final day of the match was scheduled to take place on Sunday.
Ajinkya Rahane was also undefeated on 20 after he had previously commemorated his first Test in over a year by top-scoring with 89 in India’s first-innings 296. However, star batsman Kohli was still not out on 44, while Ajinkya Rahane was also unbeaten on 20.
Only four teams in the 146-year history of Test cricket have scored more than 400 runs to win in the fourth innings, with the West Indies’ 418-7 against Australia at St. John’s in 2003 being the highest such total. This statistic served to emphasize the magnitude of the challenge that India faced.
To win the one major global men’s trophy that has escaped Australia so far, they need to take only seven more wickets on Sunday. This will put them in a euphoric mood heading into the first match of the Ashes series, which will be played against England at Edgbaston the following week.
The captain of India’s batting lineup, Rohit Sharma, struck numerous boundaries, one of which was a pulled six off of left-arm fast Mitchell Starc. These runs helped set the stage for a difficult chase.
At the stroke of tea, though, opening partner Shubman Gill was caught by Cameron Green for a catch that many people believe should not have been made. Green, who had previously taken a spectacular catch to remove Rahane in the first innings, dove low to his left after receiving an edge from Scott Boland.
Richard Kettleborough, an official with the television broadcast, was consulted by the on-field umpires about the decision.
In addition, the’soft signal’ had only recently eliminated, which meant that Kettleborough had no on-field instruction to follow in order to determine whether or not the ball had touched the grass after Green had gotten hold of it.
“Kohli, Kohli, Kohli”
Kettleborough ultimately decided in favor of Australia, which prompted screams of “cheats, cheats, cheats” from the massed ranks of India supporters in the audience of roughly 25,000 as the verdict was shown up on The Oval’s large screens. Kettleborough finally found in favor of Australia.
India was looking to go one better after losing the first 2021 World T20 final in Southampton to New Zealand. Rohit and Cheteshwar Pujara continued to assault Australia’s quicks throughout the match.
On a field that was wearing out, spin proved to be Rohit’s downfall. When he missed an attempted sweep against Nathan Lyon, who was bowling from outside the wicket, the batsman was given out lbw for 43 runs off of 60 balls, despite the fact that he reviewed the decision.
Pujara, who is known for being a patient run-scorer, tried a spectacular upper-cut off Australia’s skipper Pat Cummmins but only guided a routine catch to wicketkeeper Alex Carey as he fell for 27. This resulted in India losing another wicket without scoring another run.
However, Kohli was able to retake the momentum for India by clipping and driving Starc for boundaries. He was applauded by his loving supporters in the bleachers who sang “Kohli, Kohli, Kohli” when he accomplished this feat.
Earlier, Australia’s second innings total was at 270-8 when Cummins took the decision to declare.
Marnus Labuschagne, the top-ranked batsman in the world for the Test format, was out for 41 after he tentatively edged Umesh Yadav to Pujara at first slip. Pujara was able to make the catch.
Ravindra Jadeja, who on Friday had bowled well enough to account for first-innings century-makers Steve Smith and Travis Head, bowled brilliantly again, with the left-arm spinner getting Green out for 25 as part of a return 3-58 in 23 overs.
It’s possible that India is now second-guessing their choice to play an additional seamer because of Jadeja’s meager haul, which caused them to skip Ravichandran Ashwin, the top-ranked Test bowler in the world, in favor of playing an extra seamer.
However, Carey, who was dropped in the slips on 41, handled Pujara very well and led the team in scoring with 66 not out. This came after building a key seventh-wicket partnership of 93 runs with Starc, who was a strong hitter (41).