On the fourth morning of the current Hyderabad Test, Ollie Pope’s brilliant effort helped England not only create a miraculous recovery but also put India on the back foot. Spinners were not at their best as Pope marshalled the bottom order and raced to 196.
India was assigned a challenging goal of 231 runs, and after a promising start, they lost three wickets after lunch. Axar Patel was moved up the order to counter the danger posed by left-arm spinners. Tom Hartley has taken all three wickets to fall.
These are uncharted terrain for the Indian team, which has been dominant at home for the last decade. The last time India had to chase a target above 150 was in 2013, when they chased 155 against Australia in Delhi to win the series 4-0.
How India’s last 150-plus home chase in Tests panned out
The Australian team faced several controversies both on and off the field throughout the series. They struggled to accept pitches that provided significant help to the spinners. They were competitive in the first innings, stumbled their way to 262, with Peter Siddle the only hitter to reach 50.
Nathan Lyon then stepped up and destroyed the home squad with seven wickets, limiting the hosts to 272, restoring parity after the first innings. Australia, without regular captain Michael Clarke for this match, had a chance to pull away.
The batters faced a tough time against the team of Ravichandran Ashwin, Pragyan Ojha, and Ravindra Jadeja. These three together took nine wickets! Australia was left with just 164. Jadeja really shone, snatching five wickets on his own. The task for India was tricky- they needed 155 runs to win on a pitch that was getting hard to bat on.
Nathan Lyon and Glenn Maxwell opened with the new ball, and when the latter knocked out Murali Vijay, there was a ray of optimism in the Australian camp. However, Cheteshwar Pujara, who started the batting, demonstrated precisely how to play on a shifting pitch, scoring an unbeaten 82 from 92 deliveries. He had excellent company in Virat Kohli, who was removed at 41, and when he had brought his team to relative safety.
There was, however, a brief hiccup when Nathan Lyon caught Sachin Tendulkar and a youthful Ajinkya Rahane for one run each. But then MS Dhoni marched in and completed the game without any further complications.
India celebrated its inaugural 4-0 victory in a Test series combo, thanks to their spin bowlers wreaking havoc within Australia’s squad. Ravindra Jadeja, triumphed as man of the match, while Ravichandran Ashwin, gathering up 29 wickets, emerged as the series superstar.
“Credit goes to everyone; the last one and a half years have not been great for us in Tests, but they showed a lot of character. You need to battle it out. That was the case in this series,” captain MS Dhoni said at the end of the match.