MELBOURNE, (Reuters) – India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Ravichandran Ashwin frustrated Australia’s push for victory on day five of the third test in Melbourne yesterday, but the draw was enough for the hosts to complete an emphatic 2-0 series win with a game in hand.
With Australia needing seven wickets from the final session at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, their bowlers could only manage three as Dhoni and Ashwin survived a nervous final hour to push India to safety.
India were 174-6 when Australia captain Steven Smith conceded the draw with four overs remaining, with Dhoni unbeaten on 24 and Ashwin on eight. The tourists were 210 short of their victory target.
Australia declared on 318-9 at lunch, setting India 384 to win in 70 overs.
For a time after lunch, that appeared more than adequate for the hosts, whose pacemen scythed through India’s top order with three wickets in the first nine overs of their innings.
Opening batsman Shikhar Dhawan was out lbw for a duck off Ryan Harris in the second over and Lokesh Rahul, surprisingly sent in at number three, was caught in the next over for one by Shane Watson who bolted back from the slips when the nervous debutant sent a top edge high from a poor pull shot.
Opener Murali Vijay was dismissed lbw for 11, somewhat harshly by umpire Kumar Dharmasena, off the bowling of Josh Hazlewood before Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane steadied to take the tourists to 104-3 at tea, 280 runs short of their victory target.
Harris removed India’s tenacious Kohli for 54 on the first ball after tea to open the door, but a stubborn Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara dug in for a valuable hour before Mitchell Johnson struck with 19 overs remaining to break the partnership.
He rattled Pujara with a ball that struck him clean on the grill of his helmet, then bowled him two balls later with a slower delivery that jagged back viciously off the seam to have him out for 21.
Perhaps unnerved by the loss of India’s last specialist batsman, Rahane became jumpy, and nearly played on to his stumps off Watson the next ball.
He was out a few overs later, throwing away his wicket for 48 with a horrible pull off Hazlewood that floated straight to Shaun Marsh at midwicket.
Joining Dhoni at the wicket, number eight batsman Ashwin was nearly caught behind on one by Shane Watson who dived across from first slip but put down a sharp one-handed chance.
Both batsmen survived a number of false shots but showed grit to play out the remaining overs.
Australia may ponder the wisdom of their relatively late declaration, having already constructed a lead of 326 runs by stumps on day four, but were in no mood to hurry proceedings with only a draw needed to make the Sydney test starting on Jan. 6 a dead rubber.
Scoreboard
Australia 1st innings 530 (S. Smith 192, R. Harris 74, C. Rogers 57, B. Haddin 55, S. Watson 52; M. Shami 4-138)
India 1st innings 465 (V. Kohli 169, A. Rahane 147, M. Vijay 68; R. Harris 4-70)
Australia 2nd innings (Overnight: 261-7)
- Warner lbw b Ashwin 40
- Rogers b Ashwin 69
- Watson c Dhoni b I. Sharma 17
- Smith c Rahane b U. Yadav 14
- Marsh run out (Kohli) 99
- Burns c Dhoni b I. Sharma 9
- Haddin c Dhoni b U. Yadav 13
- Johnson c Rahane b Shami 15
- Harris c Dhoni b Shami 21
- Lyon not out 1
- Hazlewood not out 0
Extras (lb-13 nb-5 w-2) 20
Total (for 9 wickets declared, 98 overs) 318
Fall of wickets: 1-57 D. Warner,2-98 S. Watson,3-131 S. Smith,4-164 C. Rogers,5-176 J. Burns,6-202 B. Haddin,7-234 M. Johnson,8-303 R. Harris,9-317 S. Marsh Bowling U. Yadav 22 – 3 – 89 – 2(w-1) M. Shami 28 – 4 – 92 – 2(w-1) I. Sharma 20 – 5 – 49 – 2(nb-5) R. Ashwin 28 – 4 – 75 – 2
India 2nd innings (Target: 384 runs)
- Vijay lbw b Hazlewood 11
- Dhawan lbw b Harris 0
- Rahul c Watson b Johnson 1
- Kohli c Burns b Harris 54
- Rahane c S. Marsh b Hazlewood 48
- Pujara b Johnson 21
- Dhoni not out 24
- Ashwin not out 8
Extras (lb-6 nb-1) 7
Total (for 6 wickets, 66 overs) 174
Fall of wickets: 1-2 S. Dhawan,2-5 L. Rahul,3-19 M. Vijay,4-104 V. Kohli,5-141 C. Pujara,6-142 A. Rahane Did not bat: M. Shami, I. Sharma, U. Yadav Bowling M. Johnson 15 – 3 – 38 – 2 R. Harris 16 – 8 – 30 – 2 J. Hazlewood 15 – 3 – 40 – 2 N. Lyon 12 – 0 – 36 – 0 S. Watson 6 – 1 – 14 – 0(nb-1) S. Smith 2 – 0 – 10 – 0 Referees Umpire: Kumar Dharmasena Umpire: Richard Kettleborough TV umpire: John Ward Match referee: Roshan Mahanama Result: Draw
