A courageous and injury-hit India pulled off a remarkable draw in a tense third Test against Australia on Monday as they survived against the hosts’ much-vaunted bowling attack to take the series into a decider.
The stars on day five for India were Cheteshwar Pujara (77 off 205), Rishabh Pant (97 off 118), Hanuma Vihari (23* off 161) and Ashwin Ravichandran (39* off 128), who all played key roles with the bat to defy the relentless Australian bowling attack.
They resumed day five at 98/2, needing a further 309 runs after being set a huge 407 to win when Australia declared their second innings at tea Sunday on 312/6.
The visitors clung on to reach 334/5 at the close, still 73 runs adrift, leaving the series locked at 1-1 ahead of the final Test in Brisbane, starting Friday.
‘Test cricket at its best’, ‘incredible grit from India’: Twitter reacts to epic Sydney Test draw
“Our talk coming into this morning was to show character and fight till the end, not to think about the result,” said India skipper Ajinkya Rahane.
“I’m really happy with the way we fought, especially today but throughout the game. There are few areas we can improve on, but special mention to Vihari and Ashwin. The way they batted in the end and showed character was really good to see.”
Here are some of the big stats from the Sydney Test:
(With inputs from AFP)