There is this famous saying that ‘Lightning doesn’t strike twice’ meaning bad/unlikely things won’t happen again and again. The Australian cricket team found themselves on the wrong side of this saying in the recently concluded Border Gavaskar trophy. After failing to skittle out the injury hit Indian team on the final day of third test at Sydney they failed to defend their Gabba fortress.

After first Test of the series where the Aussies dismissed the Indians for 36 runs in the second innings to brutally end otherwise closely fought game in one session, they were considered favourites with Virat Kohli, the Indian captain and their best batsman returned to India for birth of his first child and Shami injured. With Ishant Sharma already missing the whole tour India had only Jasprit Bumrah of their hugely successful pace trio of recent past.

But the tables turned at MCG on boxing day Test with India’s ‘Ajinkya’ stand-in captain Rahane leading from the front with a fine century. The decision to go with 5 bowlers also worked out as the Aussies were restricted under 300 in both innings. The 89 runs lead in the first innings, result of Rahane’s century and Jadeja’s half century meant they never had a big target to chase. But in that victory India lost another bowler to injury.

With the series poised at 1-1, one of the best Aussie batsman, David Warner returned to team from injury. A timely boost for them. Though he didn’t have the best of the game, their best batsman, Steve Smith scored an impressive century to set the stage for 400 plus total before Jadeja pegged them back to 338. In reply the Indians managed only 244 with their highest scorer Pujara coming under criticism for his slow batting. In their second essay the Aussies batted well and at a good pace to set a target of 407 runs in 132 min overs. India in reply were 98/2 at the end of day 4. What followed on day 5 was something special. India lost their captain Rahane early and in walks Rishabh Pant, who couldn’t keep in second innings due to elbow injury suffered while batting in first innings, at no 5 to bat with Pujara. Pujara, despite the criticism was his self, occupying the crease and wearing down the Aussie bowlers. Pant played an attacking innings, briefly raising Indian hopes of an unlikely win. Unfortunately, he fell for 97 and in walked an out of form Hanuma Vihari. With tea in sight and both batsmen batting without much difficulty, Vihari pulled his hamstring. On any other day, he would have retired hurt. But with the next two batsman, Ashwin with back injury and Jadeja most probably unable to bat with finger injury, he decided to continue. But Pujara who was rock solid until then departed to a peach of a delivery from Josh Hazlewood. Ashwin was the next batsman in and Jadeja too was padded up in the dressing room due to the brittle lower order that India had. But what followed was something the Aussies never expected. With such adversity, the two Indian batsmen dug in and batted out more than 40 overs to earn a famous draw. With Vihari unable to run as well as unable to play Lyon due to his hamstring, the two batsmen decided to play out the overs from each end. Ashwin playing Lyon and Vihari playing the seamers. The Aussie captain Tim Paine in desperation also tried sledging Ashwin for which he got criticised later. But nothing worked for them. The lighting had struck and India escaped with a famous draw in Sydney. Vihari will certainly remember his 23 of 161 deliveries as well as any century he has scored or will score.

As the series moved to Brisbane, a venue where the Aussies had not lost for 32 years, India’s bowlers that played in the first test at Adelaide were all injured. Sydney draw claimed Bumrah, Jadeja, Ashwin leaving India with no choice but to select a bowling lineup of Siraj (2 tests), Shardul (1 test in which he had bowled 10 deliveries), Saini (1 test), Natarajan and Washington Sundar (both debut). With Vihari too missing out, India just had Rahane and Pujara playing all 4 Test matches of the series. With Tim Paine winning the toss, Aussies scored 369, their highest score of the series. Marnus Labuschagne was star with bat scoring a well compiled 108. In reply India were 186/6, with all recognised batsmen back in pavilion. But Sundar and Shardul defied the Aussies with 123 run stand reducing the deficit to just 33 runs at the end of the Indian innings. It was still advantage Australia but Mohd Siraj playing as a leader of the attack in only his third test, claimed his maiden 5 wicket haul and with Shardul Thakur, who himself claimed 4 wickets restricted the Aussies to 294. With 328 to win, India ended day 4 on 4/0 in 1.5 overs as rain forced an early stop to days play leaving the visitors 324 to get on day 5. With the way they saved Sydney Test, Indians seemed positive but the Aussies too were upbeat because of their record at Gabba. On day 5, Aussies started well with Cummins claiming Rohit Sharma early, but that was only wicket that they could claim in the first session. Pujara and Gill negated the Aussies the whole session in their own style. Pujara was his own ‘rock solid’ self with just 8 runs in 90 odd balls. Gill fell in the second session for well made 91 missing out on a deserved century while Pujara continued in same vein with Rahane and Pant. Captain Rahane had a brief but free scoring innings of 24 ultimately falling for playing one shot too many. Pant joined Pujara in the middle to stitch an important partnership that ruled out India’s loss and left the game with only two possible outcomes. By the time Pujara was dismissed, India needed 100 runs in maximum 19.4 overs at a much gettable 5 rpo. Pujara’s innings wasn’t eye pleasing but one filled with grit and determination. He was hit by 11 sharp bouncers on his body but he still was calm and concentrated at the job at hand and tiring the bowlers. Mayank Agarwal, who came in next, looked good but couldn’t do much in the chase. Pant, then with Washington Sundar kept the required run rate in check until they both exploded with Sundar pulling impressive Cummins for a six and edging for a four, just wide off and over slip cordon. The next Lyon over Pant started with two powerful boundaries scoring 15 runs putting the match beyond the Aussies. With 10 runs needed, Sundar departed to an attempted reverse sweep, missing the ball and getting bowled. His first innings partner, Shardul followed him quickly in an attempt to close the match early. With 3 runs needed, Saini walked in to join Pant. First ball was a delivery down the leg side which Pant couldn’t connect. The next ball which was the last ball of the over, Hazlewood bowled it full angled across off stump.  Pant pushed it down the ground, calling Saini for three, forgetting that Saini had a groin injury but fortunately the ball reached the fence much to the delight of the Indian players and the Indian public. The Aussies had faced a similar fate to the second time in the series. The lightning had struck them twice.

This series proved that Test cricket can still provide unrivalled entertainment and the twists in the game in each session can pull the fans to watch the game. The whole cricketing fraternity including former players, fans either Indian, Australian or neutral were glued to the game. The Aussies may have lost the series and may have been criticised for loosing despite their favourable conditions, but they played well too. They will rue missing some chances in both the Sydney and Gabba Tests, which proved decisive for them.

P.S. I wrote this post on 20th Jan, but accidentally didn’t publish it. So here I am one week late to post it.