Indian team replied back in style for Australia’s first innings score of 480 runs. Shubman Gill on Day 3 scored century, while at the end of play on Day 4, Virat Kohli brought up his 28th Test century to take team India to the 571 mark in the first innings.
Australian wicketkeeper, Alex Carey stated that Kohli didn’t give the Aussies any chance on the good batting wicket, and utilised the Narendra Modi Stadium’s surface to score a big hundred.
Carey on Indian ace batter 75th International 100 at Ahmedabad Test-
“No surprise, he [Virat Kohli] got in a decent batting track, went big, and showed how to do it. He’s a class player and didn’t give us a chance,”
“We knew it was going to be tough bowling to Virat. We were able to contain him as much as we could and try to take wickets around him,” said the Australian wicketkeeper.
Kohli’s century in a longer format of the game almost came after a gap of three years and five months, and the whole cricketing fraternity stood up to congratulate the Indian maestro blistering knock in the fourth test match. The former Indian skipper was dismissed for 186 runs by Todd Murphy, and with Kohli’s wicket, the home side folded their first innings at Ahmedabad Test.
“The keeper said that expecting the spectators present to rally behind Kohli is a known thing, and he was ready for the noise decibel levels to go up,”
“Anytime you come to India and Virat’s next in or batting, you know it will be noisy, and he played well today. But, I thought we hung in well,” he further added.
What was initially doubted as the rank turner before the first ball bowled on March 9 at Narendra Modi Stadium, but later turned out to be a batter’s paradise in comparison to the initial three matches in India vs Australia test series. As Rohit Sharma was the only century scorer after the end of three test matches, but the fourth game saw four centuries scored after the end of Day 4 play.
“It is going to be a massive challenge. We will focus on that first hour of cricket, and then, we’ll see how that unfolds,” he stated for the last day of play in the fourth test match.
“I thought we did well today to minimise the lead. They [India] don’t have Shreyas [he left the ground for scans and did not return] batting, so we were able to have a change of innings which was nice later in the day,” concluded Carey.
While, on Day 5, till the news was written, Australia is on 152/1. Travis Head and Marnus Labuschagne are on the crease with 90 and 51 scores respectively.
Lunch on Day 5 of the 4th Test.
Australia 73/1, trail India (571) by 18 runs.
Scorecard – https://t.co/KjJudHw47Q #INDvAUS @mastercardindia pic.twitter.com/8a1MQsx5Gq
— BCCI (@BCCI) March 13, 2023
Earlier, New Zealand won the first test match against Sri Lanka and with that result Men in Blue has reached the World Test Championship (WTC) Final, now they will meet Australia in the WTC Final in England. The ‘ Baggy Greens already qualified for the marquee event after they avoided the clean sweep in the four-test match series against the Asian Giants.