The touring party began Day 5 at 3/0 with Travis Head and Matthew Kuhnemann at the crease. Indian spin maestro Ravichandran Ashwin removed Kuhnemann early. However, Marnus Labuschagne and Head then anchored the innings and brought up their respective half-centuries.
Axar Patel removed Head for 90, but Steve Smith (10*) Labuschagne (63*) remained unbeaten at the crease before both teams decided to settle for a draw. With the result, India managed to clinch the series 2-1. Further, the hosts had already booked their place for the World Test Championship (WTC) final after Sri Lanka lost against New Zealand in their Test match on Monday.
During the proceedings, Indian star Virat Kohli’s hilarious conversation with his teammates was caught in the stump microphone. It all happened when Labuschagne was arriving in the middle, and Kohli was talking with Indian players while standing near the stumps.
The former India skipper was heard saying, “10-minute door hai. Plane mein pehle hi baith jaunga. Main udaunga aaj (Just 10 minutes away. I am gonna fly the plane today).” The contest behind his funny comment was not clear but it appeared that he was having some friendly banter with his teammates during the short break.
Here is the video:
Notably, Kohli finished as the highest scorer in the match with 186 runs during India’s first innings. The Delhi-lad had to wait for a long time as it was Kohli’s first century in the longest format since 2019. He now has 28 Test tons to his name and 75 overall in the international arena.
“Relief from the point of view that I could play the way I wanted to play. I was happy with my defence. I am not in a space now where I will go out and prove someone wrong. I also need to justify why I am there on the field. When I was 60 not out, we decided to play positively. But we lost Shreyas to injury and were a batter short. So, we decided to play time. They were good with the ball and placed some good fields. We got a bit of a lead and gave ourselves some sort of a chance,” said Kohli after receiving the ‘Player of the Match’ award.
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