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#INDvAUS 3rd Test: Draw for decider

Australians Handscomb, Marsh grind it out to deny India win in third Test as series remains 1-1 going into final encounter

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Australia captain Steve Smith (right) is clean bowled by India’s Ravindra Jadeja (not in picture) on the final day of the third Test in Ranchi on Monday
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Ranchi's favourite son Mahendra Singh Dhoni arrived to watch Test match action in his city for the first time on Monday after captaining Jharkhand in the Vijay Hazare Trophy in New Delhi until Sunday. However, his presence in the stadium was not enough to inspire India to force a victory.

Even the presence of captain Virat Kohli for almost the entire duration of the Australian innings, after he was out of the field for nearly 100 overs in their first essay following the shoulder injury sustained on first morning, could not do wonders to an Indian victory.

Kohli's bowlers could not be faulted for not trying. They did everything they could including bringing Ravichandran Ashwin from the southern end that can be called Jadeja end, for he took all his wickets in this match – nine of them – from there.

Jadeja even bowled four unrewarding overs from the Northern end, the place from where the pacers ran in hard to extract bounce while the odd balls kept low, and also created rough marks for Jadeja to exploit throughout.

Despite all these efforts, the third Test ended in an honourable draw for the Australians, for whom 25-year-old Peter Handscomb and 33-year-old experienced Shaun Marsh were the saviours. Australia finished at 204/6, ahead by 52 runs, when players decided to call off the match and shake hands with two overs remaining.

Handscomb may be only in his first season of Test cricket but he batted like a seasoned campaigner to grind out the Indian bowlers, carving out an unbeaten 72. Handscomb and Marsh did to an extent what Cheteshwar Pujara and Wriddhiman Saha did for India the previous day.

Handscomb and Marsh batted together for nearly four hours, and used two-thirds of the day's quota of overs, to share 124 for the fifth wicket. They batted an entire session between lunch and tea to save the match for their country and take the series into the fourth and final Test in Dharamshala starting on Saturday with honours even at one-all.

Contrary to the expectations, the pitch played well until the end of the fifth day. It was good for batting. Australia took a leaf out of the Pujara-Jadeja partnership and had Handscomb and Marsh to do it for them.

The first sign of the match ending in a draw came in the first hour and a half when overnight not out opener Matt Renshaw and captain Steve Smith blocked almost everything that the bowlers sent down. Kohli started the day with Jadeja bowling from his favourite end and the pacers Umesh Yadav and Ishant Sharma from the other end.

Just when Renshaw and Smith looked like batting out the first session, Sharma sent back Renshaw with one that kept low and trapped him in front of the middle stump. In the next over, Jadeja, who bowled non-stop for 14.4 overs in the morning, dismissed Steve Smith, who offered no shot to a ball that pitched outside the leg stump and turned sharply to remove his off-stump. These two quick wickets gave India the hope of pushing for a victory as Australia were still behind India's lead.

Perhaps, when the ball was hard, Kohli should have given more overs to Ashwin in the morning rather than bring him on for only one over just before lunch. The pressure they could have created would have sent Australia on the backfoot.

But what followed was a lesson on how to bat on the final day of a Test in India. Handscomb and Marsh took the team to within three runs of India's lead at tea. Once the deficit was wiped out in the final session and Australia took lead, there was little that India could do.

When Handscomb and Marsh were finally separated, after both reached their half-centuries, and Ashwin took his second wicket of the match removing first innings centurion Glenn Maxwell, they came too late in the day with only a handful of overs remaining.

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