Pant, Gill gunpowder brings down fortress Gabba as India retain Border-Gavaskar Trophy

Brief Scores: Australia 369 & 294 lost to India 336 & 329/7 (Pant 89*, Gill 91, Pujara 56; Cummins 4-55) by 3 wickets

Shubman Gill, Cheteswar Pujara and Rishabh Pant turned into the latest flagbearers of India's never-say-die spirit on an injury-riddled tour that has borne witness to heroes arising from thin air. For starters, Gill (91) and Pujara (56) married their contrasting methods to engineer polar-opposite fifties as India laid the bricks of the vein-bursting 328-run chase they pulled off to snatch the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2-1 fair and square. But this David vs Goliath heist wouldn't have registered its nerve-wracking epilogue if not for Pant's blockbuster of a counter-attack (89*) that jostled India home from a tricky territory as they breached Australia's once impregnable fortress that is Gabba after an unbeaten streak worth 32 years. That they defied the odds in the gnawing absence of cornerstones of the likes of Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and many a stalwart rubberstamps the fact that the future of Indian cricket is in safe hands. 

Gill and Pujara, two batsmen lying on the converse ends of the spectrum of experience, put their noses to the grindstone after India lost Rohit Sharma early in the morning session. Pat Cummins, who else? He probed Rohit in and around the off-stump, the famed hallways of hesitation, as a peach of an away-seamer kissed the outside edge. 

The wide cracks were presumed to unleash their wrath on the fifth day but the surface, on the contrary, showed little demons in the first session. Or so it seemed in the way Gill caressed drives on the up and transferred his weight back to punch soothingly off the backfoot. While the exuberance of youth kept the scoreboard ticking, the battle-hardened Pujara did what he does best to blunt Australia's pace trio chiming in at full throttle. They did manage to upset his rhythm with a well-laid out bouncer barrage which even led to a couple of body blows and one flush on the helmet, but Pujara not for once let his guard down. In fact, he consumed over a hundred balls to strike his first boundary as India added 79/1 till Lunch, with Gill having breached the fifty milestone. In the process, he bettered Sunil Gavaskar's long-standing record to become the youngest Indian opening batsman to score a half-century in the fourth innings of a Test. 

India clinched the honours in the morning session but the hosts aided a great deal in their domination by going on the defensive far too early. Despite the surface not exactly wreaking havoc, there was a fair bit of juice in there for Nathan Lyon to extract. But he bowled in a negative leg-stump channel ala R Ashwin and was dealt with without any tremors, save for when he hit Pujara's pad in front of the stumps and Australia opted for the review. The ball-tracker adjudged umpire's call on leg-stump but what stood out was the third umpire's decision on how he wasn't offering a shot, even when it was evident that he was blocking with bat right next to the pad.

Australia persisted with their bodyline ploy post Lunch but Gill took the bull by the horn as Mitchell Starc was razed for three consecutive boundaries.  The party began with a no-holds-barred hook for six, followed by a jumping upper-cut for four and an authoritative pull in front of square. 20 runs in that over was the most Starc has conceded in an over in Test cricket and he, reasonably so, didn't bowl again in the session. 

With Gill, now in the nineties, operating in a league of his own, a lapse in concentration was always around the corner with the adrenaline surging manifold. It was Lyon who drew the false stroke as Gill flashed loosely to depart nicking to slip, bringing a 114-run partnership for the second wicket to close. One couldn't help but wonder if India promote Rishabh Pant ahead of Ajinkya Rahane to up the ante with an eye at victory but the management thought otherwise as the skipper took guard in the middle. Rahane assumed the mantle of scoring at a fair clip, motoring to 24 off 22 before falling prey to the classic 'one shot too many' as he botched a ramp over the cordon to edge Cummins behind.

Australia blew up a massive opportunity when Pant was handed a lease of life at 16 by Tim Paine, who has blown hot and cold both in front of and behind the sticks. The left-handed dasher couldn't resist the temptation to shimmie down the track and punish Lyon, but missed the flighted off-break by a mile as even Paine failed to fetch it and inflict the stumping. Pujara, meanwhile, ate up 196 deliveries to tick off fifty, his slowest ever in Tests. Courtesy his stonewalling endeavour, India entered Tea with a tight grip on the proceedings at 183/3, with a daunting yet manageable 145 required to win. However, Australia were still hanging by a thread and the second new ball was their last resort to storm back into the contest. Cummins kindled the glimmer of hope with only the second ball from the pristine cherry as he tailed a length ball back into Pujara to trap him leg-before. It certainly looked high to the naked eye but India's review went down the drain as replays confirmed the ball clipping the leg-stump bail. 

The result was far from a foregone conclusion as India needed a hundred runs with 21 overs still left in the day. Pant laid into Australia's new-ball merchants, brandishing a string of sweetly-timed drives through covers to nudge India towards victory. It was an emphatic harbinger of his audacity when in spite of being beaten all ends up by a vicious offie from Lyon that spat from a crack, he put his dancing shoes on the very next ball to pummel him flat over long-on. He raised his bat to a 100-ball fifty but India couldn't rejoice the moment for long as Mayank Agarwal, having drilled a couple of meaty punches to jet off the mark, played a rash, inexcusable shot to lob a sitter to short cover off Cummins. 

Pant enjoyed another slice of fortune as Cameron Green at sweeper cover was late to react to his skewed loft. The equation was 53 runs in 10 overs as India fancied their chances with the firepower of Pant and Washington Sundar alive and kicking at the crease. Debutant Sundar made mincemeat of Cummins as he hooked him high and handsome over fine leg before a fat edge rolled down third man to compound Australia's misery. Pant then channelized his street-smartness as he shuffled across his stumps and lap-scooped Lyon for four before sweeping with brute force to club another boundary over mid-wicket.

In what was a nail-biting twist in the tale, Sundar ricochet a heedless reverse sweep on to his stumps to perish with India within touching distance of the target. Pant cared little for the faint-hearted as he went after the glory shot with India just three away from creating history but they heaved a huge sigh of relief as it fell in no man's land. He then crunched a low shooter from Hazlewood straight back past him to set the seal on what will be remembered as arguably the mightiest watershed moment in Indian cricket for as long as we live.

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