Brisbane: India on Tuesday became the first team to beat Australia at The Gabba in over 32 years when they defeated the hosts by three wickets in the fourth and final Test and clinched the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2-1.
Chasing 328, India achieved the target in 97 overs with Rishabh Pant remaining unbeaten on 89. Shubman Gill and Cheteshwar Pujara also scored 91 and 56 runs respectively.
West Indies were the last one to beat Australia at what is considered a fortress for the Australian team.
In all, Australia had won 40 out of the 62 games they played at the venue prior to this match, losing just eight.
Four of those losses have come against England while three came against West Indies, the last of which was in 1988. One came against New Zealand.
India have played seven matches, losing five, drawing one and winning the one in the ongoing series.
This is also the first time Australia have not won at The Gabba since 2012.
Back in November 2012, they had drawn against South Africa. Following that draw, they beat England (twice), India, New Zealand, Pakistan (twice) and Sri Lanka.
Australia scored 369 runs in their first innings thanks to the century of Marnus Labushen (108). In response to this, a 123-run partnership for the seventh wicket between Washington Sundar and Shardul Thakur was done by India, bringing Team India to 336 runs. With this, Australia had a 33-run lead on the first innings basis.
In Australia’s second innings, opener Marcus Harris (38) added 89 runs for the opening wicket with David Warner (48). After this, Mohammad Siraj dismissed India in the 31st over, dismissing Marnus Labushen (25) and Matthew Wade (0).
However, Steve Smith scored 55, Cameron Green 37, Tim Paine 27 and Pat Cummins 28 to lead Australia to 294 runs in the second innings. With this, Team India got a target of 328 runs for victory. Mohammad Siraj took 5 from India, while Shardul Thakur took 4. Apart from them, Washington Sundar got 1 success.
The Indian team got off to chasing the target as Rohit Sharma (7) got its first setback. Subsequently, Shubman Gill took over the team by sharing 114 runs for the second wicket with Cheteshwar Pujara. Gill (91) missed his first international century.
After this, captain Ajinkya Rahane, who came to bat, did batting fast, but could not make more than 24 runs in 22 balls. At the same time, Pujara partnered with Rishabh Pant to bring India closer to victory.
Washington Sundar (22) shared a crucial 53-run partnership with Pant and gave Team India a thrilling 3-wicket victory in the draw going. Rishabh Pant, the hero of the match, remained unbeaten on 89 runs with the help of 10 boundaries in 138 balls. Pat Cummins took 4, while Nathan Lyon took 2 for Australia.
