From 160 for 2 at tea, Australia reduced India to 217 for 7 in the final session with more than 10 overs remaining in the Test. Their pacers were getting the ball to reverse swing and Nathan Lyon was troubling the batsmen with turn and bounce. The hosts had their foot in the door and they backed themselves to wrap up the Border-Gavaskar series 3-0 in Sydney. But Ajinkya Rahane and Bhuvneshwar Kumar stubbornly stuck it out and saw through the remaining time to salvage a gritty draw for India.
While Aussie skipper, Steve Smith was pleased with the 2-0 series win, he knew the Sydney Test was the one that got away. "It would have been nice to have got the win today. I thought with 90 overs and them having a little dip at us with the bat, there was going to be a good chance to win this game, but today wasn't to be,” he said.
“The wicket didn't break up quite as much as I thought it would, there wasn't much up and down movement with balls that were on the stumps. I thought with Nathan Lyon there were a few that hit the gloves and went straight to ground that on other days would pop up and you get wickets. The boys toiled really hard today and it was disappointing not to get the result in the end.”
Overall, however, Smith was a proud captain. "I'm extremely proud of the boys. I think from the first game in Adelaide the boys showed a lot of heart to go out and play the way we did there,” he said.
“To win that First Test match was extremely big for us to start the series off well and throughout the series there have been tough moments and the boys the way they've held them throughout the series has been terrific. We set out to win this series and we did that 2-0 and we're extremely satisfied with our results.”
Smith said the good batting wickets throughout the series combined with Australia’s poor form in the field, dropping catches, contributed to the fact that they let the Indians get away with two draws.
"I think the wickets have been extremely flat and it's been tough to take 20 wickets,” he said. Throughout this season we've let ourselves down in the field. Perhaps if we had taken a few more chances, it might have been a little bit different. They are not the standards we set as an Australian cricket team. We have a lot of work to do on our fielding with the One-day series and the World Cup coming up to get our standards up where we want them to be,” he said.
There were a lot of positives for the home team in the series, including the incredible form of Smith himself and David Warner. One of the biggest ones for Smith was the advent of Josh Hazlewood, who made his debut in the second Test in Brisbane.
“He’s done a terrific job since he got picked at the Gabba,” Smith said of the 24-year-old fast bowler, “He’s got that extra height and that extra bounce so that’s something that’s very important on Australian wickets. He just gets that extra kiss that extra bounce which can catch the edge of the bat.
Smith was also impressed with the way Mitchell Starc took the onus of the fast bowling in Sydney in the absence of Mitchell Johnson. “I think Mitchell Starc, the way he came back in this match and really took the role that Mitch Johnson plays for us, was amazing. He was very aggressive in this game. He swung the ball early and got the ball to reverse as well at 150 kmph consistently. I’m really proud of the way he came back into the side as well after being left out a couple of games and he’s got a bright future as well.”
