IND vs AUS: Smith & Labuschagne Holds Fort As Fourth Test Ends Up In A Stalemate

 Beginning on 158 after Tea for the loss of two wickets for visiting Australian side with two stalwarts Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne batting till the end of the next session.

Australia were already 67 runs ahead of the Indian side going into the final session of the final Test of the series as they were looking to close out play.

The duo of Smith and Labuschagne batted the next 14.1 overs to ensure that they play it safe for their side. The resilience while facing the likes of Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel was good enough to end the Test in a draw.

With not much happening in the final session, skipper Rohit Sharma was hoping to call it even, one over before drinks but opponent's skipper Smith insisted that they wanted to bat a few more overs where they scored just 17 runs in the final session of play.

However, it didn't take much after that as just 4.1 overs were bowled after that before they eventually were on the same page.

More so, Sharma even brought Shubman Gill and veteran Cheteshwar Pujara to try their arms before the series was eventually given to India 2-1.

After two tough pitches in form of Delhi and Indore, Ahmedabad proved to be heaven for the batters with 1226 runs being scored during the five days here.

Winning in this one became less important for India after New Zealand triumphed over Sri Lanka in a last-ball classic, today morning.

This draw didn't have much impact on the standings and India's chances as they won the Border-Gavaskar Trophy along with booking their place for the World Test Championship Final against the very same opposition to be played in June.

Brief Scores:

India: 571-10 (178.5 Overs)

Virat Kohli 186 (364), Shubman Gill 128 (235);

Todd Murphy 3/113, Nathan Lyon 3/151

Australia: 175/2-dec (78.1 Overs)

Travis Head 90 (163), Marnus Labuschagne 63* (213);

Axar Patel 1/36 (19), Ravichandran Ashwin 1/58 (24)

Result: Match drawn