Sydney [Australia], January 5 (ANI): Following his side’s win over India at Sydney during the final Test, Australian batter Travis Head expressed happiness at being able to contribute to his team’s win and said that he is looking to a nice 10-day off.
Head and Beau Webster finished Australia’s long wait for a Border-Gavaskar Trophy, putting on a half-century stand to win the match by six wickets at Sydney, helping the Aussies win the series by 1-3.
Speaking after the match, Head said, “Yeah, just nice to contribute. I do not worry too much about what the result might be coming here today. It is been two pretty good teams and I felt like if I could contribute in some way, that would be great. So yeah, it is nice. I actually realise I is in the Test championship as well. I have forgotten about that in all what has been a crazy three days, it has been busy and I am looking forward to 10 days off.”
“My approach was same as always, and if it was to be, it is to be and I felt like I am moving well. I have been disappointed in the last couple of innings to find ways to get out, but knew that if I could just build a little partnership with Uzzie (Usman Khawaja) and just take a little bit of momentum out, same with Beau. So we knew with a short total, all you need to do is take a little bit of momentum and I guess you see that in their body language and then you get down to 20 or 30 and yeah, it was nice the way it played out,” he added.
Head ended as the leading run-getter in the series with 448 runs in five Tests and nine innings at an average of 56.00, with two centuries and a fifty. His best score was 152.
Coming to the SCG Test, India won the toss and elected to bat first. India was off to a disappointing start yet again as the top order threw away their wickets, especially Virat Kohli (17) who continued his struggles with outside off-stump deliveries.
However, the fight by Rishabh Pant (40 in 98 balls, with three fours and a six), Ravindra Jadeja (26 in 95 balls, with three fours) and skipper Jasprit Bumrah (22 in 17 balls, with three fours and a six) pushed India to 185/10 in 72.2 overs.
Scott Boland (4/31) was the pick of the bowlers for the Aussies and once again a thorn in the eyes of Indian batters. Mitchell Starc took 3/49 while Pat Cummins got 2/37.
In their first innings, Australia lost wickets at regular intervals even when Jasprit Bumrah (2/33) walked off the field due to an injury scare. Under the stand-in skipper Virat, India continued to dominate the Aussies, skittling them out for just 181 runs and taking a four-run lead. Debutant Beau Webster (57 in 105 balls, with five fours) had a fine showing with the bat and Steve Smith (33 in 57 balls, with four boundaries and a six) showed some attacking intent.
Prasidh Krishna (3/42) and Mohammed Siraj (3/51) were the top bowlers for India.
With a lead of four runs, India was off to a promising start thanks to Yashasvi Jaiswal (22 in 35 balls, with four boundaries) and KL Rahul (13) as they put on a 45-run stand. But Boland (6/45) troubled the Indian batting once again. Pant did put up a counter-attack with 61 in 33 balls (six fours and four sixes), but India was bundled out for 157 runs, setting up 162 for the Aussies to win. Bumrah could not bowl in the final innings.
Australia was in trouble for a while during the chase of 162 runs at 58/3, but knocks from Usman Khawaja (41 in 45 balls, with four boundaries), Travis Head (34* in 38 balls, with four boundaries) and Webster (39* in 34 balls, with six fours) guided the team to a six-wicket win, despite fight put up by Prasidh Krishna (3/65).
Boland was the ‘Player of the Match’ for his ten-wicket haul while Bumrah walked away with the ‘Player of the Series’ award with 32 wickets. (ANI)
Disclaimer: This story is auto-generated from a syndicated feed of ANI; only the image & headline may have been reworked by News Services Division of World News Network Inc Ltd and Palghar News and Pune News and World News
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