Rain eventually won the day in denying the Gabba Test a blockbuster finish on day five as Australia and India drew the match on Wednesday.
It also means the five-match Border-Gavaskar Trophy series will head to Melbourne for the Boxing Day Test, with the scoreline interestingly placed at 1-1. Rain was always a constant theme in the match at Brisbane, and only 22 overs of play was possible on day five.
Bowing out India for 260 after taking a 185-run first-innings lead, Australia declared its second innings at 89/7 and gave the visitors a target of 275 runs in a desperate bid to get an unlikely victory. India reached eight for no loss in 2.1 overs, with KL Rahul and Yashasvi Jaiswal, unbeaten on four each, seeing out 13 balls before bad light meant the players had to go off and tea break was called upon.
After that rain came in, and ensured no further play was possible. Appropriately, handshakes occurred between the two teams amidst a rain interruption to draw the match, where only 216.1 overs of play occurred over five days. Resuming on day five from 252/9, after avoiding the follow-on, Akash Deep and Jasprit Bumrah were at it again to reduce the deficit for India.
Akash and Bumrah added eight more runs in four overs and took their last-wicket partnership to 47 before Travis Head snapped it.
Coming from round the wicket, Head got a slider to move across Akash and beat his outside edge after drawing him forward. The action saw Akash's back-foot come out of the crease; Alex Carey completed a sharp stumping to end the innings of India and create a big lead for Australia, as the batter lost his wicket for 31 off 44.
The 47-run stand for the last wicket between Akash and Bumrah is also a new record for India in terms of tenth-wicket partnership in Tests against Australia at the Gabba, surpassing the previous record that was 33, between Manoj Prabhakar and Javagal Srinath in 1991/92.
As much as Nathan McSweeney and Usman Khawaja, who turns 38 on Wednesday, were set to get out and bat, there was a lightning alert in the area of the Gabba and everyone had to vacate the field to have lunch. Australia came on the back of an overwhelmingly dramatic, 18-over second innings after they finally grabbed a lead of 185 runs.
They came out to play their shots in a quest to get runs at a fast speed and were dismissed in quick succession by India's pacers.
But with a big lead in hand, Australia found 274 good enough total to declare, thanks to cameos from Carey, Head and Pat Cummins. For India, Jasprit Bumrah took three wickets to take his match figures to nine.
It also got Bumrah to take his tally of wickets in Australia to 53, which is now the new record for most wickets taken by Indian bowler in Tests in this country, eclipsing Kapil Dev’s 51 scalps. He got excellent support from Akash Deep and Mohammed Siraj, who chipped in with two scalps each. Bumrah gave the first breakthrough as he got some inward movement on a length delivery, and took the inside edge of birthday boy Usman Khawaja to rattle the top of off stump.
He came back to have Marnus Labuschagne slash away from the body and nick behind to Rishabh Pant. Akash was next to strike, as Nathan McSweeney flashed at an outside off stump delivery and edged behind to Pant. Mitchell Marsh's move to number four didn't pay dividends as Akash found his outside edge and Pant completed another catch.
Siraj came in to have Steve Smith strangled down the leg side, as Pant completed a brilliant diving catch. Head and Carey were quick to hit boundaries but the former went for a big heave, giving a top-edge to Pant, who took his fifth catch of the innings.
It is also the fourth time Pant has taken five or more catches in a Test innings, which is a record shared by no Indian wicketkeeper other than MS Dhoni. Cummins had a fun stay at the crease, hitting a four and six off Akash and gave the same treatment to Siraj, before being foxed by a slower ball from Bumrah and was caught by cover for 22 off just 10 balls. Five balls after he was dismissed, Cummins brought the batters back in to declare Australia's innings and set up an exciting finish, which wasn't to be as the rain intervened.
Brief scores: Australia 445 and 89/7 dec (Pat Cummins 22, Alex Carey 20 not out; Jasprit Bumrah 3-18, Akash Deep 2-28) drew with India 260 (KL Rahul 84, Ravindra Jadeja 77; Pat Cummins 4-81, Mitchell Starc 3-83) and 8/0 in 2.1 overs.
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