On Day 4 of the fourth and final Border Gavaskar Trophy Test, Australia made an impressive start by taking an early wicket and putting India on the back foot in their first innings. The visitors had previously scored 480 runs in their first innings, but Shubman Gill’s century and Virat Kohli’s unbeaten fifty had brought the hosts to a respectable score of 289/3 by the end of Day 3.
Ravindra Jadeja had been promoted up the batting order due to an injury to Shreyas Iyer, and he resumed his innings on 16 runs after a difficult previous evening where he had faced over 50 balls.
On Saturday, the Motera track suddenly became favorable for spin bowlers as even a relatively new ball started to turn sharply from the hands of Nathan Lyon and Todd Murphy. The two batsmen were immediately on the defensive, but it was important for them to weather the difficult phase if India were to have any chance of winning.
In the 107th over, Ravindra Jadeja decided to take matters into his own hands and played an attacking shot by stepping out and hitting Murphy for a four over mid-off. However, he got lucky on the next delivery as his attempted aggressive shot only hit the toe of his bat but landed safely in the gap in the mid-on region.
After the close call, the Indian fans were hoping that Ravindra Jadeja would play more cautiously. However, their hopes were dashed as on the last ball of the over, the 34-year-old once again stepped out of his crease but this time he connected weakly, and the ball landed straight into the hands of Usman Khawaja at mid-on.
This was surprising, considering Jadeja’s impressive performance as a Test batsman in recent years, including two centuries and a high score of 175* in 2022. The failed attempt left both Virat Kohli and the fans stunned, with Kohli looking around in disbelief and then bowing his head in disappointment.
