King Kohli's India script history with maiden Test series win in Australia

India scored 622 for 7 in their first innings and then bowled out Australia for 300 thereby enforcing the follow-on.

India Tour of Australia 2019: India scripted history winning their first ever series on Australian soil beating the home team 2-1 after the fourth and final Test ended in a tame draw due to inclement weather.

India scored 622 for 7 in their first innings and then bowled out Australia for 300 thereby enforcing the follow-on.

However persistent drizzle washed out day five thereby keeping the victory margin down to 2-1.

Coming into this fifth Test, India had an unassailable 2-1 series' lead after winning the first Test in Adelaide by 31 runs and the third Test in Melbourne by 137 runs. Australia had won the second Test in Perth by 146 runs.

The morning began with similar murky clouds as seen throughout Sunday, and right at the supposed start of play at 10 am local time, rain arrived to prevent any possibility of cricket happening at the Sydney Cricket Ground.


Highlights & Scorecard → India Vs Australia 4th Test Match

Australia beat England in 1st Ashes 2017 & India wins 2nd Test against Lanka : Brief Score

India has taken a 1-0 lead in the three-match series & The Aussies needed 16 overs and a little over an hour on the final morning to complete a resounding win

India wins 2nd Test by an innings & 239 runs

Sports News : India trounced Sri Lanka by an innings and 239 runs to win the second cricket Test, here on Monday.

India dismissed Sri Lanka for 166 runs in 49.3 overs in their second innings just after lunch to wrap up the match well inside four days.

Ravichandran Ashwin (4/63) picked up four wickets for India, while Ravindra Jadeja (2/28), Umesh Yadav (2/30) and Ishant Sharma (2/43) shared six wickets between them.

Australia beat England by 10 wickets in 1st Ashes clash

Batsmen David Warner (87 not out) and debutant Cameron Bancroft (82 not out) helped Australia beat England by 10 wickets and take the 1-0 lead in the Ashes Test at the Gabba here on Sunday.

Australia needed just 16 overs and a little over an hour on the final morning to complete a resounding win, according to the International Cricket Council (ICC) website.

Warner and Bancroft’s 173-run stand broke an 87-year-old record for the highest ever unbeaten opening stand in a successful chase in Test cricket.

Warner was unbeaten when Bancroft brought up the winning runs.

It was Warner’s ninth Ashes half-century and his 25th in all Tests, while for Bancroft, it was a maiden Test fifty.

Click to Know → Brief Score of Matches

Ashwin breaks Dennis Lillee’s record of fastest 300 Test wickets

Australian fast bowling legend Lillee had reached the milestone in 56 Test matches way back in 1981 and it took 36 years for another bowler to eclipse the record

Sports News : India off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin became the fastest bowler to reach the milestone of 300 Test wickets on Monday in his 54th match, breaking Dennis Lillees record during India’s win over Sri Lanka in the second Test.

Australian fast bowling legend Lillee had reached the milestone in 56 Test matches way back in 1981 and it took 36 years for another bowler to eclipse the record. Ashwin is also ahead of some of the illustrious names, who had completed the milestone in quick time.

Among them are Muttiah Muralitharan (58 Tests), Richard Hadlee, Malcolm Marshall and Dale Steyn (61 Tests each).

Ashwin is only the fifth Indian bowler to complete a career 300 wickets in Test cricket behind Anil Kumble (619), Kapil Dev (434), Harbhajan Singh (417) and Zaheer Khan (311).

Brief Score : India Wins 2nd Test Against Lanka By An Innings And 239 Runs

The illustrious trio of Bishan Singh Bedi (266), Bhagwat Chandrasekhar (242) and Erapalli Prasanna (189) are way behind Ashwin.

“I really hope I can go on to double these 300 wickets, I have only played 50 Tests. It’s not easy bowling spin, it looks like you’re just ambling up. But there’s a lot behind it. We’ve bowled a lot of overs, me and Jaddu (Ravindra Jadeja) . And the break has helped, I’m a lot more fresher now comparatively,” Ashwin said.

“The carom ball was a good ball, I haven’t bowled many of those in the last 24 months,” he said referring to the ball with which he got his milestone.

“I have worked on different releases for it and now that we are travelling, I think I needed that extra bit. It has been a longer break than I’ve been used to over the last few years. But I did have a good stint in Worcester and I learnt a lot of things. As you can see, I’ve worked on different loadings, different actions. It’s also helped my patience, wickets haven’t come quickly.”

Click to Read → Ashwin 300 Test Wickets

500 test matches… and a heap of mediocrity

India goes into its 500th Test match today against a combative but not frightening New Zealand XI. The national expectation is that Virat Kohli and his lads will win, making it India’s 130th Test victory. A cooperative pitch is expected to play its part: it’s not called “home advantage” for nothing. In Indian cricket at least, ‘atithi devo bhavah‘ – the Upanishadic principle that says the guest is God – is blithely ignored. It’s more like ‘Ashwin devo bhavah’, in homage to India’s sharpest spin bowler.

India’s being at number one in the International Cricket Council’s Test rankings from November 2009 to August 2011 has led the younger generation of fans to be starry-eyed about their team in Tests. The team was briefly number one again in January, February and August of this year; and but for last month’s foul weather in Port of Spain – and the fouler drainage at the ground – it would still be at the top. India currently sits in second place, a point behind Pakistan, and would return to pole position if it beats New Zealand in the forthcoming series.

Recent Test performances should not blind us to the truth that India has historically been a mediocre, and often poor, Test side. It has a better head-to-head record against only four out of the nine other Test-playing countries. Two of those are Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, teams largely undeserving of their Test status. Sri Lanka and New Zealand are the other sides against which India has prevailed more often than it has lost; but of those two, the Kiwis have the worst overall win percentage – 20.68%  – of any major Test team, so they don’t provide a basis for a boast. And Sri Lanka’s total win percentage against all sides is actually better than that of India. So while India is superior head-to-head, the islanders fare better on average, against everyone else, than India does.

The point of this short piece, therefore, is an appeal for modesty. Let us not thump our chests in the modern Indian manner, but remember that for long stretches of its Test history, India has been a soft opponent. Its overall percentage of victories is a mere 25.95%, the second-worst among the major Test nations (comprising England, Australia, South Africa, West Indies, New Zealand, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka). Only New Zealand has a poorer record. Australia has won a dazzling 47.20% (or nearly half) of its Tests and every other team has won a  read full story