India vs Australia, 4th Test, Day 5: Rishabh Pant, Gill, Pujara take India to historic series win at Gabba

New Delhi, Jan 19: Rishabh Pant's unbeaten 89, Shubman Gill's 92 and Cheteshwar Pujara's gritty 56 in the fourth innings helped India breach the fortress at the Gabba in Brisbane as the tourists chased down a mammoth 388 to register a historic 3-wicket series win over Australia on Tuesday (January 19).

Pant the star of the run chase for India as he scored the winning boundary as Ajinkya Rahane's men scripted history by claiming their second successive Test series win on Australian soil.

Cummins shows his class:

Pat Cummins showed why he's the number one ranked Test bowler as he got rid of India batsman Cheteshwar Pujara's resistance soon after taking the second new ball and rekindled Australia's hopes of bouncing back and winning the fourth and final Test match at the Gabba, Brisbane.

In the final session of the series ender, Cummins dismissed Cheteshwar Pujara for 56 and ended the Indian batsman's composed knock to an end with a brilliant in-swinging delivery. Pujara failed to read the line of the ball while defending it which crashed into his pads.

Pujara's defiance comes to an end:

The right-handed batsman from Saurashtra who notched up his slowest half-century in Test career after facing 196 deliveries kept the match evenly poised. He reviewed against the umpire's decision but he had run out of luck as the ball tracking turned out to be umpire's call, much to the batsman's disappointment. India lost the fourth wicket for 228 and as they were still 100 short of the target of 328.

Pant brings up composed fifty:

However, Rishabh Pant - who set the stage on fire with his blitzkrieg in the Sydney Test and almost ensured a win and 2-1 lead for the Indians - showed his batting exploits are improving with every passing day. The talented left-handed batsman from Delhi scored a composed half-century off 101 deliveries and kept the Aussies on the tenterhooks.

Mayank Agarwal disappoints:

Pat Cummins once again kept Australia's chances of winning the match alive as he dismissed Mayank Agarwal for 9. Mayank - who walked into the middle after the dismissal of Pujara with the match evenly poised - gave a catch to Matthew Wade at covers while attempting to hit Cummins. A ball prior to his dismissal, the Aussies went upstairs to review a confident caught behind appeal against Mayank but in vain as there was no contact between bat and ball. India lost their fifth wicket for 265.

India dominated the first two sessions on final day:

The morning session of the fifth and final day of the ongoing fourth Test between India and Australia was yet another display of a proper Test match. At the lunch break, India reached 83 for the loss of one wicket in 38 overs, chasing Australia's target of 328.

Starting the day's play from their overnight total of 4/0 in 1.5 overs, the Indians had a dismal start when opener and team's vice-captain Rohit Sharma fell early, but young Shubman Gill and seasoned campaigner Cheteshwar Pujara denied any further success to the hosts.

Rohit Sharma failed to impress in the second innings of the fourth and final Test at The Gabba, as he was dismissed for 7 early in the morning session.

Rohit scored just 7 in the second innings before he edged Pat Cummins to give Tim Paine a catch behind the stumps. The right-handed opener from Mumbai who scored brilliant 44 before throwing his wicket away in the first innings but in the second innings he couldn't do much as it was a good delivery and really couldn't have done much with this.

It was the slightest seam movement just wide of the channel and Rohit got forward and tried to defend into the off-side and the ball takes the outside edge, flies to the right of Tim Paine who takes an impressive diving catch. The only criticism for the batsman could be that he could've avoided an angled-batted shot.

Later, young Shubman Gill along with senior-pro Cheteshwar Pujara revived the Indian innings and together the duo stitched a partnership of 65 runs and faced 178 balls. The duo ensured the Aussies do not dent their chances of saving the match as they remained unbeaten at the end of another brilliant session between the bat and ball.

While the Aussies looked out of options after the fall of Rohit Sharma and didn't attack much to dismiss Pujara and Gill in the first hour of their partnership but the old Australian bowling attack which is known for asking the right questions and pushing the batsmen on the backfoot.

Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc bowled at the right areas in the last 35-40 minutes of the morning session to try and unsettle the Indians. But Gill and Pujara negotiated them quite brilliantly.

In the meantime, Gill brought up his second half-century of the tour and once again put on a display of his class and talent. The youngster played some glorious drives en route his second fifty in the longest format and garnered praise from the experts and commentators for his composed knock.

Gill (21y 133d) thus became the youngest Indian opening batsman to score 50+ runs in fourth innings. Previous youngest was Sunil Gavaskar (21y 243d) when he hit 67* against West Indies at Port of Spain in 1970/71 on his debut.

Gill has clearly been the batting find for India this season and together with Pujara he also completed a much needed 50-run stand, off 143 deliveries. Out of those 50 runs, Gill's contribution was off 44 while Pujara scored just 6 out of those. The partnership is now worth 67 and the team would hope it continues for good in the next session as well.

With 55-60 overs remaining in the game, the Aussies would be looking to bounce back strongly in the next two session to try and win the match and win the Border-Gavaskar Trophy back.