WTC Final: Ajinkya Rahane’s broken heart, got out after coming close to century, yet records were made

Ajinkya Rahane missed out on scoring his 13th Test century.Image Credit source: PTI

London: Ajinkya Rahane played a tremendous innings on the third day of the World Test Championship final at The Oval but missed out on a memorable century. Saving Team India struggling in the first innings against Australia, Rahane succeeded in keeping India in the match by playing one of the best innings of his Test career. Rahane also shared a century partnership with Shardul Thakur during this period.

On the third day of the final, Rahane started playing ahead of the score of 30 runs and put Australia in trouble with the counter-attacking batting in the very first session. Rahane first completed his half-century and then increased the pace of runs. Rahane’s score was 89 runs till lunch.

Luck left, century remained

When Team India again came for batting in the second session, Rahane was expected to score a century. Before reaching here, Rahane was also blessed with luck. A day earlier, he was dismissed by Pat Cummins but it proved to be a no-ball. Then in the first session of the third day, when he was on 72, he missed the catch.

In such a situation, it seemed that Rahane would complete the century but luck did not support him for the third time. In the third over of the second session, he finally lost his wicket off the bowling of Pat Cummins. In the street, Cameron Green took a sensational catch with one hand and returned him to the pavilion.

Rahane’s name was recorded

Along with scoring 89 runs, Rahane also made a record in his name. He became the first Indian batsman to score a half-century in the history of the World Test Championship final. In the last final too, no one from India had scored a half-century. In that final also, the biggest score for India was 49 runs, which was named after Rahane. This time he further improved his record.

Team India’s saving innings

Rahane may have missed out on a century but with an innings of 89 runs, he helped the team to keep the match somehow. When Ajinkya Rahane came to the crease, India’s score was only 50 runs and 3 wickets had fallen. He stood on one side while 3 more wickets fell in front of him.

Then Rahane got the support of Shardul Thakur. Lower-order batsman Shardul, recovering from the initial difficulties, troubled Australia along with Rahane. Both did not allow any further damage after the fall of KS Bharat’s wicket in the first session. During this, both made an excellent century partnership. This partnership broke with the arrival of Rahane, but till then both of them gave some relief to India by adding 109 runs.