Beau Webster had a debut to remember in the fifth and final Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Sydney. Replacing Mitchell Marsh in the Australian squad, Webster made an instant impact with both bat and ball, playing a crucial role in Australia’s 3-1 series victory, reclaiming the trophy after a 10-year wait. The all-rounder bowled 17 overs, providing much-needed support to the pace trio of Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, and Scott Boland. He also claimed the key wicket of Indian opener Shubman Gill. With the bat, Webster impressed with scores of 57 and an unbeaten 39*, finishing the game in style by hitting the winning runs for Australia.
Reflecting on his debut, Webster said, “It definitely wasn’t looking like that a few days ago… it’s been a hell of a game. I probably couldn’t ask for much more on day two. It was a hell of a fixture. It was a great crowd, great atmosphere, and three days there was great,” as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.
Webster spoke about his mindset when walking out to bat with three wickets down.
“I was sort of counting down the runs a little bit in lots of 10 there. I was hoping under 50 might be alright. But no, I was pretty confident. He’s [Head] a good player. We had a few behind us as well. So pretty confident in the whole chase,” he shared.
On hitting the winning shot, Webster added, “Yeah, I just said to Head that I was going to go no matter what ball. I was going to try and flog it, and I’ll leave it up to him in the over. So glad I got a good connection and I went to the boundary.”
The debutant described the experience as surreal, saying, “Yeah, it is pretty surreal to be honest. It probably hasn’t sunk in. It’s been a nice couple of weeks just to be around the lads throughout the whole series and then to get a chance in the last one was a little bit unexpected, but I was stoked and I think I was ready, and today showed that I still do have the game. They can go to the high level, and hopefully, I can play a few more knocks.”
Webster also appreciated the electrifying atmosphere in Sydney, saying, “The whole series has been really well supported and just every time you are hitting a four, you’re taking a wicket… that noise. It’s infectious, it’s great. It makes you want to be in the team and have that success. So it couldn’t have been better.”
Coming to the SCG Test, India won the toss and elected to bat first. India was off to a disappointing start yet again as the top order threw away their wickets, especially Virat Kohli (17) who continued his struggles with outside off-stump deliveries.
However, the fight by Pant (40 in 98 balls, with three fours and a six), Ravindra Jadeja (26 in 95 balls, with three fours) and skipper Jasprit Bumrah (22 in 17 balls, with three fours and a six) pushed India to 185/10 in 72.2 overs.
Boland (4/31) was the pick of the bowlers for the Aussies and once again a thorn in the eyes of Indian batters. Mitchell Starc took 3/49 while Pat Cummins got 2/37.
In their first innings, Australia lost wickets at regular intervals even when Jasprit Bumrah (2/33) walked off the field due to an injury scare. Under the stand-in skipper Virat, India continued to dominate the Aussies, skittling them out for just 181 runs and taking a four-run lead. Debutant Beau Webster (57 in 105 balls, with five fours) had a fine showing with the bat and Steve Smith (33 in 57 balls, with four boundaries and a six) showed some attacking intent.
Prasidh Krishna (3/42) and Mohammed Siraj (3/51) were the top bowlers for India.
With a lead of four runs, India was off to a promising start thanks to Yashasvi Jaiswal (22 in 35 balls, with four boundaries) and KL Rahul (13) as they put on a 45-run stand. But Boland (6/45) troubled the Indian batting once again. Pant did put up a counter-attack with 61 in 33 balls (six fours and four sixes), but India was bundled out for 157 runs, setting up 162 for the Aussies to win. Bumrah could not bowl in the final innings.
Australia was in trouble for a while during chase of 162 runs at 58/3, but knocks from Usman Khawaja (41 in 45 balls, with four boundaries), Travis Head (34* in 38 balls, with four boundaries) and Webster (39* in 34 balls, with six fours) guided the team to a six-wicket win, despite fight put up by Prasidh Krishna (3/65).
Boland was the ‘Player of the Match’ for his 10-wicket haul while Bumrah walked away with the ‘Player of the Series’ award with 32 wickets.
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