Match 5 Report: BGT 2024-25

The fifth and final clash of Border Gavaskar Trophy started on 3rd January, 2025 and ended pretty soon, with two days to spare. The match was scheduled at Sydney Cricket Ground and it was a Pink Test Match. 

The result of the inaugural match of 2025 didn’t come in favour of India as they lost the match by 6 wickets. And now, as Australia has won the BGT 2024-25, India will no longer be retaining the trophy. The last time Men in Yellow won this prestigious trophy was in the 2014-15 season. 

On Day 1, India won the toss and elected to bat first. Prior to this match, the series stood at 2-1 and hence it was extremely important for visitors to win the last clash. In India’s first innings, Rishabh Pant was the highest scorer, 40(98). Apart from him, no other player made any significant contribution and India stood at 185 after the end of their first innings. It was Scott Boland who bowled a magic spell of 20-8-31-4. 

On Day 1 only, Australia too came into bat and Usmaan Khwaja was dismissed on the last ball of the day. Next Day, debutant Beau Webster scored a compact fifty but his side was all out on 181. Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammad Siraj and Prasidh Krishna took three wickets each. All this meant that Indians were still at a lead of four runs. 

When India came in to bat for the second time, Yashasvi Jaiswal looked very promising as he smashed three boundaries in the first over. But later, he was bowled out on 22. Again, it was Rishabh Pant who scored maximum runs for the team. His quick fifty under immense pressure was commendable. He managed to hit four sixes, the first six coming on the very first ball he faced. Apart from him, no other player managed to cross 30+ runs. Yet again, it was Scott Borland who was chief destroyer of India’s batting line up. His figures in second innings were 16.5-5-45-6. 

Now, Australians had to chase down 161 in more than 2 days. The wicket was tricky and chasing that down wasn’t a piece of cake. But, injury to the Indian captain, Bumrah, added woes and made things worse for the visitors. Some turbulence was felt when India took four wickets, but Head and Webster made no mistake in chasing the total. Ultimately, it’s the Australians who displayed better cricket and eventually won the trophy, after 10 years!

As the BGT has concluded and results are not favouring the Indian team, a lot of questions are to be answered by the head coach Gautam Gambhir. First, a home series defeat against New Zealand and now, the loss of BGT is making the chances of WTC Final uncertain. It is evident that the future of ICT is gloomy and even the veterans- Rohit and Virat could be asked to hang their boots. That is not sure, but one thing that is certain is that some tough calls need to be made.