India and Australia will head to Melbourne for the Boxing Day Testwith the five-match Border-Gavaskar series squared at one-all after heavy Brisbane rain swept away any chance of a result on the final day of the third Test at the Gabba.

Resuming at their overnight score of 252-9, India added another eight to their total before Travis Head had Akash Deep stumped for 31. Deep’s knock was crucial from India’s point of view given that it denied the Australians to enforce a follow-on after the visitors’ top order faltered.

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With the constant and lengthy rain delays that had marred this match continuing throughout day five, the chances of an outcome seemed bleak, but despite that Australia, with a handy 185-run first innings lead, came out to bat for a second time, just after lunch and motored to 89 for 7 in 18 overs, to post a target of 274 from a maximum of 54 overs possible in the day.

Australia’s second essay began on a promising note with Nathan McSweeney squirting a couple of rare runs off Jasprit Bumrah through gully before Usman Khawaja welcomed Akash Deep with a boundary through point. However, the Aussie duo’s plans of putting up a brisk partnership were nipped by Bumrah, who had birthday boy Khawaja chopping on for eight.

Marnus Labuschagne (1) and McSweeney (4) were the next to depart after being dismissed in similar fashion albeit to different bowlers. While Labuschagne fell to Bumrah, McSweeney was packed back by Akash, after both batters wafted outside the off-stick and ended up nicking behind to Rishabh Pant.

The fall of the top three for mere 16 runs on the board didn’t deter the Australians as they promoted Mitchell Marsh in search of quick runs, but the ploy backfired as Marsh departed for 2 after nicking Akash. Fresh from a first innings hundred, Steve Smith showed the same kind of promise when he advanced down the track and lofted Mohammed Siraj over wide mid-off for four. But he too perished the very next ball tickling a leg-side edge through to Pant – who held a fourth catch – and Australia were down to 33 for 5.

At that point, the two in-form batters Travis Head and Alex Carey joined forces to arrest the procession of batters back to the dressing room, but their desperation to up the ante backfired, when Head skied one to hand Pant a fifth catch. Pat Cummins came to the middle and swung lustily to gather a couple of sixes and breeze past Carey, but his 10-ball stay ended on 22 when he too skied one, KL Rahul this time doing the catching as Bumrah claimed his 21st wicket of the series.

Carey (20 not out) and Mitchell Starc (2 not out) took Australia to 87 for 5 before being called back, signalling the declaration from the home side. With a blanket of black clouds approaching towards the Gabba, the Indian innings began with Yashasvi Jaiswal and KL Rahul scoring four runs each in the 2.1 overs before making their way back for the storm clouds to take over the Gabba.

Eventually, it was the Brisbane rain that had the final say in the much-anticipated affair at one of cricket’s iconic venues, where Australia were desperate to get rid of their recent failures in the past couple of years, and India were seeking a repeat of their 2021 heroics before heading for the Christmas break.

Brief Scores: Australia 445 (Head 152, Smith 101, Carey 70, Bumrah 6-76) and 89 for 7 dec (Bumrah 3-18) drew with India 260 (Rahul 84, Jadeja 77, Cummins 4-81, Starc 3-83) and 8 for 0.