Australian cricketers are no longer friends, fumes Virat Kohli after Dharamsala shootout

Australian cricketers are no longer friends, fumes Virat Kohli after Dharamsala shootout

Virat Kohli said he has been proven wrong by the Australian cricketers he thought were friends off the field at the beginning of the India vs Australia series

Aside from the on-field jibes by the current Australian players — Glenn Maxwell grabbing his shoulder in an attempt to mock Virat Kohli’s injury should easily come to mind — former Australian players and members of media have not held back in laying it into the Indian team during the ongoing Test series between the two nations.

The 2017 Border-Gavaskar Test series has been described as one of the lowest points in relations between the Indian and Australian cricket teams.

Aside from the fiercely contested matches, there have been plenty of spiteful comments.

Virat Kohli has being compared with animals, Australia skipper Steve Smith cited “brain fade” to dodge a cheating allegation wherein he attempted to get assistance of his dressing room before asking for the decision review system to be used for his dismissal in the second Test in Bangalore.

At the post match media conference on Tuesday after India handsomely beat Australia in Dharamsala, India skipper Virat Kohli said he does not consider Australian cricketers as his friends anymore.

An Australian reporter asked if Kohli still considered Steve Smith’s men his friends off the field as he had said at the start of the series.

Virat Kohli replied: “No, it has changed for sure. I thought that was the case but it has changed for sure. As I said in the heat of the battle, you want to be competitive but yeah I have been proven wrong. The thing I said before the first Test, I have certainly been proven wrong and you won’t hear me say that ever again.”

Virat Kohli had stopped short of calling Steve Smith a cheat for his ‘DRS Brain Fade’ moment after which a section of Australian cricketers and their media targeted the India captain. The Daily Telegraph went on to call Virat Kohli “the Donald Trump of world sport.”

Even Cricket Australia CEO James Sutherland said Kohli “perhaps does not know the spelling of sorry”.

On Monday, Australia skipper was seen on television calling Murali Vijay a “f****** cheat” for claiming a catch at gully and keeper Matthew Wade had lengthy exchange of words with both Ravindra Jadeja and R Ashwin. Anyway, it would need some heart to continue friendships after all that.

India v Australia, 4th Test, Dharamsala, 4th day

India sweep season with fourth series win

India 106 for 2 (Rahul 51*) and 332 (Jadeja 63, Rahul 60, Pujara 57, Lyon 5-92) beat Australia 300 (Smith 111, Wade 57, Warner 56, Kuldeep 4-68) and 137 (Maxwell 45, Jadeja 3-24, Ashwin 3-29, Umesh 3-29) by eight wickets

Chappell: Rahane was aggressive in his own quiet way 

Ajinkya Rahane sent a 146kph bouncer from Pat Cummins flying into the crowd at midwicket and, next ball, slapped another short one over the cover fence while backing away. These were the blows that finally snuffed out the last of Australia's fight, and sealed once and for all India's victory in this most bewitching of Border-Gavaskar series.

Australia entered the fourth morning with only the scantest of hopes, defending a mere 87 runs and needing 10 wickets. This did not mean that contest was over, as Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins fired the ball down with pace and venom after a night's refreshment. The loss of M Vijay and Cheteshwar Pujara - the latter run out by a brilliant throw from Glenn Maxwell - kept Australia hoping. But KL Rahul and Rahane responded with bold blows to settle the matter.

The win in Dharamsala ended India's marathon home Test season with four series victories out of four, and also means that the team presently holds series honours over every other nation in the five-day game. Rahane's stand-in captaincy, in the absence of the injured Virat Kohli, had been vital to this achievement, so too the runs of Rahul, the pace of Umesh Yadav and the all-round contribution of Ravindra Jadeja. There will be great satisfaction derived also from the fact that Dharamsala offered conditions more familiar to the tourists.

For that reason, among others, Steven Smith's team were left to ponder a string of missed opportunities after their vast opening win in Pune. There have been times in all three Tests since that the Australians have looked very much in control of proceedings, but they have been unable to stay on the mountaintop under pressure from an Indian side roused into action by the shock of that first-up hiding.

As the ball continued to bounce and swerve when India resumed their pursuit of a modest target today, Australia's fielders must have wondered what might have been with another 100 or so runs to defend. Josh Hazlewood went up for a pair of vociferous lbw appeals against Vijay in the opening over, but on both occasions the opener got the merest of bat to ball before it struck the pad.

At the other end Cummins sent a bouncer down the leg side that may have touched Vijay's gloves before being taken on the juggle by Matthew Wade. Certainly Ultra Edge indicated as much, but only Wade raised the most half-hearted of appeals. More straightforward was another edge in Cummins' next over, near enough to an action replay of Vijay's first-innings dismissal, which offered a glimmer of light for Australia.

Genuine excitement followed when Pujara and Rahul hesitated fatally in taking a quick single to the right arm of Maxwell, who threw down middle stump to send Pujara on his way with 60 still needed. In those moments the Australians wondered briefly what might be possible, and the Indian viewing area tensed up like with so many teams chasing a pesky small target in the past.

But Rahane and Rahul barely put a foot out of place in the overs that followed, accumulating steadily until Cummins elected to go around the wicket for the tourists' final effort. Rahane's riposte, the first impressively orthodox, the second more redolent of the forthcoming IPL, said much about India's admirable resilience in the face of a most unexpected challenge