Australia off-spinner Nathan Lyon said they were surprised by India’s wild celebrations after they saved the following fourth day of the third Test at the Gabba and Brisbane. India captain Rohit Sharma, head coach Gautam Gambhir and star batsman Virat Kohli jumped out of their seats, cheering and hollering as Akash Deep guided a throw from Pat Cummins over the gully fielder to score the most important boundary of India’s first innings, the helped them avoid the succession.

Lyon said there was a discussion in the Australian dressing room about India’s celebrations.

“Some of us talked about it after the game too and we were surprised by some of their reactions, particularly the way we approached that game and I think we can be very proud of the way we did “We tackled it,” Lyon told Fox Cricket. “We pushed this game forward and put it in the position we are in at the moment. We think that’s a pretty big message to us that they’re confident about where they’re at in the game. But I honestly feel like there’s a lot of cricket left in this game.”

It seemed inevitable that Australia would let India beat again when Ravindra Jadeja was caught in the deep and scored a fantastic 77-run knock. It was India’s wicket that fell and they needed 33 more runs to reach the magic figure of 246 and avoid the forfeit. The final pair, Akash Deep and Jasprit Bumrah then put up a brave show with the bat. Against all odds, they kept Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Nathan Lyon at bay to form India’s highest last-wicket partnership in Australia in over 30 years.

And when the moment finally came and Akash Deep hit a boundary to save the second serve, the celebration in the Indian dressing room knew no bounds. Gambhir had stood up from his seat, jumping for joy and exchanging high-fives with Kohli and Rohit. The celebrations continued when Akash Deep hit Cummins for a hug a few balls later. The duo received a big reception when they returned to the locker room following Stumps’ decision.

“It looked like India’s top players didn’t want to bat”: Lyon

Australia’s leading wicket-taker among active cricketers, Lyon, said India’s star player might not want to bat in the fading lights.

“It looked like their top order didn’t want to bat if we imposed the succession,” he said.

The great off-spinner agreed that it became very difficult for Australia to push for the follow-on as soon as fast bowler Josh Hazlewood was off the field after just one over on the fourth day Josh and Pat have been great for Australia for a number of years and I’m very proud to be part of this Australian bowling attack. And that’s what we did watching the Australians in front of us,” he said.

It was later revealed that Hazlewood had a right calf strain and would miss the remainder of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.