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Genius respects genius: Smith lauds Pant's performance

Australian superstar pays tribute to India's match-winning hero after a knock for the ages at the Gabba

Steve Smith has commended Rishabh Pant's "amazing" innings after the India wicketkeeper-batsman was the hero on day five in the fourth Vodafone Test match.  

Pant claimed player-of-the-match honours for his unbeaten 89 in India's record Gabba run chase, putting the seal on a stunning performance with the winning boundary through mid-off from Josh Hazlewood.

The three-wicket triumph was completed via the highest successful fourth-innings chase at the Gabba, surpassing Australia's 7-236 against West Indies set 70 years ago.

Promoted to No.5, Pant played aggressively from the outset, and held his nerve despite a clatter of wickets as India approached the target of 328.

His knock included nine fours and a six and drew praise from Australia's highest-ranked batter Smith, who said Pant stuck to his natural game in the high-pressure closing stages.

Pant's pressure-packed masterclass sinks the Aussies

"He's an exceptional talent as we've seen, he played a pretty amazing innings on a day-five wicket," Smith told cricket.com.au at stumps on the final day.

"He (Pant) took the game on, played in his areas.

"We've seen in short-form cricket in particular how good he is and where he can hit the ball and that was a pretty special innings today."

India celebrate a win for the ages at the Gabba

Despite being overlooked for the first Test in Adelaide, Pant finished as India's highest run-scorer in the series with 274 runs, and his innings on day five in both Sydney – where he made a crucial 97 in India's defiant draw – and Brisbane proved decisive in the series outcome.

While Pant took the limelight and plenty of space in the highlights package, Smith noted that Cheteshwar Pujara, who batted for 211 balls in the fourth innings and 928 for the series, also deserved considerable credit for absorbing pressure and wearing down Australia's highly-regarded bowling attack. 

Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon had to put in big back-to-back shifts on pitches in Sydney and Brisbane that didn't offer a lot for the bowlers, with the quartet managing only five wickets in 131 overs, and seven wickets from 97 overs respectively.

Sublime Gill posts brilliant final-day 91

"They worked really hard obviously and bowled lots of overs," Smith said.

"Unfortunately, both in Sydney and here they weren't able to finish the job for us but they're all great bowlers. 

"They work incredibly hard and hopefully they can back up in a few weeks' time for us in (Australia's Test tour of South) Africa and we can have some success over there."

Australia are due to play a Test series in South Africa in February but dates as still be to confirmed as the cricketing boards navigate logistics around the COVID-19 pandemic.

Vodafone Test Series v India 2020-21

Australia Test squad: Tim Paine (c), Sean Abbott, Pat Cummins, Cameron Green, Marcus Harris, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Moises Henriques, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Michael Neser, James Pattinson, Will Pucovski, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson, Matthew Wade, David Warner

India Test squad: Ajinkya Rahane (captain), Rohit Sharma (vice-captain), Mayank Agarwal, Prithvi Shaw, Cheteshwar Pujara, Hanuma Vihari, Shubman Gill, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Rishabh Pant (wk), Jasprit Bumrah, Navdeep Saini, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Mohammed Siraj, Shardul Thakur, T Natarajan

First Test: Australia won by eight wickets

Second Test: India won by eight wickets

Third Test: Match drawn

Fourth Test: India won by three wickets