London: Needing 280 runs to win on the final day with seven wickets in hand, India pacer Mohammed Shami believes they can beat Australia on Sunday in the ongoing World Test Championship (WTC) final at the Oval.
Chasing 444 runs to win, India finished Day 4 at 164/3 with Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane unbeaten on 44 and 20 respectively. If India manage to score the remaining runs, it would the highest-ever run chase in Test history.
“One hundred percent everyone believes that tomorrow we will win the match,” Shami said on Saturday while speaking with assembled media in the indoor nets of The Oval’s Bedser Stand.
“We always fight, we perform well around the world. So we believe and we will all come together to win this match.” Known as chasemaster by many, Kohli has anchored several chases for India in the past and the whole country will be looking up to him on Sunday.
“If you bat well, 280 runs is not a big score. So I think you should bat normally as a Test match; focus on playing ball by ball. You should not look at the long target. When you keep small goals and targets, you will get more success.,” Shami said when asked about the final day chase.
The speedster has been quite impressive with the bat lower down the order in the last few years and even scored a half-century during their 2021 tour to England. Asked if Shami is dreaming to hit the winning runs for India, he sounded positive.
“Yes, I am always ready,” the lower-order batter said with a smile. “Especially in England, there is a need to make partnerships. I think everyone can bat in today’s Indian team cricket and, hopefully, we will win tomorrow,” added Shami.
Meanwhile, Shami isn’t keen on drawing parallels with the 2021 Border-Gavaskar series Down Under and wanted to focus on the job at hand. “It doesn’t matter what happened in Sydney or Brisbane, we are playing here. We have to think about tomorrow and we will win the match.
“I believe that the Test match should go until the fifth day and maybe until the last session. That’s the real test. So we have to bat well and they have to bowl well to save themselves,” he added.
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