Smith could not stop praising the efforts of Peter Handscomb and Shaun Marsh who shared a match-saving 124 for the fifth wicket to stop India from winning.
Australia captain Steve Smith believed that the momentum was with Australia going into the fourth and deciding Test after his batsmen eked out a fighting draw here on Monday.
"If there's anything called momentum in cricket, it's with us at the moment. India coming on Monday would have expected to bowl us out. I'm sure they're hurting a little bit in their change room," said Smith at the end of the match.
Smith could not stop praising the efforts of Peter Handscomb and Shaun Marsh who shared a match-saving 124 for the fifth wicket to stop India from winning. "Very proud of the way Handscomb and Marsh did that. They had magnificent plans, they backed their defence for a long period of time. To see the game out for as long as they did was an outstanding performance. That's one of the things we've been talking about – being resilient and sticking out the tough times."
Smith added that Monday's batting performance will inspire the team for the next Test. "It's great signs for us. Everyone is contributing as such. Everyone is in good form. We have had a good three Test matches, we've played some very good cricket. We were ourselves 100 runs short in the first innings. We would have liked to get 550 and be able to get in front of the game from there. Things could have ended differently. It's great to see the batters have worked very hard with their plans and are contributing," Smith, who scored an unbeaten 178 in the first innings, said.
On the fourth and final Test, Smith was excited to be playing in Dharamshala. "At one-all, there's plenty to play for in Dharamshala. It's going to be another great Test match to be involved in. Hopefully, this Australian cricket team can continue to adapt and show fight and resilience there."
He also praised the Ranchi pitch: "I didn't expect the game to go five days. It didn't look it would hold for five days like he (curator) said and he was correct. It was a really nice wicket, a little bit of rough around the leg-stump for Jadeja and O'Keefe to hit. It was a nice wicket."
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