Dinesh Karthik, Justin Langer predict WTC Final result: India close, but target may be too much

Former Indian cricketer Dinesh Karthik and former Australia coach Justin Langer believe that Australia will most likely win the World Test Championship Final but India have given themselves a fighting chance on Day 5 of the match at the Oval Cricket Ground.
With a target of 280 runs to score on the last day of the Test and seven wickets remaining, India will see Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane start off proceedings.
“I think it’s loaded in favor of Australia but India will definitely feel that they’ve given themselves a chance today. Coming in tomorrow with 280 to get, there is a good chance that if India bats well, they might sneak in the door and that’s what they would have wanted out of today. It was very good to watch, very entertaining, the crowd was enjoying and so were all of us,” said Dinesh Karthik to ICC after the end to Day 4 of the WTC Final.

If India manages to chase down the 444-run target, it will be the highest run-chase achieved in the hory of Test cricket. Langer believes that that outcome is possible, even though the chances of it happening are slim.
“Isn’t it great to see Test cricket going into day 5 and it’s still on. It’s been an amazing Test match. After Australia dominated day 1, the next 3 days have been absolutely brilliant to watch to the point now with Virat Kohli on 44* and Rahane on 20*, they’ll just have a tiny little sniff of hope which is exciting for the Test match,” said Langer to the ICC.

The former Aussie great also added that the wickets of Rohit Sharma and Cheteshwar Pujara might have robbed India of a possible horic win. Sharma went for a shot against Nathan Lyon and was trapped LBW while Pujara lost his wicket to an uncharacteric shot, one that was caught Alex Carey.
“I still think they’re probably 1 or 2 wickets too many tonight, I am sure Rohit Sharma the captain will be very disappointed with his dismissal and then Pujara with his dismissal after Rohit Sharma, within an over of each other. Pujara is the concentration king, it’s one of the few lapses in concentration we’ve seen from Pujara for as long as I’ve been watching him over the last few years,” said Langer.