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Steven Smith’s century and lower-order carnage helped Australia take a substantial lead over India and they will go into the fourth day looking to tighten the screws. Follow the live blog of the second Test from the Gabba in Brisbane starting 11:00am (AEDT).
India looked likely to take around a 100-run lead when Australia fell to 6/247 in the first session of the third day.
Mitchell Marsh had fallen shouldering arms, while Brad Haddin’s poor run with the bat continued as he failed to keep down a fend-off from a Varun Aaron bouncer.
But Australia took advantage of poor tactics from the Indian bowling after that, and their lower-order piled on the agony for the visitors.
Mitchell Johnson came to the crease in the face of some verbals from Rohit Sharma and while his bowling hasn’t been as effective as it was in the last Ashes, he showed what he could do with the bat. A quick-fire 88 and his record 148-run stand with Smith saw Australia win a key passage of play, turning the game in their favour.
All wasn’t lost for India when Australia lost both Johnson and Smith in the same over, but Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon and Josh Hazlewood showed what can be done with a wagging tail.
Starc, much like Johnson, went for his shots from very early in his knock and smashed a half-century. Lyon and Hazlewood chipped in with a total of 55 runs of their own.
By the time Australia were bowled out, India had fallen behind by 97 runs.
India have now reduced the Aussie lead to 26 but have lost their best batsman from the series, Murali Vijay, in doing so. Vijay’s dismissal showed that the track still has something in it for the bowlers if they really bend their backs. Vijay was looking to let the ball through and it took an under-edge of the bat en route the stumps. The pace and extra bounce will continue to cause problems for the batsmen and how India handle that will be key to their chances.
There is one other known issue for the visitors – their lower-order. Unlike what was on show from Australia, the Indian batting tapers off alarmingly after R Ashwin, which puts a lot of onus on the top six to get runs.
Cheteshwar Pujara hasn’t really got going this season. His last Test century came last December and in the nine Tests this year, Pujara averages just 24.
Shikhar Dhawan showed his fighting side in his brief session on day three, but does he have the wherewithal to survive a long time? Dhawan hasn’t hit even one fifty in his last 10 innings, and was dropped in England. He is fighting for a spot here.
Virat Kohli showed what he can do on a good Adelaide pitch but he will have plenty to prove on this bouncier Gabba track after a failure in the first innings. Ajinkya Rahane will also need to improve upon his poor second-innings record.
After that, it all becomes bit of a hit or miss in overseas conditions, which puts Australia in control of the game. If they can bowl India out for less than 300, the game is there for taking for the hosts; this is a decent enough pitch to chase against a bowling attack that has struggled to pick up 20 wickets in Test cricket.
India’s first target will be to get to a lead of 200. Anything lesser than that and they can kiss their chances goodbye.
A chase of more than 250 could be more interesting, and then a lot will depend on whether the pitch begins to offer anything to the bowlers – especially off-spinner Ashwin.
My sense is the Australian bowling will look to bowl the way they did in the second half of brief time they were bowling on day three. Lot of deliveries on and around the off stump in a bid to restrict the scoring and make the batsmen hunt for their own runs. In the process, they will also hope the extra bounce and any seam they can get from it will assist them get wickets at regular intervals.
Join me for the fourth day of this second Test between Australia and India from 11:00am (AEDT), and be sure to post your comments below.
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