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.
Matth
Guest
Johnson did change the match, but without smith he may not have had the chance to. Happy either way
Matth
Guest
1. Yes 2.yes. Bring in a fifth bowler and play dohni at 6 3. The are really missing kumar 4. Cowan, but maybe burns 5. Watto stays for balance 6. Harris will be back, otherwise we can afford to give Starc another go 7.haddin is safe as his keeping is ok, India struggle to bowl us out anyway. His leadership support for the young captain is valuable.
Matth
Guest
The great thing about Rogers is that he could have batted completely differently if Warner was in, but once Dave was out Rogers took the responsibility to set the tone. That's experience for you.
Geoff from Bruce Stadium
Guest
While I am one of the first to bag Shane Watson for his dumb shot selection and execution I think his excellent bowling in this match will save him. Harris is likely to come in for Starc in Melbourne but if Mitch Marsh and Dave Warner are both passed fit this is likely to be the only change to the team. I know there is a lot of frustration with particular individual performances such as the continuing ordinary batting form of Watson and Haddin but if the team is winning it just doesn't make a lot of sense to make too many changes. Loved the way Chris Rogers batted in the second innings. Took it right up to the Indians and smashed them all over the park. Took the initiative and made sure the scoreboard was ticking over when chasing a fourth innings target. He did the same thing against the Poms in Melbourne last summer. So refreshing to see this attitude instead of scratching around for not many that characterised Australian batting sides of the past when they unsuccessfully attempted to chase down small targets.
Worlds Biggest
Guest
Great job as always and thanks Suneer. Two enthralling games so far. Well done to the Aussies for the win. They made hard work of the second innings chase which has become habitual going after a small total. I agree with Suneer in the MOM, I would have gone with MJ slightly ahead of Smithy. Great debut for Hazlewood, well done. Starc showed some promising signs but is still eratic, will they go back to Harris ? Rogers has done enough to keep his place. Wato and Hads form with the bat is a real issue and Achilles heel for the team. Wato probably keeps his place as a bowler for the moment. I Sharma looked very good in the second innings, they need more of that.
Nudge
Guest
I'd be more inclined to say its 8 goal at half time with 3 of your midfielders injured and looking like not coming back on. It was looking like Johnson would be starting with Watson in the morning with Lyon and Warner first and second change.
Matt
Guest
Too early to tell! It'd be like declaring an AFL game at quarter time when they're only 20 ahead. Once both teams have batted you get a better sense of the pitch. Both teams can collapse at the drop of a hat (which India did, again!) so it was way too early to declare a certain winner. That's the beauty of test match cricket, one team can be ahead, only for the next day to end up behind.
Nudge
Guest
Haha Matt, I said the first sentence of that. I'll stick by it too. At 4 for 310 stumps day 1 with serious doubts on Marsh Hazlewood and Starc being able to bowl again, Australia were rank rank outsiders. Very happy to be wrong.
Nudge
Guest
Steve smith said it was better than great.
Suneer Chowdhary
Roar Guru
It was always going to be difficult for the game to live up to what was in display in Adelaide but it has been a reasonably exciting one with the ebbs and flows of what Test cricket has to offer. It's surely been exciting enough for me to come back on December 26 for the third Test match at the MCG...for now though, that's that from me. Have a merry Christmas!
Suneer Chowdhary
Roar Guru
So we have a turnaround time of five days for the Boxing Day Test match. There will be tired bodies, remember the weather was hot, humid and sapping here. That, along with form issues and injury problems make for an interesting next five days as far as the selection for both teams. Questions for teams: 1. Has Dhawan done enough to survive a cull? I would think so. 2. Should they drop Rohit Sharma? On the face of it, yes. But I am not sure what they want to do with the line-up. They need a fifth bowler and if they can replace Rohit with an extra bowler, then that move might make some sense. If not, then it may not help them too much anyway. 3. What about the Indian bowling line-up? Varun Aaron and Umesh Yadav offer a lot of pace. At the same time, they offer no consistency. The call they need to make is whether they want to bring in a steadier fast bowler in place of, say Aaron, or get them to learn the tricks of their trade at the highest level. Aaron has the ingredients but can he get all of them together at the same time? I am not sure about this one...it's a call they will have to take based on what they see during the training as well. 4. Australia had a question-mark around Rogers but he looks to have saved his spot. But what happes if David Warner does not recover in time? 5. The previous question is also related to Shane Watson? And it's also related to whether Mitchell Marsh gets fit enough to bowl. I would think Watson's bowling might have saved him for now and he might get one more Test to get the runs as well. Some may argue what hasn't happened over so many games, won't happen at MCG as well, which has a lot of merit! 6. Bowling line-up for MCG? Johnson and Hazlewood to lead the attack but the third seam option is still a question-mark. Starc hasn't yet proved himself and if Harris gets fit, he will be back. If not? 7. And then there's Haddin's poor run. Do the selectors take a call to replace him from a winning combination where his leadership might be a factor? India have come close to surprising them twice and the selectors could well be wary of carrying a player...and yet, I sense he will start at the MCG.
jamesb
Guest
Thank goodness we beat SA away, otherwise we would have a shambolic away record.
Craig Watson
Guest
Watson does not deserve to stay just because another bloke is injured. The dumb selectors will keep him ...but please move him from three. I would bring in Callum Ferguson to take his place. Unlike Watto he can hang around. Has Mitch Marsh been ruled out of next test?
ajay
Guest
yep and once again indian collapse !
Suneer Chowdhary
Roar Guru
India fought hard for three days. But they lost the key moments in the game. They should have batted a lot better on the second morning and scored 500. And then there was that period when Johnson walked out to bat. Even assuming that they had erred in their tactic against Johnson, it wasn't as if he scored a quick-fire 30 or 40 and India had managed to bowl them out for 400 instead of 320. The last four Australian wickets managed to score more than their top six, and even if Johnson and Smith had been dismissed, the last two wickets added 107 runs. That would (should?) hurt the Indian bowlers. The batting this morning was the key again. Dhawan's decision not to come out to bat will be questioned but without knowing the exact situation I do not know what to make of it. All I can say is 1. that decision definitely worked against India and 2. when Dhawan did come out, he looked quite comfortable. Dhoni has obviously come out and said they could have handled the situation better than they did. About the batting today itself, due credit to Johnson and the way he made the ball talk. The difference was evident when he was taken off from his spell but by then the deed had been done.
Suneer Chowdhary
Roar Guru
Steven Smith has been declared the man of the match! Aah, I would have gone with Johnson...
jamesb
Guest
Well done Australia. Always nerve wracking when we have to chase 130 or 150. Thank you Ian Botham.
Suneer Chowdhary
Roar Guru
Dhoni has admitted the team did not handle the situation well in terms of Dhawan's injury. He says Dhawan was hit in the nets and he did not react too badly. Then he started to feel the pain after some time and the management wasn't able to give Kohli enough enough notice and that's where they failed to get on top of the situation. Of course, he does mention the pitch on which they were batting on in the nets wasn't a good one.
Disco
Guest
It's never been more than adequate. And after a bright start to hit career as a Test batsman he's never shone except when playing England.
Steve
Guest
As someone said earlier, 10 home wins in a row now. Since that streak started though, it is also only 2 away wins and 10 losses in 14 (4-0 India, 3-0 England, 1-2 South Africa, 2-0 Pakistan).