A spirited Cheteshwar Pujara century kept India in the contest after Patrick Cummins grabbed four wickets on Day 3 of the ongoing Test match between India and Australia. The hosts finished at 6-360, trailing by 91 runs. Follow all the action of Day 4 from 3pm (AEDT) here on The Roar.
India had resumed the day at 1-121 with Pujara and Murali Vijay at the center. The two put up 102 runs on the board for the second wicket before Vijay was dismissed by Steve O’Keefe.
The opener, who was batting on 82 runs at the time, felt like taking O’Keefe on by stepping out of his crease to hit one over the bowler’s head. However, he missed and Matthew Wade made no mistakes behind the wickets.
It was a welcome break for Australia who had been unsuccessful in a close lbw appeal against Pujara off O’Keefe and were unable to review a decision against Vijay who appeared to have edged one off Nathan Lyon on to his pads before being caught at short-leg.
However, Australia’s persistence paid off as the Indian middle-order failed to deal with the pace of Pat Cummins.
Cummins, who had claimed the solitary Indian wicket on Day 2, claimed three scalps on Saturday. His first wicket of the day came when skipper Virat Kohli edged one to his opposite number in the slip cordon.
Soon afterwards, Ajinkya Rahane had a lapse of concentration and was caught behind by Wade.
Josh Hazlewood castled Karun Nair for 23 runs after the number six had started to look good in the middle before Cummins dismissed Ravichandran Ashwin for three runs.
At the other end however, Pujara remained unbeaten on 130 runs having faced a mammoth 328 deliveries during his stay at the center. The Saurashtra batsman’s talents came to the fore on Saturday as he picked on the Aussies at will in the first session and the first half of the post-lunch session before shutting shop when wickets started to tumble.
Pujara’s presence has proved to be a big deterrence for the Aussies who will be looking to get through the rest of the Indian batting order as soon as possible on the fourth day.
The pitch has already shown signs of breaking up for the spinners and the visitors will look to get some runs on the board and put the hosts in to bat on the final day.
India will hope that Pujara and Wriddhiman Saha are able to take them as close to Australia’s first innings total on Sunday morning if not help them take a first innings lead.
In Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, India have a couple of quality spinners who can tilt the balance of the contest in their favour.
Follow the live scores and blog of the fourth day of this third Test between India and Australia from 3pm (AEDT) here on The Roar.
AJ
Guest
Not enough first innings runs.
Rossy
Guest
He's actually just making a bit of a goose of himself now. It's not 'aggressive' cricket anymore it's petulant and immature antics, he's like a 10 year old who had too many lollies at the party.
prosenjit
Guest
And he bowls at pace,that's why way more threatening than O'Keefe.
Andy
Guest
wow i just saw the reviews that australia wasted. that second one, the ball was more than a foot away from the gloves or bat.
brent elms
Guest
absolutely agreed with you on all points made. and to think kohli has been super flop this series and india batted on day 3 and 4, i bet if they batted 1st on this deck they would have made 700/6 dec or something along those lines.
Rats
Guest
One can only speculate.. I know Smith is an International Professional who plays for his country with pride. But I am sorry to say, the only reason Smith didn't give the ball to Maxwell is because he didn't want Maxwell to be successful with ball as well.. It may be a baseless claim... But this is what I thought..
Ronan O'Connell
Expert
Pathetic comment Anindya. Pull your head in.
dave
Guest
Maxwell would have been on a high after his first test ton,maybe that confidence could have snared a wicket. Not saying he was going to tear through the indians but a couple of overs wouldn't have hurt us too much.I really hope he is injured rather than the decision to not bowl him was based on ego or politics or poor captaining. I was really starting to feel positive about this Australian team but if silly games are at play i'm not so sure.Cant wait to find the real reason behind not bowling Maxwell.
Brasstax
Guest
"We need to wait and watch how they can bat on pitches which have pace, bounce and swing. Recent history says they were super flop there as well." Name one current test playing nation that is dominant against pace, swing, seam and spin. There is none. On a side note, post 2000, Indian batsmen have regularly put up decent scores here but have often lost because their bowlers are unable to take 20 wickets. I can bet that over the last 15 years Indian batsmen average more in Australia with more hundreds than our batsmen in India.
Brasstax
Guest
Jadeja is a bloody good number nine, probably the best number nine with the bat going around currently with three triple centuries in first class cricket and averaging 35 in ODI cricket across 150 plus games.
Brasstax
Guest
For all the scorn that many of us Aussies have heaped on the first two wickets, the fact that they were so "bad" worked to our advantage and narrowed the skill gap between the teams. I posted a comment in another article on the eve of this test that if the wickets are better for batting, then India will simply out bat us any day and every day. They are currently the most powerful batting line up on such decks and can comfortably out bat any opposition as England found out. Post the first test Shane Warne had said that the Indian tail is very long starting with Ashwin. How wrong he was. India currently have the longest competent batting line up of all test teams as Saha and Jadeja showed today. Ashwin has had a poor series with the bat but he is a competent batsman.
Brasstax
Guest
He will but he will also peel of a couple of hundreds or more..
Rats
Guest
Jadeja's accuracy is amazing... It is almost like the batsman knows what he is going to get still can't protect his wickets. Very similar to Starc's tailing in yorker delivery or Malinga's yorkers.. You know as a batsman what are you going to get, but still no escape.. Jadeja may still go down as one of the under-rated test bowlers... In his own team he is under-rated...
Bobbo7
Guest
Warner is great on flat wickets when the ball comes on...Australia. He is a good player but his average is inflated because he is playing a lot of crcket in probably the best Australian batting conditions ever
Ozibatla
Guest
The know all sports reporters at Fox Sports for starters. Not to mention Mark Waugh on a fox sports cricket show. I also read something similar on cricket.com.au in a pre series article giving analysis of the players. And yes, Im well aware that those within the confines of the team are not considered press. But thanks for the keen observation.
Brainstrust
Guest
If India were overconfident why did they wreck the wicket, I think they were worried about the pace bowlers. Maybe your talking about overconfidence against the Australian spinners, The first two wickets erased India's advantage in reading spin bowling and gave the Australian spinners the assistance to become big threats, now in this one with a normal behaving pitch, the AUstralian spinners could hardly buy a wicket till the Indians went the slog. One suspects three normal wickets and Smith would be at best 2-0 down if not three. If you told Steve Smith at the start of the series he could either be 2-1 down or 1-1 heading into the final and unknown test in cold weather at altitude he would take it.
danno
Guest
It's the pommy series repeating, make 450 and lose. Warner won't go down as a great if he doesn't make runs overseas.
spruce moose
Guest
Which members of the Australian press said that? A gentle reminder: neither darren lehmann or david warner are members of the press.
MANISH K RAO
Guest
As a matter of fact Smith too doesn't look good in the crease. Always looks like an LBW candidate or caught behind one. But he is super effective in his technique . Similarly Saha and Puara have their own way of scoring runs. In Test cricket Temperament is greater than "technique" . So, stop whining and give credits where it is due. After such a top class marathon partnership whining on technique doesn't look good.
Swanny
Guest
Can u blame marsh for warners constsnt failures too