Australia vs India: Second Test, Day 4, international cricket live scores, blog

Australia will look to put the second Test beyond India and set the visitors a daunting target to chase on Day 4 in Perth. Join The Roar for live scores and coverage from 1:20pm (AEDT).

It was another enthralling day yesterday in a series that is fast becoming a real showcase for competitive Test match cricket.

The pitch continues to play a key role as it rewards those batsmen who concentrate and look to earn the right to get a good score, but it is getting harder to predict.

A few Aussie batsmen were hit at one point or other during Day 3 and that’s likely to continue.

When play resumes the home side will have a lead of 175 in the bank with six wickets in hand (including an injured Aaron Finch who had to leave the crease after having a finger damaged but who could come back and bat if needs be).

That’s not enough of a lead yet and Tim Paine won’t even start to consider a declaration until the lead is over 250.

Usman Khawaja and Paine himself are at the crease and after they play themselves back in they will want to push on and build that lead.

Khawaja could definitely do with a big knock and Australia need him scoring serious runs in this series. There couldn’t be a better time than now to start going big.

Although the lead is looking good, there are a few batsmen whose position will be under review ahead of the Boxing Day test in Melbourne.

Peter Handscomb especially continues to frustrate and the way he’s getting out at the moment is concerning.

Justin Langer will be annoyed that his top six aren’t showing more resilience and patience. Another decent start from Marcus Harris and Aaron Finch was wasted as the Aussies went from 0/60 to 4/120.

Luckily they had a 40-run lead from the first innings otherwise the overall state of the game would be looking different.

Jasprit Bumrah put in another good performance with the ball but Virat Kohli will be looking to all his bowlers to get stuck into the Aussies from the very first ball.

They will know that if they can get a couple of quick wickets then they could be looking at needing to chase down a score of just over 200 which they would definitely fancy.

So it promises to be another tight day with both sides knowing that if they can win the next couple of sessions then that should determine the final result.

Join The Roar for live scores and coverage from 1:20pm (AEDT).

Where: Optus Stadium, Perth
Date: Monday 17th December 2018
First ball: 1:20pm (AEDT)
TV: Foxsports, Channel 7
Betting: Australia – $1.40, India – $3.50, Draw – $17.00

Australia (XI)
Aaron Finch
Marcus Harris
Usman Khawaja
Shaun Marsh
Peter Handscomb
Travis Head
Tim Paine (c) (wk)
Mitchell Starc
Pat Cummins
Nathan Lyon
Josh Hazlewood

India (XI)
KL Rahul
Murali Vijay
Cheteshwar Pujara
Virat Kohli(c)
Ajinkya Rahane
Hanuma Vihari
Rishabh Pant(wk)
Ishant Sharma
Mohammed Shami
Umesh Yadav
Jasprit Bumrah

Umpires: Kumar Dharmasena & Chris Gaffaney
Third Umpire: Nigel Llong
Match Referee: Ranjan Madugalle

Form
Overall head-to-head: Played 95, Australia 41, India 27, drawn 26, tied 1
Overall record in Australia: Played 44, Australia 28, India 6, drawn 11
Overall record at Optus Stadium: Never played
Overall record at the WACA: Played 4, Australia 3, India 1
Overall series: Played 25, Australia 12, India 8, drawn 5
Overall series in Australia: Played 11, Australia 8, India 0, drawn 3