Australia 369 and 21 for 0 lead India 336 (Thakur 67, Sundar 62, Hazlewood 5-57) with 54 runs
For the second innings in a row, India found the face from their last known batting pair to deny Australia a strong push for a win. During this time, Washington Sundar debater and fast bowler Shardul Thakur battled together for 36 overs, over sessions, and underwent fifty mermaid tests to help India win. posted 336 after being reduced to 6 for 186 just after lunch. They added 123 for the seventh wicket.
Australia still finished the day with a useful lead and two full days left, but the rain forecast for the final two days is sure to play on their minds as they look for a 2-1 score for the series, the only one promising them the Cup Final -Gavaskar.
But until David Warner’s short counter-punch came at the end of the day, the guests had been looking tired and under control after a brilliant start. After embarking on a short bowling to bats overnight India, Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane, Australia quickly changed to a more complete length in the opening hour. Rahane almost fell to two of those most perfect, watching Mitchell drive a Starc through cover and find the gap between the third slope and the cry of the two times.
Pujara looked the most comfortable bat during that time, throwing at anything a little short to run through a point, but it was for him that Australia broke first. Again, it took a delivery of length that slid in and went straight to capture the thin edge of a square bat. Josh Hazlewood, Australia’s best bowler of the day, made five out of seven for such a elimination in the series for Pujara. This was the first of five that Hazlewood would take during the day.
Starc eventually managed to find Rahane in the grooves, with a ranger placed just where the previous two edges had gone, and the Indian captain trying to catch the same flower driver. -outside. With a lead of over 200 at that level, Mayank Agarwal and Rishabh Pant of Australia stood in the lowest order.
Agarwal’s return to No. 5 – for the first time ever in batting there in first-class cricket – was far more likely than his tests against the new ball earlier in the year. -series. Expecting Starc to turn it into him but out of the picture, he was more confident about leaving delivery outside. It also helped that most of his early innings included either Cameron Green or Nathan Lyon bowling at him as he built a run and confidence to go. -into lunch.
But Hazlewood had it back in the afternoon session, walking away in the aisle until Agarwal swiped away from the body to find the grooves after 38. Six after that, he failed. with Pant leading Hazlewood past Green at a gul, his 23 was his first under-25 score in 11 innings in Australia.
Australia were 183 ahead with just under two full sessions left in the day but it was not long before the game was quickly eliminated. Thakur, in particular, came out in the swashbuckling manner that signifies him knocking down the order in limited cricket. He opened his scoring by hooking Pat Cummins for six and drilling past his ball a couple of minutes later.
It would grow into a more relaxed, mature pub from a player who often plays in the Ranji cricket. Along with him, Sundar looked neat and organized, features that had stood out as he broke into a high cricket like a high-class bat.
Australia went back to being shorter by mid-day, and both Thakur and Sundar coped a bit on their hands as they looked to sail that level. But every now and then, they managed to find boundaries off their pads, and gradually stringed them a bit together to put pressure on Australia.
As they stood, they drove with authority, and treated Nathan Lyon with disdain as Tim Paine counted down to the new ball. Except, eight boundaries came within the first 11 overs of that new ball. The partnership went from parody to bad stuff quickly, with moments going on to the many images that India has portrayed over the course of the series.
At the front and center from Sunday’s gathering Thakur will step out and club Lyon long ago to top up his fifties, with Sundar picking up the same spot with an unseen slog.
Australia was so mobile that it took nine out of the rest of India, even after the pair split. Nothing may have told the story of a strategy as bad as Australia’s bowling to T Natarajan, a man with an average of 2 in first-class cricket, in an attempt to set up for the yorker. Along the way, Paine dropped a high half on his right that would have finished Sundar’s innings earlier, and added two more controversial DRS reviews to his infamous roster.
Hazlewood was the only bowler who seemed to stick to the plan that worked best on this wicket – that is, to be on the more perfect side of good length – it seems. that it is easier to score in the shortest time. He finished the ninth five-wicket draw by picking up the final two wickets before Warner and Harris led Australia into 21 stumps with no losses, 54 ahead with two difficult days to come.
Varun Shetty is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo