Melbourne: Playing from the overnight score of 462/8, India lost their last two wickets in a very quick succession in the early morning on day four of the third test match. Both Mohammed Shami and Umesh Yadav got out immediately without putting any effort to resist the Aussies’ bowling attack.
The Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), Boxing Day Test
Aussies strike bowler Mitchell Johnson dismissed India’s last two batsmen with his fiery bowling in the early session of the day’s play. Eventually the Indian team was bowled out for 465 runs only. Australia earned 65 runs lead to start with, in their second inning.
Australian openers did well and gave a solid start to the team. Left handler Warner was playing his shots magnificently until he got out for 40 runs off 42 balls. He was adjudged LBW to a Ravichandran Ashwin’s delivery. Warner hits six boundaries to the fence. The dismissal of Warner gave Indian bowlers an opportunity to create some pressures for the Aussie middle order.
At the end of the first session the Aussies scored 90/1 and looked comfortable. Ishant Sharma was brought back into the bowling attack once the game resumed after lunch. He gave the breakthrough at the 25th over when explosive batsman Shane Watson was dismissed caught behind. This was the seventh time, when Watson got out to a delivery off Ishant Sharma. Captain Steve Smith also got out without making any impact in the second inning.
Off-spinner Ravi Ashwin dismissed Roger on 69 when Australia had already put 215 runs lead on the scoreboard. With Roger’s dismissal Aussies seemed to be in trouble as their score was 150/3 only. Eventually half of Australian batsmen failed when the team had got 200 runs only on the scoreboard.
Indian bowlers bowled outstandingly well to keep the Aussies batsmen in control, but that was far from satisfactory. In fact the 65 odd runs lead that Aussies have gained seemed to be making a big impact in the match.
Shaun Marsh has played well on day four and remains unbeaten on 62 along with Ryan Harris 8* at the end of the day’s play. Australia are in a commanding position and they finished the day with 261/7. They are already ahead by 326 runs and if they cross this to 400 plus runs for India to chase then it will be very tough for the visitors to save or win the test match.
Experts believe that if the Indian bowlers bowled out Australia within the first half an hour of last day’s play then it would make the match more exciting. With a strong batting line up India could chase down any total that may require a run-rate of below 5 runs-per-over with plenty of overs left. The Indian team will definitely be fighting tooth and nail on day five to win the match because drawing it means they will lose the series.
Tags: Australia, Boxing Day Test, Cricket, India, Melbourne, Shaun Marsh, Test Match
