Advantage Australia despite Kohli-Rahane stand
Australia ended Day 4 of the World Test Championship’s summit clash in a dominating position, after setting India a Test record 444 to win in just over four sessions, and scalping their top three by Stumps. Australia started Day 4 with a lead of 296 with 6 wickets remaining. India were disciplined in the morning session and were rewarded early with the wicket of Marnus Labuschagne, courtesy a peach of an away-seamer from Umesh Yadav that got him caught in the cordon. Cam Green and Alex Carey then put up a dogged fight, but Green eventually fell to Ravindra Jadeja, attempting to pad the ball away but playing it onto his stumps instead. Mitchell Starc and Alex Carey frustrated India further with a flurry of quick runs, and after Mohammed Shami got rid of Starc, Pat Cummins came out to bat. The Australia captain decided they had enough and declared with the lead of 443, setting India a record 444 to chase in the final innings to win the World Test Championship. India started off fluently, with openers Shubman Gill and Rohit Sharma scoring at nearly 6 runs an over in the 7 overs before Tea. However, Gill’s wicket caused the controversy of this Test match, as Green took a phenomenal diving catch at gully, but there was much doubt whether it was taken cleanly or if the ball had made contact with the ground. The third umpire ruled in favour of the fielding team, much to the dismay of both Gill and Rohit. Rohit and Cheteshwar Pujara looked fluent while rebuilding for India, putting on 51 runs for the second wicket, but in a puzzling phase of play, they both perished in uncharacteristic ways: Rohit attempting to paddle sweep Nathan Lyon on a pitch that is drying up, and was trapped LBW, and Pujara, even more shockingly, attempting an upper cut and got a feather of an edge to the ‘keeper. Ajinkya Rahane and Virat Kohli, however, played out nearly 20 overs and scored 71 runs to take India through to Stumps, leaving them with 280 to get on the final day of cricket’s summit clash. Brief scores: India 296 & 164/3(Virat Kohli 44*, Rohit Sharma 43, Nathan Lyon 1-32) need 280 to win vs.Australia 469 & 270/8 dec.(Alex Carey 66*, Mitchell Starc 41, Ravindra Jadeja 3-58).
