Brisbane, Dec 18 Bad light forced tea to be taken early on day five of third Test at the Gabba, as India reached eight for no loss in 2.1 overs in their chase of 275. Previously, Australia declared their second innings at 89/7 in 18 overs and set India a big total to chase.
KL Rahul and Yashasvi Jaiswal, unbeaten on four each, saw out 13 balls before bad light meant the players had to go off and tea break was called upon. Provided rain and thunderstorms doesn’t disrupt proceedings, the stage is set for a remarkable finish to the match, thanks to a frenetic session of Test match action.
After clinching a lead of 185 runs, Australia had a highly eventful, 18-over second innings. They came out to play their shots in a quest to get runs at a fast speed and were dismissed in quick succession by India’s pacers. But with a big lead in hand, Australia found 274 good enough total to declare, thanks to cameos from Travis Head, Alex Carey and Pat Cummins.
For India, Jasprit Bumrah took three wickets to take his match figures to nine. It also got Bumrah to take his tally of wickets in Australia to 53, which is now the new record for most wickets taken by Indian bowler in Tests in this country, eclipsing Kapil Dev’s 51 scalps.
He got excellent support from Akash Deep and Mohammed Siraj, who chipped in with two scalps each. Bumrah provided the first breakthrough by getting some inward movement on a length delivery, and take the inside edge of birthday boy Usman Khawaja to rattle the top of off stump. He came back to have Marnus Labuschagne slash away from the body and nick behind to Rishabh Pant.
Akash was next to strike, as Nathan McSweeney flashed at an outside off stump delivery and edged behind to Pant. Mitchell Marsh’s promotion to number four didn’t work as Akash found his outside edge and Pant completed another catch.
Siraj came in to have Steve Smith strangled down the leg side, as Pant completed a brilliant diving catch. Head and Carey hit quick boundaries before the former went for a big heave, but gave a top-edge to across-moving Pant, who took his fifth catch of the innings. It’s also the fourth instance of Pant taking five or more catches in a Test innings, which is the joint-most for any Indian keeper in Tests alongside MS Dhoni.
Cummins had an entertaining stay at the crease, hitting a four and six off Akash and giving the same treatment to Siraj, before being foxed by a slower ball from Bumrah and was caught by cover for 22 off just 10 balls. Five balls after he got out, Cummins called back the batters in to declare Australia’s innings and set stage for an exciting finish to this rain-hit Test match.
Brief scores: Australia 445 and 89/7 dec (Pat Cummins 22, Alex Carey 20 not out; Jasprit Bumrah 3-18, Akash Deep 2-28) lead India 260 (KL Rahul 84, Ravindra Jadeja 77; Pat Cummins 4-81, Mitchell Starc 3-83) and 8/0 in 2.1 overs by 267 runs
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