Australia have pretty much shut India out of the first Test match in Pune, with the home side able to take the final six wickets in a slightly extended first session, but not after leaking way too many runs for comfort.
India vs Australia Day 2 highlights
Already leading by 298 runs at the start of the day, Steven Smith (109, 202b, 11x4), who struck his 18th Test match century, Mitchell Marsh, Matthew Wade and Mitchell Starc (30, 31b, 2x4, 3x6), who continued his six-hitting ways from the first innings, added 142 more runs in the first session to bulge the overall lead to 440, leaving India needing 441 for a victory.
While this pitch is far from the spitting cobra that the India batsmen, with their performance in the first innings, suggested, chasing anything over 400 is going to be near impossible – if India manage it, it will go down as one of the greatest chases of all-time.
Virat Kohli might like to defy logic and belief with his batting, especially in a chase, but this Test match looks like having only one of two results – a draw or an Australia win, with the smart money on an Aussie victory, because a draw will require a lot of rain to fall in Pune over the next couple of days.
On day three morning, India, expectedly, started with their two premier spinners – Ravindra Jadeja and R Ashwin.
And while there was still plenty in the pitch for the spinners, it was almost as if their heart wasn't in it; as if they were already feeling like they were just trying to delay the inevitable.
Both Smith and Marsh looked relatively comfortable at the crease in the first half hour – or at least as comfortable as it is possible to look on this pitch – and by the time Marsh (31, 76b, 4x4, 1x6) fell to Jadeja – a faint edge taken by Wriddhiman Saha, who didn't even hear it – Australia were already hunky dory, with an overall lead of 324.
Wade (20, 42b, 2x4) then came in and gave his skipper good company, with Virat Kohli left with little choice but to go to his other bowlers as Ashwin and Jadeja struggled to get the wickets they would have wanted.
It must also be said that luck, again, was very much not with India and they were left to rue the fact that they wasted their reviews early – Smith should have been given out lbw to Jadeja, while Wade survived a caught behind appeal, with UltraEdge indicating there was a nick.
While India did not lose too much with the Wade mistake – he was out a couple of balls later, also off a faint outside edge to Umesh Yadav – Smith was the lucky man, having already had three catches dropped on day two.
It was luck that he deserved some would say, for, apart from those chances, albeit a lot of them, the Australia captain was a picture of quality – picking up the singles, pretty strong in defence and putting away any bad balls that came his way.
Thanks to that knock from Smith, who fell late in the first session, when Jadeja finally got an lbw to go his way, before Starc, Nathan Lyon and Steve O'Keefe followed, Australia can now attack from ball one when India come out to bat in the final innings of this Test match.
Scores:
First innings:
Australia: 260 all out in 94.5 overs.
India: 105 all out in 40.1 overs.
Australia's first innings lead: 155 runs.
Second innings:
Australia: 285 all out in 87 overs.
Overnight score: 143/4 in 46 overs.
Target: 441 runs.
Bowling: Second innings: India: R Ashwin 28-3-119-4; Ravindra Jadeja 33-10-65-3; Umesh Yadav 13-1-39-2; Jayant Yadav 10-1-43-1; Ishant Sharma 3-0-6-0.
Fall of wickets: Second innings: Australia: 10/1, David Warner (1 over); 23/2, Shaun Marsh (7 overs); 61/3, Peter Handscomb (21 overs); 113/4, Matt Renshaw (34.1 overs); 169/5, Mitchell Marsh (53.2 overs); 204/6, Matthew Wade (66 overs); 246/7, Steven Smith (74.5 overs); 258/8, Mitchell Starc (78 overs); 279/9, Nathan Lyon (83.4 overs); 285/10, Steve O'Keefe (87 overs).
