India showed they can hold their own against Australia with the bat and those verbals on Day 3 of the third Test in Melbourne, and it will be up to the visitors to show they have the ability to press forward from a good day, carry that momentum and make Day 4 their own as well.
Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane were the stars of the show for India on Sunday, playing two delightful hundreds to close in on Australia's massive first innings total of 530.
Even if India lost their way in the last hour or so of play, throwing away wickets in a heap, including Kohli's, who fell in what turned out to be the last ball of the day, the visitors showed tremendous fight and skill to get to 462 for eight at stumps, trailing Australia by just 68 runs.
Of course it could have been a lot better had India not lost those late wickets, but to resist pressure and score such big runs, especially after a difficult start on Day 3 when they lost Cheteshwar Pujara and Murali Vijay early, is a great credit to them, one they should soak in and get inspired from for other tests to come in the Australian couldron.
Kohli was the absolute star, scoring a tremendous 169 to help India to the big total, and for once the right-hander made sure he would not get out immediately after scoring a hundred, getting past 150 for the first en route to his highest ever Test score.
"I know I was criticised for not getting big hundreds," said Kohli.
"It's disappointing to get out for 115, 120 when you've done all the hard work. So I told myself to just see it through, take the singles with the odd boundary. Today [Sunday] I got a good feel of building up big hundreds.
"The next time if I'm in that situation, I would want to convert it into a double hundred."
India will now look to take their first innings score as close to Australia's as possible, and from there it will be up to the bowlers, who have been way too erratic this series.
If the bowlers, for once, can step up and be counted for an entire innings, and restrict Australia to a low second innings total, then India might just have a sniff of picking up a sensational victory at the MCG.
Australia will look back on the day and think about the missed catches which could have turned the match in their favour. Come Monday, they will hope they do not make the same mistakes and pick up the final two wickets as soon as possible to get their batsmen to do what they do best.
"That's probably the disappointing thing of the day. If we'd have taken our chances, it could have been totally different," said Ryan Harris, the pick of the bowlers for Australia. "We've obviously got pretty high standards with our fielding.
"No one means to drop catches, but that was well below standard today. You can't give batsmen like Rahane and Kohli second chances because they'll do what they did."
Where to Watch Live
Get Day 4 Report and Score HERE
India vs Australia 3rd Test, Day 4 is scheduled to begin at 10.30 am local time (5 am IST, 12 am GMT, 7 pm ET) with live coverage in India on Star Sports 1, Star Sports 3 and Star Sports HD1. Viewers in India can also watch the action online via live streaming on Starsports.com.
Watch Day 4 live in Australia on Channel 9, while the option to live stream is on Cricket Australia Live or the Cricket Australia Live App. Day 4 of the 3rd Test can be watched by viewers in the USA on Willow TV or live streamed on Willow TV Online.
Viewers in the UK can catch the Test match on Sky Sports 2, or live stream on Sky Go or Watch Sky Sports. Viewers in the Middle East and North Africa can catch all the day four action live on OSN or via live streaming online on OSN Play.
