Photo credit ESPNcricinfo

Australia is 236/6 at the end of the third day in the fourth test match at Sydney. India is slightly disappointed, as they really wanted to bowl those missed 16.3 overs and pick up the remaining 4 wickets and push Australia for follow-on.

Marcus Harris played so well for his 79 of 120 balls, very impressive and fabulous to watch, though he fell for Jadeja for not best of the shot, the rest of the batsmen lacking confidence and thrown away wickets to poor shots. Australia started well in the morning well, the Australian openers were leaving everything on the off stump and flicked away when stumps were attacked.

Kuldeep Yadav picks up the first wicket of the Australian innings as well as the first wicket for him in the series, Khawaja is caught by Pujara at the leg side, and Australia is down to 1/72. Kuldeep pitches it outside off stump and skips down the wicket to slog and Khawaja is mistimed to the leg side.

Good effort from Australians in the first session, they go for lunch for 1/122, Harris (77*) and (Labuschagne 18*).

Australia 2 down for 128 right after lunch. Marcus Harris tries to play the late square cut to a length ball outside off and played on to stumps. The stays slightly low takes the under an edge of his bat and then clips the top of the leg stump.

Marsh edges a length delivery from Jadeja, an easy catch at first slip, Ajinkya Rahane takes it easily.

Next Virat Kohli sets up Labuschagne, moved himself to silly mid-on and Ajinkya Rahane moves to the right, closer to the square leg than midwicket. Finally, the trap works, what a catch by Ajinkya Rahane, Mohammed Shami targets the pads and Labuschagne flicks it and couldn’t keep it down. Ajinkya Rahane takes beauty with both hands. Australia was 4 down for 152.

Travis Head and Handscomb did some rescue work to put Australia back on track by adding 40 for the 5^th wicket. Then Travis Head makes the mistake of coming down the track against Kuldeep Yadav, playing a wrong shot, which is totally unnecessary in the situation.  He didn’t middle it, hits the toe-end of the bat straight to Kuldeep Yadav who takes a knee-high catch easily.

Beauty from Kuldeep Yadav, wide outside off stump, trying to play that big drive, tossed up more, slower through the air and gap between the bat and pad, wonderful bowling, Tim Paine is the batsmen dismissed. No foot movement at all, made into that leg stump.  The previous ball spun away and this one spun into, Tim Paine clueless about what is happening in the middle.

From a strong position of 122 for 1 at lunch, Australia slipped to 198/6. India kept getting wickets and Australia failed to build partnerships throughout this series. The team should have planned before each series, on how to tackle the spinners/entire bowling group or have complete game plans for a particular bowler, and Australia looks like a complete failure and unorganized. The Australian head coach really wanted to sit with the players and help them to hang on to the pitch and spend more time in the middle.

In Adelaide, we have seen Kuldeep Yadav getting some tips from Shane Warne before the first test. It’s good to see home legends helping opposition players. This is a very good thing happening in international Cricket now.

Pat Cummins, the batsman in the form for Australia comes into the middle. Kohli makes the change and Jadeja comes to bowl for Cummins. Bowls outside off stump and turns sharply and hits on the pads off Cummins. A big appeal from Jadeja but a big no from the umpire could have missed the leg stump. The next ball comes in from off stump and Cummins puts it away nicely. Nice shot from Cummins, very impressed with the bat on this occasion.

The new ball was available in the 80^th over of the Australian innings but Kohli decided to continue with the spinners.  Kuldeep and Jadeja were bowling in tandem, Kuldeep was getting a sharp turn and Jadeja was bowling straight dot balls. A partnership was built between Pat Cummins and Handscomb. Cummins faces Kuldeep, the silly point was coming to place for Cummins and he put away the very next ball to the boundary.

Handscomb misses the flick in the 83^rd over, gets stuck on a length delivery from Jadeja, and huge appeal from Jadeja for lbw.  Kohli reviews it after checking with Jadeja, hawk eye tells the impact was the umpire call and missing stumps might be going down, the line is not good enough. India lost a review and that’s really a bad call from Kohli.

There were some storms around the Sydney area and the play was interrupted in the 83^rd over of Australia’s first innings due to bad light. Due to poor weather conditions, the remainder of the play is abandoned for the 3^rd day of the 4^th test at Sydney. We have lost 16.3 overs and the play will start 30 minutes earlier tomorrow. Indian spinners Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav have picked up 2/51 and 3/71 respectively for the day.

India winning the first Test at Adelaide put Australians really on the back foot. India might haven’t lost all the first tests of a series in Australia but they have always struggled in the first test itself against the quality Australian bowling in all the series Downunder except this one. This time not only did they get the first-innings lead, but they also won it. It is a major psychological boost for the Indian team. The first-innings lead was marginal 15 runs but India won the test for 31 runs, it clearly defines how important were those 15 runs in the first innings.