Dynamite News Melbourne Test: India two wickets away from victory, Australia 258/8 at Stumps
India need two more wickets to register a win against Australia in the third Test of the ongoing four-match series here at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Saturday. Chasing a mammoth total of 399 runs, Australia could only manage 258 runs at the loss of eight wickets by Stumps of Day Four of the match.
Melbourne: India need two more wickets to register a win against Australia in the third Test of the ongoing four-match series here at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Saturday. Chasing a mammoth total of 399 runs, Australia could only manage 258 runs at the loss of eight wickets by Stumps of Day Four of the match.
India were on top of the Australian side right from the start of the hosts' second innings. Second over in the last innings of the match and Australian opener Aaron Finch (3) was walking back to the pavillion. Indian pacer Jasprit Bumrah bowled a shorter delivery to Finch who tried cutting it over the cordon but handed over a simple catch to skipper Virat Kohli in the second slip.
Another Australian opener Marcus Harris, who was looking good on the crease, did not last long either as he was trapped by Jadeja at the score of 33 runs. With two of the Australian top-order batsmen out of the field, in form batsman, Usman Khawaja and Shaun Marsh were at the helm of the team's innings.
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Both the batsmen built a short 17-run partnership before Khawaja was trapped in front of the wickets by pacer Mohammad Shami at the score of 33. The next batsmen Travis Head, along with Marsh, added combined 36 runs to the team's total.
At a time when things started to work out for Australia, Bumrah struck again and gave his side a breakthrough in the form of Marsh (44). This was followed by the departure of another Marsh (Mitchell) who lost his wicket at the hands of Jadeja at the score of 10 runs.
With last batting pair, Tim Paine and Travis Head on the crease, Australia kept their hopes of saving the match alive. Paine and Head, however, could not prolong their innings as both lost their wickets at the respective score of 26 and 34.
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The last wicket of the day came in the form of pacer Mitchell Starc (18) whose stumps were targeted perfectly by Shami to further crumble the Australia batting order. Pat Cummins' heroic effort has still kept Australia in the match. Cummins is currently holding the crease along with Nathon Lyon at the respective scores of 18 and 6.
Forn India, Ravindra Jadeja scalped a total of three wickets on the day while Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami contributed with Two wickets each. (ANI)