India vs Australia 3rd Test Day 4 Live Score: KL Rahul went past fifty in 85 balls
India vs Australia 3rd Test Day 4 Live Score: KL Rahul has stood strong while wickets fell away at the other end but he seems to have found some kind of support at last in the form of Ravindra Jadeja, who is batting for the first time in this series. The partnership between the pair crossed fifty shortly after play resumed, with rain causing a break post drinks on Day 4 of the third Test between India and Australia at the Gabba. …Read More
Rahul has made the most of the stroke of luck he got early on Day 4 by cruising to a half-century in an innings where the rest of the Indian batters fell like nine pins in the fourth Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. He was dropped off Australia captain Pat Cummins by Steve Smith very first ball of the day. Cummins eventually got his wicket by drawing a timid prod from India captain Rohit Sharma and getting him to edge it to the wicketkeeper having scored 10 off 27 balls. India thus lost half their side while being more than 370 runs behind.
Only 33.1 overs could be delivered on day three at the Gabba, which saw both sides frustrated with the stop-start nature of play due to rain. Nevertheless, 33.1 overs was enough for Australia to hammer home their advantage and put themselves in the driver’s seat and sway the odds of this match — and the Border-Gavaskar Trophy as a whole — strongly in their favour.
A disastrous start to the innings with bat leaves India gasping for air at 51-4 at stumps, with KL Rahul the only batter successful in making any sort of knock of substance as multiple wickets fell cheaply and loosely to Australia’s barrage with the new ball. Rahul is now joined by captain Rohit Sharma, who is in poor touch and desperate need of runs, the sort of batter you don’t want coming out with a Test match on the edge as he looks for confidence.
India remain 394 runs off Australia’s total, with the hosts’ mammoth first innings combined with cheap wickets meaning they are not only looking at a win, but the potential of a massive, spirit-sapping kind that India will suffer the hangover from heading into the rest of the series. Australia have the potential to run through India’s batting extremely cheaply, giving them the opportunity to enforce the follow on and still give themselves four or five sessions to try and bowl out India once again.
With Australia doing all the basics right and India doing quite the opposite, the results on page say as much about approach and mentality in this match as it does about any sort of gulf in quality. India would have had big hopes from the young core of their batting in Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, and Rishabh Pant, but the trio fell cheaply, only for a combined 14 runs. Jaiswal and Gill in particular will be disappointed by their short knocks: Jaiswal knocked a leg-stump half-volley straight to mid-wicket, while Gill flashed wildly at a ball wide outside off-stump to be caught at gully.
Things were made worse as Virat Kohli entered with a strong chance of rescuing the innings alongside KL Rahul, but fell into the same old trap as he was caught trying to drive expansively outside off stump. Josh Hazlewood’s setup worked perfectly as India’s talismanic batter tried to flirt with the delivery and only feathered it through to Alex Carey with the gloves behind the stumps. Indian fans will be extremely disappointed with the manner of these dismissals, more than anything else: with their backs against the wall, it was almost as if India’s main batters threw their wickets away, leaving tonnes of pressure on the lower middle order and the batters to come.
India haven’t been forced to follow on in a Test match since the tour of England in 2011, but with Australia hunting for wickets and still 194 runs to go and only 6 wickets in hand to avoid the follow-on, a lot will rest on the shoulders of senior batters in Rahul and Rohit. They will have some solace in the fact that there are capable batters to come with Ravindra Jadeja and Nitish Kumar Reddy, but will know that they will need to significantly eat into the total themselves rather than rely on the all-round duo.
For Australia, a world of possibilities opens up if they can dismiss one of the two batters early on day four. While KL Rahul has looked stable and safe at the crease despite being struck on his wrist early in the piece by Hazlewood, Rohit has looked extremely vulnerable against high pace in recent months, and that is a weakness that Australia can certainly exploit. With mass runs on the board, Australia can afford to be aggressive in their tactics and look for wickets through the day, with the flexibility to change their plans in case India do succeed in getting runs on the board.
India will know it’s not all doom and gloom. If Rohit can find the form of old, he and Rahul can score runs, with plenty of experience partnering each other in testing conditions in the past. With the threat of rain also looming over day four, the visitors wouldn’t mind a helping hand, with any route towards a win eradicated by this point in time. It’s a question of first avoiding the follow on, and then batting for time: after their horror display in the first half of this Test match, the Indian team will be more than happy to settle for a draw and go back to the drawing board ahead of the Boxing Day Test at the MCG.
Here are some pointers for India vs Australia 3rd Test Day 4:
– Partnership between KL Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja crossed 50 in 73 balls
– Rain interrupted play after the first hour of play, India 105/5 in 30.5 overs
– KL Rahul got to his half-century in 85 balls
– India start the day on 51/4, trailing Australia by 394 runs
– KL Rahul was batting on 33 off 64 balls while Rohit Sharma was yet to get off the mark after facing six balls on Day 3
– Australia were all out for 445 runs, with Jasprit Bumrah returning figures of 6/76
