Australia v India: first men’s Test, day four – live

20th over: Australia 59-4 (Smith 16, Head 27) Washington round the wicket to Head, too short, cut for a couple in that muscular, heaving Head fashion, heaving at the shot so it goes through cover rather than backward point. Now then, perfect sweep shot! Powerfully struck, along the ground, out through backward square. Fourrrr. Then goes back and cuts behind point for one. He’s liking the non-spinning spin, and he does like making runs against India.

19th over: Australia 52-4 (Smith 16, Head 20) Ric Finlay on the ABC doing the stats on Smith’s last 18 months in terms of modes of dismissal: leg before wicket is substantially up, but bowled is down, and the combination is about even. Read into that what you will. Rana is still targeting the pads, but not every ball, and Smith in between defensive efforts manages to drive two through cover point.

18th over: Australia 50-4 (Smith 14, Head 20) Washington after drinks, uneventful again. A single and a leg bye to raise the Australian 50. Small wins.

“Hope you have remote access to enable the Snooze button on Rob Smyth’s alarm, he can likely sleep in today,” writes James Cahill. Well, Smith and Head are threatening to make him wake up in the cold early northern hemisphere morning.

17th over: Australia 48-4 (Smith 13, Head 20) India lose a review! Smith is smashed on the pad again, angling in at the stumps. Rana is turned down, and the review is missing the umpire’s call designation by a whisker, green light on impact. So a review down, but it’s another missed flick from Smith, who commits himself to keeping out the next few balls, then does connect with a flick through wide mid on for a run. Head takes another easily to square leg.

Andrew Benton writes in. “I’m sure this test is just a blip for Australia, they’ll be back. No team with a series against Australia in the next year or two should be feeling smug, in fact they should be watching warily for the response next test. But India are just amazing.”

Drinks.

16th over: Australia 46-4 (Smith 12, Head 19) Spin time, Washington Sundar with his offies. Pretty quick, pretty flat, pretty innocuous first over.

15th over: Australia 45-4 (Smith 11, Head 19) Scorched through cover again by Head! The last one was on the bounce, that one might have been airborne, but it has the pace and the direction to again reach the fence. Rana follows up with a beauty that beats the outside edge. This is fun cricket.

Paul Moody writes in. Any relation to Long Tom, who’s on ABC radio this week? “Gosh this is so exciting. Imagine if Oz were 6 or 7 down at the end of play today. I’m following by your words, but will go to Southern Cross in Kampot to watch a bit too.”

I’ve deduced that this means a bar in Cambodia. Have a cold Angkor for me.

14th over: Australia 38-4 (Smith 10, Head 13) Bumrah is back. That was quick. Replacing Siraj, changing ends from the end where he took those wickets last night. And Head drives him through the covers! Into the ground and bouncing away past Washington the fielder, but smashed hard enough that this one does, finally, make the boundary. The first of the innings!

Narshan emails in. “Anyone ever seen a slower outfield in Australia? More grass than in Pattaya!”

You’re right, I can’t recall one slower.

Bumrah bowls a no-ball with his sixth, and has to re-deliver it. No run.

13th over: Australia 33-4 (Smith 10, Head 9) Runs still coming, Head drives one, Smith glides a couple using Rana’s pace. Then a shot that might make Smith feel better, his old faithful flick through the leg side, timed nicely and speeding away for two runs. That’s the shot that has been deserting him the last few years as he’s been lbw more and more often.

No comfort from the following ball though, short and into his stomach! Smashes into the solar plexus. That’s hurt Smith. He’s down on the ground, rocking on his back, taking a minute to catch his breath. Badly winded. That’s uncomfortable, but he gets back to his feet eventually to see out the over.

12th over: Australia 28-4 (Smith 6, Head 8) Four for Head, but all run! He thrashes Siraj square, everyone expects it to reach the rope, but the slow outfield here sees it pull up short. That gives the batters time to get back. Next ball, nearly gets him, around the wicket angling in, Head thrashes at it, big inside edge into his knee, almost back onto the stumps. Siraj is rolling around on the ground in frustration.

Following that, he’s so pumped up that he demands, insists on an lbw dismissal when he crashes into Head’s pad next ball. The ball looks like it’s heading past the leg stump. Siraj though is heading for the slip cordon. He just takes off in a celebrappeal, ignores the umpire entirely and is throwing high fives with his fielders.

Meanwhile, Head is standing there looking bemused, as is the umpire. Not out. India have to review after that malarkey, and they think the ball has straightened, which it has but not enough. Umpire’s call, possibly grazing the leg stump.

Head gets off strike cutting a single.

11th over: Australia 23-4 (Smith 6, Head 3) Bumrah is off. Surprisingly early, but he’s captain, and he asks Harshit Rana to come on and fire it down. He does, fires it down the leg side in terms of angle, though Smith’s pad gets in the way. The appeal is turned down. No run from the over.

10th over: Australia 23-4 (Smith 6, Head 3) This is top bowling from Siraj. Gets a ball to cut back in, Smith has to jab at it to keep it out. Then one holding the line, past the outside edge. Smith is happy to pull, taking a single.

9th over: Australia 22-4 (Smith 5, Head 3) Smith goes off to side against Bumrah here, dropping a run towards cover, before Head clips two through square leg. Odd that the runs are coming from Bumrah, and not the other end. Good from Australia to look to score against him though, carefully, rather than panicking and treating him like he’s impossible to face. Bumrah is around the wicket to Head, in at the stumps and the pads, with a short midwicket in place. He wants Head to fall over to the off side, flicking a catch there.

8th over: Australia 19-4 (Smith 4, Head 1) A maiden for Siraj, bowling to Head, who is playing just about everything to the leg side, hopping about a bit just to keep the ball out.

7th over: Australia 19-4 (Smith 4, Head 1) A couple of singles from the Bumrah over, both batters nudging to the leg side, keeping out the threat.

6th over: Australia 17-4 (Smith 3, Head 0) Travis Head to the middle. How does he play it? Australia with counter-attackers at 5 and 6, having just lost their premier long-innings merchant for a very short innings.

WICKET! Khawaja c Pant c Siraj 4, Australia 17-4

5th over: Australia 17-3 (Khawaja 4, Smith 3) Hit on the pad first ball! Bumrah goes up! All the Indians go up! But it’s a no ball. The umpire wasn’t into it anyway, too high. Smith survives, then thrives, with a nice cover drive for three. That’s confident. Khawaja tucks a run around the corner, moving across to the off side. Runs from Bumrah? Huh.

Here we go…

Interesting little bit from Alex Carey on SEN radio this morning, saying that the main thing the remaining batters had to do was look at this as an opportunity to make runs rather than worrying about the result. Have as long a session in the middle as possible for the sake of their own games, knowing that can be beneficial for the remaining matches. Seems sensible, even if it’s not the flag-waving, save-the-day talk that some would favour.

So it will be Usman Khawaja to resume in quarter of an hour or so, having scored 3 from 9 balls, along with Steve Smith who will be on a king pair. Got out first ball in the first innings.

After that, Head, Marsh, Carey, and three of the four bowlers, with Cummins already done.

There’s always so much attention on Virat Kohli. It feels as though Australian cricket is almost as obsessed with him as Indian cricket.

Well, here’s yesterday’s century report, with a fair bit of Yashasvi Jaiswal too.

Preamble