Melbourne Test Poised for an Interesting Finish

The third India Australia Border-Gavaskar Test is poised for interesting finish after Australia ended Day 4  on 261/7, leading India by 326 runs. Shaun Marsh is batting on 62 with Ryan Harris on the crease with him.

Earlier in the day, Indian tail-enders didn’t do too much to the overnight score as India were all out for 465, giving Australia a first innings lead of 65 runs. Mitchell Johnson removed the remaining batsmen. Once Australia came out to bat, Indian bowlers were found wanting again with David Warner giving Australia a good start and scoring 40 off 42 balls. Australia went into Lunch one down after having put 90 runs on the board.

The Indian bowlers struck back in the next session and took the wickets of Shane Watson, wonder boy Steven Smith and opener Chris Rogers who made his fourth consecutive fifty of the tour. of the 4 wickets that had fallen, Ashwin took 2 while Ishant and Umesh scalped one each. At Tea, Australia were 174/4, leading India by 239 runs.

In the final session of the day, Ishant Sharma was easily the best of Indian bowlers with continuously troubling the batsmen and also dismissed debutant Joe Burns. Umesh Yadav got lucky with getting Brad Haddin to edge one to Dhoni down the leg side, while Mohammed Shami dismissed Mitchell Johnson with a bouncer. Yes, you hear it right, a bouncer.

Words were again exchanged between Virat Kohli and Mitchell Johnson, when the Australian spearhead came out to bat.

It remains to be seen if Australia come out bat tomorrow morning or declare overnight and give India a target of 327 runs from a 98 overs. 98 overs will be bowled tomorrow as overs were lost out today due to a short spell of rain.

If the 3rd Melbourne Test is drawn, Australia regain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, if India win tomorrow, India can still retain it.