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4 days ago
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6th over: India 8-0 (Jaiswal 7, Rohit 1) Off the mark! Rohit Sharma pushes Cummins in front of point and hustles. Jaiswal will face the Australian captain for the first time today, and is happy to leave. Three slips, Marsh at a conventional gully, Lyon at that deep second gully. Jaiswal picks the cover gap for one.
The crowd cheering every run, I’d say it’s an India-heavy support cadre today. The bottom tiers are full on the shaded side of the ground. Good attendance in the MCC. Empty upstairs on the sunny side. My hometown MCG radar says we’re well past 30,000 already, probably trending to 40,000. And why not? Cheap tickets, match set up, free entry for kids, you won’t get a better deal on top-level sport.
5th over: India 6-0 (Jaiswal 6, Rohit 0) Again, Starc beating the Jaiswal bat with one that goes. This is like Akash Deep and Bumrah yesterday, all movement and no edge. Carey, Smith, and Cummins have a conference at silly point about something. Last ball of the over, full and angling into the toes, and Jaiswal drives it gloriously for four! Dead straight, he has to shift his weight to the leg side to get his pads out of the way, and still zings the bat through that congested space to cream that shot. Lashings of style.
4th over: India 2-0 (Jaiswal 2, Rohit 0) A more comfortable over for Rohit against Cummins, leaving and defending.
Aditya is geeing things up. “I’m not surprised Australia haven’t declared. I don’t think the pitch has that many demons in it to warrant a declaration with a day left. It was really Bumrah’s spell yesterday that made the pitch look harder than it is — it still feels very flat to me. From an Indian standpoint I hope we can wrap up this partnership in the first 30 minutes and go for a win. My guess is we’ll need to survive the new ball without much damage, give ourselves a chance and find a way to cash in through those dead overs from 40-90. If India is chasing 350, and is at 120-2 after 40, I think a win is possible! All that said, big impact from Cummins and Lyon coming up I feel on Day 5. Hoping for an exciting finish!”
I’ve seen a bit of this flat-pitch chat, and I’m mystified. This is a really good wicket. There’s serious bounce for anyone with pace. We’ve seen prodigious seam movement for days. And it started to take turn, I’m sure Lyon will get some grip. As for any thought of the Indian will, I suspect they will play normally at tea, then decide if they’re close enough to try one last dash.
3rd over: India 2-0 (Jaiswal 2, Rohit 0) Starc to Jaiswal, punching to mid off. No run. Three slips, gully, and a kind of fly gully for the flayed shot. Backward point but almost halfway to the rope. Aside from that, mid off, mid on, square leg quite close, long leg. Big gaps at cover and midwicket to tempt the young opener. He goes for the off-side drive and is beaten, narrowly. Then leaves a wide shorter ball and Labuschagne is howling an appeal! Thinks that it flicked the bat in the leave position. He and Smith both charge up from slip. Starc dismissively waves a hand and tells them to shut up, because that missed the bat by about a metre. No idea how anyone appealed for that.
Starc responds with some proper good bowling: jagging back over middle stump. Swinging away past the edge. Then burrowing past the edge again. Today is going to be tough, and judging by yesterday, the newer ball will be difficult for at least 20 overs. Batting only eased significantly with the much older ball.
2nd over: India 2-0 (Jaiswal 2, Rohit 0) Cummins with the Southern Stand at his back, the stand now bearing Shane Warne’s name. Jaiswal glances a single, second ball. Rohit again plays into the cordon, again stopped. He leaves the fourth ball, shuffling across to off stump. Cat on a hot tin roof. We’ve seen innings of such poise from him under pressure in the past, can he dig deep today? Blocks the fifth ball, edges the sixth, short of slip. Smith gets across to block it with his chest, on the bounce.
1st over: India 1-0 (Jaiswal 1, Rohit 0) Jaiswal facing Starc, who has been his nemesis since their little tiff in Perth. Jaiswal got going in the first innings here though, and after a ball that misses the outside edge and the off stump by a few microns each, he gets off the mark with a push through cover. That brings Rohit Sharma onto strike, the under-pressure captain. He slices his first ball off the face of the bat to gully, where it is stopped with a dive on the bounce.
There have been 17 bigger chases to win a Test, and this is match number 2571.
India will need 340 to win in the fourth innings
Or 92 overs to survive. Including the change of innings, Australia have cost themselves four overs to make six runs. Don’t think that was worth it. But they have a hampered bowler in Starc with his rib problem, and a fifth bowler who doesn’t bowl in Marsh.
83.4 overs: Australia 234-10 (Boland 14)
WICKET! Lyon b Bumrah 41, Australia 234-10
Bumrah searching for that fifth wicket that the no-ball denied him last night. Boland has played him better than anyone in the team, I reckon. Uses his height, gets over the top of the ball, drops it dead. Anything wider, leaves it alone. Four slips waiting, but he skews a soft-handed edge past the widest of them for a run. That brings Lyon on strike…
and there will be no fifty. His first ball of the morning leaves his stumps in a gap-toothed smile. Middle stump out of the ground with a glorious in-jagger, Lyon playing a loose drive that is nowhere near the ball.
83rd over: Australia 233-9 (Lyon 41, Boland 14) India still have an almost new ball. Nathan Lyon has never made a half-century in Tests, might have the chance today. India start with Siraj, who gets a nick from Boland through the cordon for four! Every run hurts India’s slim chance of a chase, but every over faced is one less India have to survive. Leg bye to keep strike.
Players on the field, let’s go.
Due to the early finish for bad light and rain on day three, we have a 10.09am AEST start today and a minimum of 98 overs to be bowled.
Players are mustering on the sidelines and Nathan Lyon and Scott Boland will indeed resume their 55-run partnership for the 10th wicket. Yesterday they set a record of surviving 50 balls across both innings – just the second 10th wicket partnership pair to do so in Test cricket history.
After stumps today the player of the match will be awarded the Johnny Mullagh Medal. Who was Johnny Unaarimin Mullagh? And why do we celebrate him in the Boxing Day Test at the MCG? Angus Fontaine’s story today has some answers – but also a few questions.
South Africa’s cricketers celebrated overnight, crawling over the line against a resurgent Pakistan bowling attack. That means South Africa are locked in for the World Test Championship final.
The best bit of yesterday was Bumrah’s wrecking ball through the middle order. It was outrageous quality, and deserved to give India a smaller target. But the others couldn’t finish the job.
Preamble
Geoff Lemon
Good Melbourne morning to you, wherever you are in the world. Day 5 from the Melbourne Cricket ground, and we are set up for a belter – although Australia’s final-wicket partnership last night tilted this match further in one direction than a neutral would choose for the perfect setup.
At 2 down and 185 ahead, the game looked comfortably Australia’s. Minutes later, at 4 down and 196 ahead, India had stolen that advantage. Labuschagne and Cummins got that Australian lead back on track, and when the last pair came together at 278 ahead, we felt set for a lead of about 280 which would have been perfect. But 55 runs between Lyon and Boland, inexplicably, has taken that out to 333.
That already seems like too many for India to chase in a day. And the partnership isn’t over yet, we’ll find out soon whether Australia will declare overnight or bat on.
Nonetheless, even if the Indian win is too big an ask, saving the game is entirely possible, and going to Sydney 1-1 would be the result. Winner takes all, there, or draw it and India keep the trophy. So, plenty for the visitors to play for today, whether or not they decide to bat aggressively.
It’ll be tough going on a fifth-day pitch. Stay with us all day, we’ll keep you posted.
