India, after a good solid partnership of Cheteswar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane on Day 3, expected them to continue and give Indian bowlers a good enough target to defend. In the first hour, they both look good for a big score. They both added 25 runs to the overnight score 213 runs.
When Indian fans were expecting them to go on with their job, Australian pace attack of Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood had some other plans. Indian lower order looked clueless against them. Indian innings collapsed. India lost 5 wickets in 4 overs to Starc and Hazlewood together. It all started with Ajinkya Rahane’s wicket, who scored an half-century. Starc trapped him in front of leg stump. Then in the very next bowl, Mitchell Starc sent Karun Nair’s stumps flying. In the very next Over Cheteshwar Pujara and Ravichandran Ashwin followed their colleagues in the dressing room. Josh Hazlewood picked up 3 wickets in 2 consecutive overs to complete 5-wicket haul. It was for the first time Cheteshwar Pujara was dismissed in the nineties.
Though Wridhiman Saha with Ishant Sharma added few more runs to the kitty to give Australia a challenging target of 188 and give Indian bowlers a chance. Ishant Sharma is not usually known for his batting but in this innings, he did give Saha support at the other end.
More to follow…