Tea Australia 300 and 92 for 5 (Maxwell 37*) lead India 332 (Jadeja 63, Rahul 60, Pujara 57, Lyon 5-92) by 60 runs
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Chappell: 40-50 runs lead should not be decisive
Glenn Maxwell seemingly stands between India and victory in this series after Australia’s top order fell to pieces on the third afternoon of the decisive fourth Test in Dharamsala.
Starting their innings 32 runs behind, Australia lost David Warner, Steven Smith and Matt Renshaw while still in deficit, before Peter Handscomb and Shaun Marsh – nursing a back problem – fell in quick succession shortly before tea.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Umesh Yadav bowled exceptional spells with the new ball to unsteady Australia’s innings, before R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja struck. Jadeja and Wriddhiman Saha had put together a priceless partnership to push India into the lead before Australia struck in the minutes before lunch.
As had been the case in Ranchi, India’s seventh-wicket stand was a thorn in Australian sides, lifting the hosts from an overnight deficit of 52 to an advantage of 18 before the visitors were able to find a wicket. Jadeja’s innings maintained his up-surge as not only the world’s No. 1 ranked bowler, but also now making more of his batting talent.
He had solid support from Saha, who was fortunate to still be at the crease given Matt Renshaw’s drop off the bowling of Cummins on the second evening. It was ultimately Cummins who ended the stand by coaxing Jadeja to drag onto the stumps, before also claiming Saha with a spiteful bouncer that the wicketkeeper gloved into the outstretched right hand of Steven Smith at second slip.
These wickets feel either side of O’Keefe finding some turn in his first over of the session to defeat Bhuvneshwar Kumar, with Smith claiming the catch. He had refrained from using O’Keefe while Jadeja was at the crease, a measure of the respect Australia had for the left-hander’s potential to score quickly.
Australia thought they had a wicket with the first ball of the morning, when Cummins angled across Jadeja and there was a noise as the ball passed the bat. The umpire Marais Erasmus raised his finger instantly, but Jadeja reviewed just as fast. Replays showed the bat had brushed his back pad rather than the ball, the decision reversed.
With the ball still new, it swung and bounced disconcertingly at times, requiring all of Jadeja’s skill to keep down. Saha proved an effective partner, and the scoring rate rose dangerously for an Australian side conscious of not giving up too much of a lead. At the same time, Smith and his bowlers were straining for wickets, as evidenced by an ambitious referral for lbw against Saha by Josh Hazlewood off an inside edge, and also a preponderance of niggling chatter between bowlers and batsmen.
Not for the first time, Cummins took it upon himself to generate something, and did so by going around the wicket to Jadeja after he had hooked a pair of short balls in his previous over. The middle stump was knocked back and Jadeja walked off cursing, soon to be joined by Bhuvneshwar and then Saha.
Kuldeep Yadav added a pesky few runs with the last man Umesh before Nathan Lyon returned to the bowling crease. He had Kuldeep taken at deep backward square leg on the sweep with his first ball. That gave Lyon a deserved five-wicket haul, and left the touring batsmen to contemplate the best way to build a lead.
They would have expected a few difficult overs from the pacemen but not the fusillade fired down by Bhuvneshwar and Umesh that did for Warner, Smith and Renshaw. Warner was struck one stinging blow on the shoulder by a Bhuvneshwar short ball that climbed sharply, was dropped for a second time in the match by Karun Nair, and did not get far enough across his crease to avoid edging Umesh the following over.
Smith seemed intent on domination, sending his first ball to the boundary behind square leg then lining up Bhuvneshwar’s short and full deliveries. But his attempt to carry on brought a miscalculation and an ugly drag onto the stumps – Smith finished the series with a laudable 499 runs but the sense of an unfinished last innings.
Renshaw’s dropped catches and cheap first-innings dismissal had conveyed something of fatigue on his first overseas tour having played so maturely earlier in the series. Now he fiddled at an Umesh delivery he may have left at another time. Australia were three down and still a run in deficit.
For a time, Handscomb and Maxwell appeared capable of forging a major stand. Maxwell was the aggressor and Handscomb the accumulator, and the left-arm wristspin of Kuldeep was withdrawn by Ajinkya Rahane after being effectively neutralised. However, in the final few minutes of the session, Ashwin found Handscomb’s outside edge with an offbreak that jumped without turning, then Shaun Marsh bunted lamely to short leg.
Daniel Brettig is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo. @danbrettig
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Source: ESPN Crickinfo