Key events
âGreetings Geoff from a cold and dank London, was thinking of going to bed but now thinking of pulling an all nighter! Thanks for the commentary, it gives more colour than the TV output.â
I hope youâve stayed with us, Johnson. Maybe a little nap during lunch. Set five alarms, one can be slept through.
More emails. âJust imagine how much better Cummins would be if he still had Justin Langer as coach.â
Stop it, Ross McGillivray.
Scott Oliver sent this just before Rohit got out. âGreat session, this. Really high quality stuff from the Aussie quicks (and nuff swing). Given the WTC situation, might this be a day for Rohit to roll the dice and slide Rishabh Pant up to No.3, start throwing punches? If you donât buy a ticket…â
Well, Pant will be walking in after lunch. But even heâs not getting 300 in two sessions. I do think India need to keep scoring to keep Australia on their toes. But Kohliâs technique was nowhere on that drive, and just before lunch wasnât the time.
Lunch – India 33 for 3, trail by 306 runs
The chase is gone, not that it was ever there. They need to bat two sessions to draw. I keep thinking about that Kohli dismissal. It just felt like the shot of a player whoâs gone. Why would he do that? After an hour of defending? That intense mental focus he once had does not appear to be working anymore.
Anyway. Plenty of batting left in Indiaâs team, but plenty of batting for them to do.
WICKET! Kohli c Khawaja b Starc 5, India 33-3
Oh no. Goodness me, what was that. Just before lunch, wide from Starc, and after all of that defending, Kohli hurls an angled bat at it, wanting to lace it through cover, and edges to first slip.
26th over: India 33-2 (Jaiswal 14, Kohli 5) Nathan Lyon to have a go. Jaiswal on strike. SMith at slip, Head at short leg. Backward point, forward point, cover, long off, mid on, midwicket, deep backward square leg. Jaiswal shuffles out and drives to long off for one. Field swaps for the right-hander. Kohli wrists one through midwicket.
25th over: India 31-2 (Jaiswal 13, Kohli 4) Starc bounding up to Kohli, bowls a few straight at the stumps but theyâre blocked back. Leaves a couple outside the line of off stump. Again no sign of trying to score. Lunch is coming up in six minutes.
24th over: India 31-2 (Jaiswal 13, Kohli 4) Oh no! A bye!
We had an unblemished record, but Carey keeping up to the stumps has ruined it. Marsh bowls down Kohliâs leg side and Carey canât get across. Drop him. Both of them. Itâs an outrage.
23rd over: India 30-2 (Jaiswal 13, Kohli 4) Starc comes back, but Jaiswal looks much more able to handle him this time around. Defends straight, leaves wide, gets on his toes to smother a shorter one. No attempt to score. So it looks like India have put away any thought of chasing these runs.
22nd over: India 30-2 (Jaiswal 13, Kohli 4) Marsh to Kohli, who picks up two more runs to the same area of the ground, off the pads.
21st over: India 28-2 (Jaiswal 13, Kohli 2) Huge cheer for Kohliâs first run. Off the pads behind square, after Jaiswal added one past mid on. Cummins the bowler. Oh, the bonanza continues, Kohli getting another one square of the wicket.
20th over: India 25-2 (Jaiswal 12, Kohli 0) Mitchell Marsh time! Thatâs unexpected. The heavy strides thunder in, angled across the lefty, decent length that keeps Jaiswal honest. Carey up to the stumps to keep Jaiswal at home. The Australians like a pair of stern parents. No score from the over.
19th over: India 25-2 (Jaiswal 12, Kohli 0) Cummins to Kohli, goes very full to begin with, and Indiaâs battling champion blocks out the first two. Make that three, all in at the stumps. Outside the off stump is his current weakness, so perhaps Cummins is making sure he has to think twice. Deep backward square goes out, bumper field? No, length ball and climbing! Outside off stump but coming in off the scrambled seam, and Kohli plays it almost off the bat handle rather than blade. Nasty.
18th over: India 25-2 (Jaiswal 12, Kohli 0) So itâs the combo from the first innings, Jaiswal and Kohli, who produced that run out. Jaiswal blocks out a maiden from Boland.
WICKET! Rahul c Khawaja b Cummins 0, India 25-2
17th over: India 25-2 (Jaiswal 12) Two in the over! Sixth ball, Cummins gets Indiaâs form player of the series. Scrambled seam, and itâs the extra bounce that this pitch is still offering. Rahul tries to play carefully, getting over the ball, bat angled back, but the extra bounce makes contact high on the blade, near the shoulder, and perhaps makes him tense up rather than having those soft hands heâs used all series. The edge flies to first slip.
Quite the game that Cummins is having. Three wickets in the first innings, 49 and 41 with the bat, now the first two wickets here.
WICKET! Rohit c Marsh b Cummins 9, India 25-1
First one falls! The captain plays towards midwicket but produces a flying edge to gully. Mitch Marsh takes the double-grabber, first attempt popping up from his hands, taken as he falls backward on the second. Rohit has done a bit of a job, getting through the really vicious early overs, but falls without a score. Does he play in Sydney? Is that it?
16th over: India 25-0 (Jaiswal 12, Rohit 9) Boland after drinks, and Rohit pushes a run, driving. Jaiswal does similar, picking a gap for two. Carey has just come up to the stumps for Jaiswal to stop him stepping out, and makes a spectacular take from a rising ball that he gloves in front of his face. Boland is operating at 136 kph on that final delivery, heâs not slow!
âGreetings Geoff,â writes John Butler. âIn Geneva contemplating to watch now or sleep a bit and hopefully wake up and see the end of the game. Not sure why Australia batted on, donât fancy India to go too fast with this run chase but I guess we canât all have McCullum-Stokes.â
I will say that life is peaceful here without them. But yes, I would have preferred to see Australia bowling for half an hour last night at 290 ahead. The reasoning, presumably, is that they have more to lose ahead of Sydney. If Australia lose this Test they canât get hold of the trophy, where India can lose this Test and still keep it. So they effectively batted the Indian win out of the equation, and narrowed the possibilities to Australian win or draw.
The flipside is the risk of having one bad day in Sydney and dropping the series.
15th over: India 22-0 (Jaiswal 10, Rohit 8) First attempt at the pull shot from Rohit. That got him out in the first innings. This time he under-edges it into his nuts. Safe to say it hasnât been his friend yet in this Test match, but he does get contact from a second attempt, that dinky version like the one in the first innings, to fine leg for one.
Jaiswal hits firmly to mid off, then a square drive to the fielder behind point. Still canât score. Defends the last ball though, nothing impulsive.
Drinks.
14th over: India 21-0 (Jaiswal 10, Rohit 7) Jaiswal is defending Boland as best he can, but still looking for runs. Gets refused by Rohit once, then tries another drive to cover that is stopped. He has great purpose, even at 10 from 49 balls.
13th over: India 21-0 (Jaiswal 10, Rohit 7) Cummins now, from the Members End, left by Jaiswal. Weâre down to two slips now, with gully and backward point still there. Labuschagne to cover is the change. Maybe just to stop him appealing from the cordon. Inside edge! Nearly back onto the stumps, but it gets Jaiswal a run. Just trying to defend but with a slightly angled bat, and Cummins finds that spot, similar to the one that Kohli played onto his stumps in the World Cup final last year. Rohit deadbats from the crease. Slow start but the wicket column is all that matters for India through this first stage.
12th over: India 20-0 (Jaiswal 9, Rohit 7) Sounds of excitement from the crowd at nearly every ball from Boland. Past the edge again, then Jaiswal walks at him before leaving. It has been a bowlerâs hour but the Australians have nothing to show for it. Not yet, though we know how quickly cricket can change. Jaiswal walks down and is beaten, on the move! Pushing down the line of the ball. Finally, digs out a fuller one to mid on and runs with the stroke. Unlike Kohli, Rohit responds and they make it, Jaiswal to the danger end.
11th over: India 19-0 (Jaiswal 8, Rohit 7) Here is the Cummins for Starc swap, after five overs from the sore and cranky left-armer. Rohit drives with a full face at mid off, where Head slaps the ball away, stopping four but conceding two. Looking more comfortable, the Indian captain steps across to Cummins and plays to the leg side, canât get a run, but heâs moving better at the crease.
10th over: India 17-0 (Jaiswal 8, Rohit 5) Tricky ball from Boland, skews away from Rohitâs bat but evades gully. He gets off strike. Jaiswal gets a half roar as he drives solidly but itâs straight at mid on. Then he spars outside off stump and is beaten, Boland with a hand half raised on its way to celebration before bailing out.
9th over: India 16-0 (Jaiswal 8, Rohit 4) India get a gift from Starc, on Jaiswalâs hip, deflected to fine leg for four extras. My colleague Adam Collins drifts by to point out that there have been no byes yet in this Test match. Four days and counting. Canât be too many examples of that. Get on the hunt, stattos. Iâm a bit busy. Jaiswal booms a drive and misses, aiming for cover.
8th over: India 12-0 (Jaiswal 8, Rohit 4) Boland for the 8th, which Cummins likes to do so that he can have himself replace Starc after a couple more overs. Given Starc is sore theyâd probably rather have him warm up fewer times, so itâll be fewer and longer spells rather than short ones. Boland hits his length, decking in at Rohit, who plays out a maiden.
Not That Andy Flintoff is writing in. âThis Test is fascinatingly poised – thereâs plenty of time for all four results to be possible, particularly if India decide to attack the target Australia set. As an aside, is there any reason why the odd start of 10.09am today?â
Losing 51 minutes to rain on day three, is the answer to that. We start early for lost time in Australia, rather than the genius English method of adding extra overs to the end of play and then losing them a second time around to bad light. So, 30 minutes early yesterday, and the remaining 21 minutes today.
7th over: India 12-0 (Jaiswal 8, Rohit 4) Ok, thatâs funny. Another miss by a distance, another Labuschagne appeal, and Mitchell Starc turns around to look back at slip at his teammate and then holds up his hands about a foot apart, indicating how far the ball was from Jaiswalâs bat. Starc is like, donât embarrass me in front of everybody. Jaiswal pokes a single, giving Rohit the chance to drive three. Sliced behind point, but gets it away. Every little bit helps.
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, Iâd say itâs 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 weâre well past 30,000 already, probably trending to 40,000. And why not? Cheap tickets, match set up, free entry for kids, you wonât 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. âIâm not surprised Australia havenât declared. I donât think the pitch has that many demons in it to warrant a declaration with a day left. It was really Bumrahâs spell yesterday that made the pitch look harder than it is â 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 weâll 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!â
Iâve seen a bit of this flat-pitch chat, and Iâm mystified. This is a really good wicket. Thereâs serious bounce for anyone with pace. Weâve seen prodigious seam movement for days. And it started to take turn, Iâm 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 theyâre 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 Warneâs 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. Weâve 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. Donât think that was worth it. But they have a hampered bowler in Starc with his rib problem, and a fifth bowler who doesnât 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 strikeâ¦
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 Indiaâs 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, letâs 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 â 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 Fontaineâs story today has some answers â but also a few questions.
South Africaâs 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 Bumrahâs wrecking ball through the middle order. It was outrageous quality, and deserved to give India a smaller target. But the others couldnât 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 â although Australiaâs 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 Australiaâs. 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 isnât over yet, weâll 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.
Itâll be tough going on a fifth-day pitch. Stay with us all day, weâll keep you posted.