Nathan Lyon grabbed eight wickets as India were bundled for 163 in 60.3 overs in the second innings on day two of the third Test against Australia here on Thursday.
The hosts are staring at a big defeat as Steve Smith’s side has been set a target of just 76 runs to win the Test and secure a place in the World Test Championship (WTC) final.
Lyon spun a web around India batters, returning figures of 23.3-1-64-8.
Cheteshwar Pujara batted resolutely but fell after making 59 runs. The veteran batter’s departure, with Smith taking a blinder of a catch at leg slip off the bowling of Lyon, virtually ended India’s resistance.
Umesh Yadav lasted just two balls, caught by Cameron Green in the deep for a duck as India’s batting went down without a whimper.
India are leading the series 2-0 having won in Nagpur and New Delhi.
The hosts, who collapsed to 109 on Wednesday, had bowled Australia out for 197 in the morning session of the second day.
Shubman Gill (5), coming into the side in place of KL Rahul, suffered his second failure of the game after getting beaten in the flight by Nathan Lyon. He went for an ugly hoick but ended up getting castled.
Lyon also got rid of India skipper Rohit Sharma (12), who was trapped in front after misjudging the length of the ball.
Virat Kohli’s (13) shot selection too was questionable as he was adjudged LBW after attempting a pull off left-arm spinner Matthew Kuhnemann on a track offering spin and uneven bounce.
Cheteshwar Pujara looked the most solid of the Indian batters and used his feet brilliantly, but he became Lyon’s sixth dismissal after Steve Smith took a flying catch at leg-slip.
Ravindra Jadeja (7) falling lbw to Lyon at the stroke of tea made matters worse for the home team. Lyon was all over the Indian left-hander in that over and ended up getting a DRS call in his favour.
For India, the only positive was Pujara’s assured batting against Lyon and Kuhnemann. He hit the first boundary of the innings, a cover drive, by stepping out to Lyon.
In the morning session, the pace-spin combination of Umesh Yadav and R Ashwin ran through the Australian batting line-up.
After a rather quiet first hour, when only 30 runs were scored in 16 overs without any wicket, India lost their last six wickets for just 11 runs after starting the day at 156 for four.
Ashwin and Yadav took three wickets each to script India’s fightback after a forgettable opening day when the hosts were all out for 109. Considering the conditions, Australia did well to take a crucial 88-run first innings lead.
Though India did not pick up any wicket in the first hour, they did not allow Peter Handscomb (19 off 98) and Cameron Green (21 off 57) easy runs with Mohammed Siraj and Jadeja keeping things tight.
As it has been the case throughout the series, the wickets came in a heap after India broke the resistance of Handscomb, whose ultra defensive innings came to end with an inside edge flying to Iyer at short-leg off Aswhin.
Ashwin surprisingly had to wait for almost an hour to get his first over of the day and when he did, the wily operator made the ball talk.
He got also rid of Alex Carey (3) and Lyon (5) to end with figures of three for 44 in 20.3 overs.
Umesh, who targeted the stumps successfully, trapped Green in front by getting one to straighten slightly off middle-stump in his very first over.
He cleaned up the tail by bowling fast and straight from round the wicket, leaving Mitchell Starc (1) and Toddy Murphy clueless (0). Compared to the opening day, the ball did not do too much in the first hour with Handscomb and Green focussed on playing the forward defence.
It was only in the 10th over of the day that Green decided to step out and hit Jadeja over mid-on for a boundary.
Siraj opened the bowling with two short mid-wickets in place. The plan was to bowl straight and stem the flow of runs.
Published - March 02, 2023 11:34 am IST
