Written by Shenol M. Wilson
It was a unique build up for the First Test Day 3 in this very interesting Test match between India and Australia which will have a lot of effect in deciding the fate of the Test series. First day was a dream day for the bowlers, specially the seamers and the second day was it was a paradise for the Indian Batsmen.
Coming up into the day, experts were even curious to know what the pitch or surface will have on offer as it was creating surprises all the time. India was on a very strong position with a considerable lead on a low scoring match so far and with ten wickets in hand.In addition weather was also not supporting the Australia’s cause as it was very hot and humid with temperature going around 35 degrees Celsius.
Starting the day, India were able to get a good start to add on to the overnight score before KL Rahul was dismissed by Mitchell Starc for 77 runs. Devdutt Padikkal tried to steady a partnership inform Jaiswal but was dismissed by Josh Hazelwood who was very well disciplined in his bowling throughout the innings.
Experienced Virat Kohli then came into the middle and was able to have a steady run with Yashasvi Jaiswal who was able to get 161 runs at his first test Test appearance in Australia. Jaiswal was able to create a remarkable inning and he became the fourth youngest player to get century for India in Australia. However as he was dismissed Indian lower middle order Batsmen Rishabh Pant and Dhurv Jurel was dismissed in quick succession as both of them were able to get only 1 run.
However, taking on the responsibility again to shoulders, the ever reliable Virat Kohli came up with another century as he was able to get exactly 100 runs by being not out and he was given some sort of a support by Washington Sundar and Nitish Kumar Reddy by getting 29 runs and 38 runs not out respectively.
Talking about the Aussie bowlers, surprisingly Nathan Lyon was the highest wicket taker as he was able to get 2 wickets for 96 runs as all the other main bowlers contributed with one wicket each.
Coming up for the fourth inning of the match at the end of the day, Aussies did have a massive target before them as India was able to create a massive lead of 533 runs as India declared their second inning at 487 runs by losing only 6 wickets.
Debutant Nathan McSweeney started the inning with experienced Usman Khawaja, but was not able get a very good start as McSweeney was dismissed for a duck by Jasprit Bumrah.
Night Watchman Pat Cummins was not able to do his duty as he was dismissed by Mohammed Siraj for just 2 runs. At the end of the day to close the day out, Bumrah was again able to get the wicket of Marnus Labuschagne who doesn’t seem to be in form for a while.
At the end of the day, Australia was in a poor position losing 3 wickets for just 12 runs. Coming up for the fourth day, they will have a massive target of 522 runs more to achieve with only 7 wickets in hand.
The win probability do show that India has a chance of 96.5% to win the match but you never know what can happen in cricket if Aussies bat carefully over next 2 days. Finally things are getting ready for an exciting two more days of quality cricket and you do not want to miss out on it.
