India bowled out Australia for 151 in their first innings on the final session of day three of the third Test here on Friday. The hosts, thus, take a massive 292 runs to lead over Australia but decided against enforcing the follow-on. Jasprit Bumrah starred with the ball for India with figures of 6 for 33.
Despite struggling hard to recover from the massive top-order collapse, the Australian found themselves at the receiving end after the lunch break as well. After losing 7 wickets, the hosts have managed to amass 145 runs on the board on the third day of the Boxing Day Test. At the tea break, skipper Tim Paine was batting on 22 along with Mitchell Starc (5). They were trailing by 296 runs.
India continued their dominance in the post-lunch session as they conceded 58 runs and successfully scalped 3 more wickets, eyeing to enforce the follow-on. The Aussies were already under pressure and Indian bowling unit left no stone unturned in troubling the Aussies.
In the 37th over, Bumrah struck again to pick his third and rattled the wickets behind Travis Head (20). A full-length delivery blasted through Head’s defence as the ball grazed the inside edge and clattered into the middle-stump.
Skipper Tim Paine got the company of one of his deputies, Mitch Marsh, and initiated to anchor the innings but all their strategies seemed to be failing against the Indian attack.
In the 44th over, a fuller delivery (pitching away from the leg stump) completely bamboozled Marsh as he was looking to whip it through the on-side. Unfortunately, the ball brushed the inside edge and then lobbed off the pads to slip and Rahane took an easy catch to end his 9-run stint at the crease.
Pat Cummins was the next man in who offered all his support to his skipper who had set himself at the middle. The duo piled up 36 runs for the 7th wicket before Mohammed Shami took his first, bowling Cummins out on 17.
After the tea, the hosts could only add 6 runs more to the scoreboard. Jasprit Bumrah went ton to take another three wickets to sweep off the Australian tail. He removed the Australian skipper on 22 followed by Nathan Lyon and Josh Hazlewood on ducks.
The Aussie speedster survived an LBW review taken by the visitors in the same over but a couple of balls later, he returned to the dressing room.
Earlier in the morning, Indian bowlers dominated the proceedings by reducing Australia for 89/4 at lunch on Day 3 of the third Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) here on Friday.
Pacer Jasprit Bumrah claimed two wickets, while fellow quick Ishant Sharma and left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja picked up a wicket each as Australia found the going tough on a pitch that assisted batting.
Resuming the day at 8/0, Australia openers Marcus Harris (22) and Aaron Finch (8) could add only 16 runs before Ishant struck to dismiss Finch caught by debutant Mayank Agarwal.
Bumrah then joined the party by getting get rid of the other opener Harris three overs later while Jadeja, who replaced Umesh Yadav in the Melbourne Test, dismissed Usman Khawaja (21) to keep India on the top in first 20 overs.
Bumrah then came back to trap Shaun Marsh to leave Australia reeling at 89/4, and trail India's first innings total of 443/7 by 354 runs at lunch.
India's mammoth total was powered by a classic century by Cheteshwar Pujara (106) and valuable contributions from skipper Virat Kohli (82), opener Mayank Agarwal (76) and Rohit Sharma (63 not out). In reply, the Aussie openers came out to bat six overs and went back undefeated with the team on 8/0 at Day 2 stumps