India continued dominating the Aussies in the fourth and final Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground as they posted 69 runs in the first session on day one at a loss of one wicket. At the lunch break, opener Mayank Agarwal was batting on 42* while Pujara remained unbeaten on 16.
It looked like a fiery start for the visitors as opener KL Rahul, who returned in the squad to replace Rohit Sharma, opened his account with a four. While Mayank was waiting to go off the mark, Rahul had acquired a strike rate of 150. He scored 9 runs off just 7 balls of the game but soon he shifted to his older form of getting out and lost his wicket to Josh Hazlewood after scoring only 9 runs.
A fuller delivery which was much away from the off stump and Rahul edged it to the slip cordon. He could have let that go, but he chased that with hard hands after a stride forward and gets a fat outside edge that goes straight into the hands of Marsh at first slip.
Pujara joined Mayank at the crease and thus began the struggle of the home bowlers. The duo looked so intact and confident that Australian skipper Tim Paine tried out various combinations of his bowlers but failed to draw any success.
Continuous hardship left the hosts frustrated but the Indian batters continued punishing them. Mayank settled down and stroked a couple of cover drives. He looked solid in comparison to his Karnataka team-mate and along with Pujara, drove the Indian run-rate forward.
India were scoring at 4.29 per over in the first hour as they reached 46/1 at drinks. They crossed 50 shortly thereafter, with the duo bringing on their 50-partnership off 104 balls.
Meanwhile, the hosts lost a DRS review in the 15th over, when Hazlewood had a loud shout against Pujara turned down. There was nothing on the Snickometer with the ball coming off the batsman's thighs.
The home side then resorted to run-saving tactics once again, and moved to a shorter length, targeting the batsmen's bodies. Pujara was hit a couple of times, once on the head.
Surprisingly Nathan Lyon (0/6) only came on in the 22nd over -- the latest he has bowled in any Indian innings this series. But he could not provide a breakthrough before lunch either.
Earlier, India won the toss and opted to bat. Senior off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin did not pass the fitness test this morning and was ruled out of the match. The visitors then made two changes, with Lokesh Rahul and Kuldeep Yadav coming in for Rohit Sharma and Ishant Sharma.
Australia too made two changes with Peter Handscomb and Marnus Labuschagne replacing Aaron Finch and Mitchell Marsh.