85th over: India 189-4 (Pujara 45, Pant 35) Rishabh Pant is hit! And hurt. Pat Cummins is the one who broke Shaun Marsh’s arm in the nets during the World Cup, and who broke Mohammed Shami’s arm in Adelaide recently, and he might have done for Rishabh here. Cummins around the wicket, attacking the stumps, then nearly drawing a play and miss. But from the fifth ball he comes in short at Rishabh, chest high, and the batsman tries to pull but gets through the shot early. It hits his left elbow on the bone and he’s in real pain. Down on his knees, testing out his arm. Flinching as the physio touches it. He looks in real pain, and he’s trying to tough it out. Gets some bandaging on there, there’s a big swelling like we’ve seen from Jimmy Neesham or Brendon McCullum before, from memory. After a very long delay, as the umpires give a hurry-up, Pant comes back to the crease. He doesn’t look convinced but he’s going to try, after taking some pills and pouring water down his neck, over his head, down his gullet, trying to compose himself. Breathing deep. He takes his time to mark his guard, get set. Here’s Cummins, one ball left to come, and Pant hooks him fiercely! Looked like four, but Pucovski does well on the boundary to save, and Pant has only run a single so he’ll also keep the strike. Not what he wants, perhaps, as he shook his arm in pain after playing that shot. 84th over: India 188-4 (Pujara 45, Pant 34) A single for Pant, then Pujara starts blocking again. He does tend to bat very long and slowly and then increase his scoring pace later in the innings, which could yet happen here. But as of this stage, he’s never made an innings worth this many runs that was slower than this one. His strike rate is 26.94. He does have 29 slower Test innings but they’re mostly low scores. 83rd over: India 187-4 (Pujara 45, Pant 33) Starc to Pujara, who is looking to score through point but directs the push to gully instead. Goes under a bouncer. Getting pretty quick is Starc, and Pujara sees out another maiden. 82nd over: India 187-4 (Pujara 45, Pant 33) Hazlewood the new-ball partner, and even when Rishabh isn’t trying to score runs he can’t help it. Leaves the bat hanging out and then instinctively nudges at a length ball outside off, the bat held almost in his backlift, but running the ball off the full face into the ground, into the gap between slip and gully, who are both in attendance. 81st over: India 183-4 (Pujara 45, Pant 29) New ball immediately, and it will be Starc to get first use rather than one of the other two quicks. Paine wanting him to swing one into the right-hander, or get some extra bounce with a short one. But mostly it’ll be pitched up, you’d assume. Good yorker first ball! Swinging in, but Pujara is waiting for that, equal to it, glancing it off his toe and away through backward square for two. Short leg, leg gully, midwicket, fine leg all in place. Two slips and a gully, cover, mid off. Pujara leaves one angled across outside off, leaves another swinging down leg. 80th over: India 181-4 (Pujara 43, Pant 29) Lyon with the first over after lunch, nothing doing, Pujara kicking away the line well outside off stump, then working a shorter one square on the leg side for a run to end the over. Lunch – India 180 for 4 They’re 158 runs behind, with a well set batting pair and then Jadeja and Ashwin’s batting to come. Will that be enough to reach parity? So much riding on exactly that. Batting last will be difficult, so India can’t expect to chase anything substantial. The Australians really kept the pressure on through much of that session, but Pant got things moving late in the way that he does. Call him the prunes of the Indian team. They made 84 in the session, but without him it was 55. Two wickets gone, those of Rahane and Vihari, but Che Pujara has been rock-solid, even as Lyon has posed questions. The new ball will arrive one over after lunch, and that’s been the time in this match when bowlers have looked most dangerous. I suspect we’ll see Cummins and Hazlewood take it. On we go in half an hour. 79th over: India 180-4 (Pujara 42, Pant 29) Green with the last over before lunch, and it’s a decent one, testing out Pant with the short ball a couple of times. The batsman keeps his powder dry through these final six deliveries, and reaches the break intact. 78th over: India 180-4 (Pujara 42, Pant 29) Three singles worked around from the Labuschagne over, no dramas. Pant equals his score from Melbourne. He’s brought the gap down to 158 runs. A long way to go but it’s a useful start. Here’s a modern visual poem of sorts. 77th over: India 177-4 (Pujara 41, Pant 27) Cameron Green gets a bowl now. The all-rounder has waited 76 overs for this, and has been asked to bowl with a ball of loosely taped-together sponge. He gets a good appeal in after hitting Rishabh on the pad, but that pitched well outside leg. A decent bouncer follows and Pant descends. He knocks a single to mid-on from the sixth ball. 76th over: India 176-4 (Pujara 41, Pant 26) Labuschagne comes around the wicket to the left-hander, and this is proper part-time leggie stuff. First ball, half-tracker that Pant smashes into the ground and into Wade’s shoulder at short leg. Second ball, high full toss that Pant slides through midwicket for a run. Pujara is proactive immediately, advancing at Labuschagne and trying to drive through cover along the ground, but it’s half stopped and kept to a single. Pant scores one more to deep mid. Pujara leaves a couple, and there’s big turn for Marnus. The first turns past Paine’s gloves and it takes Smith diving across from slip to stop it. “You’re welcome, Tim,” he says through the stump mic as he gets up. 75th over: India 173-4 (Pujara 40, Pant 24) Schmack! Pant’s off. Starc is wearing a headband and bowling short but Pant just rocks back and flays him over backward point! Four runs in quick time. He dodges the next couple of bouncers, then jabs a ball off his hip just square of Wade at short leg, who is getting very frustrated at the number of times a catch has eluded him. 74th over: India 168-4 (Pujara 40, Pant 19) Seven overs to the new ball, and Paine brings Marnus Labuschagne into the attack. He very nearly gets a wicket first ball with a filthy half-tracker down the leg side. Pant swishes across the line at it, and it’s extremely close to the underside of the glove. Umpire Wilson says not out, Paine is utterly convinced. Refers it, and the Australians are celebrating when they see the close-up replay that looks very much like the ball has brushed glove. But there’s no deflection, and no Hot Spot, and no movement on the sound graph. Pant has missed it by a millimetre. He celebrates by dismissively swatting Labuschagne through square leg for four. Down on one knee. Then knocks a single. Pujara plays a big cover drive to close the over, but straight to the field. 73rd over: India 163-4 (Pujara 40, Pant 14) Starc to Pant, who drives square the first ball of the over. Splits the field for two runs, then knocks a shorter ball away towards fine leg for one. Pujara tries to dodge a similar ball and deflects it off the elbow part of his arm guard for a leg bye. Then Pant forearms a short ball over the top of Paine! It’s given as a run, the umpire says it was off glove, and the Australians were excited, but the replay looks like it missed his glove. So had it been caught he could have referred and overturned it. Probably. 72nd over: India 158-4 (Pujara 40, Pant 10) Lyon loses his accuracy in this over. Floats one very wide to Pant that the batsman leaves. Then one a bit short that lets Pant cut a single, and now width to the right-hander and Pujara forces square for four! Cracks that with an almost straight bat, top shot between point and cover. El Che moves on to 40 from 133 balls. 71st over: India 153-4 (Pujara 36, Pant 9) Starc to Pujara, and this one’s a maiden. Making him play most of the time, but Pujara just wants to stay. The deficit is 185 runs. 70th over: India 153-4 (Pujara 36, Pant 9) Well then. Pujara has managed to get one of his close catchers removed – the leg slip is gone. He pushes Lyon through point for a single. The field for Pant is just a slip and a short leg, with more off-side protection: cover, point, backward point. Doesn’t matter, Pant cuts for four! Good shot, waited back, cuts finer of the backward point. Then pushes a single to the right of cover, and Pujara follows by using his feet again to whip a run square of mid-on. That’s seven from the Lyon over, well worked, and Pujara against Lyon has been good recently. Pant has 9 runs from 9 balls. This is absorbing Test cricket. 69th over: India 146-4 (Pujara 34, Pant 4) Starc is back to replace Hazlewood. The keeper-batsman is off the mark quickly, opening the face to guide two runs to third man. Left-hander v left-armer. Tries to repeat the dose but it’s stopped at gully. Pant drives to mid-off, stopped, then he plays a forcing shot through point to finish the over with two more. The runs coming as soon as he arrives, and that’s the benefit Pant can bring. If he can stick around, he’ll help bring down the gap between the scores expeditiously. 68th over: India 142-4 (Pujara 34, Pant 0) Goodness me, what a waste of a wicket. But then, taking on a fielder in that position wouldn’t have seemed too risky. Rishabh Pant comes to the middle. Dropped a couple of catches, can he balance that out with important runs? India’s deficit is 196. WICKET! Vihari run out 4, India 142-4 Whaaaaat is that? Self-destruction from India, brilliance from Hazlewood! Lyon is bowling to Vihari after Pujara turned over the strike. Vihari tries to do the same. Pushes towards mid-on where the big fast bowler is fielding and has no hesitation taking him on. Tim Paine behind the stumps shouts “Hoff, keeper!” Hazlewood ignores him, picks up in one motion, throws across his body falling forward, and nails the stumps at the bowler’s end. We saw Cummins do it to Pujara in Adelaide in 2018, and now Hazlewood to Pujara’s partner this time around. This wasn’t as athletic a take and dive, and he had more stumps to aim at, but it was still a fine piece of fielding. 67th over: India 141-3 (Pujara 33, Vihari 4) A maiden from Hazlewood to Vihari. 66th over: India 141-3 (Pujara 33, Vihari 4) Lyon bowling and Vihari is able to get on the back foot for the most part, then comes forward to knock a run towards mid-off. Lyon is trying to force the batsmen to play everything to the leg side, where his field is set. Pujara is equal to it for now, using his feet again and whipping two runs through the leg. He tries to repeat the dose but finds Pucovski at square leg. There’s also a midwicket and a backward square, all quite straight, the three quite close together to block that part of the field. 65th over: India 138-3 (Pujara 31, Vihari 3) Hazlewood continues and this time Pujara drives him for four. He’s moving against both forms of bowling. That ball was full at the stumps and Pujara plays an economical push through the line of it, down through mid-off and it beats the chase. Hazlewood brings in a short straight midwicket to stand alongside the short straight mid-on, starting to build a reverse cordon in front of the wicket. Hazlewood bowls a couple down the leg side. 64th over: India 134-3 (Pujara 26, Vihari 3) Lyon to Vihari, who takes a couple of runs with a glance down the leg side, darts back for the second. Then another edge over Wade! Vihari pushing hard it, looking to score, edging into pad and on a finer angle than Wade could cover at short leg, again diving back but not getting a touch. Colum writes in – and to be fair to him, this was just before Pujara went after Lyon. “If India are to get close to Australia’s total, I think Vihari and Pujara are going to have to take Lyon on and attack his bowling as Rahane managed to do fleetingly and as Smith managed to do against Ashwin. Easier said than done on a turning pitch and Lyon flighting the ball beautifully but Australia don’t have the spin back-up that India have with Jadeja.” If he keeps bowling with four catchers, certainly. 63rd over: India 132-3 (Pujara 27, Vihari 1) Thank goodness that’s over. Pujara reverts to type, playing out a maiden against Hazlewood. No risks against the Menace of Adelaide. Drinks break. 62nd over: India 132-3 (Pujara 27, Vihari 1) Four around the bat for Pujara again, so he takes them on! Skips down and on-drives along the ground for four. He recognises that he has to force that field back, and that he has opportunities with the gaps out there. The same again as Lyon drops short, and Pujara cuts him for four! Not too short, but Pujara uses his weight transfer to rock back and nail it between the two catches on the off side. Next ball, Pujara comes down the wicket again, and Lyon drifts it wider of off stump, so Pujara ends up flicking across the line hockey style, through midwicket for three more runs. He insists on the third and Vihari has to motor. 11 from the over! Pujara had 16 from 100 balls, then scored 11 from four balls. 61st over: India 121-3 (Pujara 16, Vihari 1) Hazlewood to Vihari now, who has been facing spin. Vihari leaves on length and the ball sails over the off stump. Hazlewood thinks that he might be getting some reverse swing, you can see on the pictures that he’s hiding the ball as he runs in to bowl so that no one can see which side is facing which way. Vihari gets one away off his pads but Pucovski dives at midwicket to prevent a run. This is suffocating from the Australians, another maiden, India going at less than two runs per over right now. 60th over: India 121-3 (Pujara 16, Vihari 1) Slip, leg slip, short leg for Lyon, as well as a midwicket and a backward square leg to cut off the scoring. Vihari has ‘TON’ on his bat. He made one here against Australia A a couple of weeks ago. And he gets off the mark here with a push into a vacant cover region. For Pujara, the Aussies bring in the bat-pad on the off side as well, four catchers. Pujara advances, therefore, and kicks the ball away with the knee roll of his pad, bat tucked safely away. 59th over: India 120-3 (Pujara 16, Vihari 0) Hazlewood bowls on the leg stump, and I’m not sure if that was a tactic but there’s a cry of excitment as Pujara glances it away in the air, the way he’s got out before. Australia have a leg gully in place but that shot goes much squarer, safely for two. There’s protection back on the rope to save it. He’s also got a short straight mid-on standing near the non-striker, just to mess with Pujara’s footwork and eyeline. 58th over: India 118-3 (Pujara 14, Vihari 0) Lyon has a shot at Vihari now. Bowls a full over to him, the standard off-break over the wicket, lots of flight and shape. Vihari is consistently stepping across outside off stump, accounting for the turn and playing with it to the leg side, but he has the catcher waiting there and the field set to stop him scoring. Lyon will be feeling very confident that if this keeps going, eventually he can spin one more to take the inside edge, or a straighter one to the outside edge. 57th over: India 118-3 (Pujara 14, Vihari 0) Josh Hazlewood on now to replace Cummins, curious after the latter just took a wicket. Pujara is very watchful here, as you’d imagine, sizing up the new opponent. Only gets to leave a couple, plays the rest, until he gets a bouncer last ball and goes underneath it. A typical JH maiden to begin. 56th over: India 118-3 (Pujara 14, Vihari 0) Nathan ‘Nathan’ Lyon continues, and they go upstairs for a DRS when a bat-pad appeal against Pujara is given not out. Tim Paine is really getting stroppy about that being given not out, because there’s general background movement on the audio graph as the ball passes the bat, but there’s movement on the graph the whole time. Someone really needs to train the umpires and players in how sound signatures actually work. Paine is probably cross because he was given out in similar circumstances, but that time there was a more distinct movement on the graph. It still definitely wasn’t ball hitting bat, because that sound signature is much sharper, but umpires are not audio engineers. The experts running the tech would have known it wasn’t out, but they don’t get to advise on the decision. Pujara glides away a single from the final ball and keeps strike. 55th over: India 117-3 (Pujara 13, Vihari 0) The big news of that over was going to be that Pujara had scored a run from Cummins, but then Rahane got out. Pujara did want to come back for a second and got turned down, then the wicket fell next ball. Hanuma Vihari next to the middle. WICKET! Rahane b Cummins 22, India 117-3 Cummins gets him! He’s bowled so well, last night and this morning, and gets reward with his second wicket. He bowls back of a length, Rahane wants to play a little late dab without a cordon of slip catchers waiting for him, but he doesn’t account for the seam movement that Cummins can generate. This ball jags back in sharply, taking the bottom edge of the diagonal bat, very close to Rahane’s body, and down onto the stumps. He left himself nowhere to go playing that shot. The captain is gone, with India still 221 behind. 54th over: India 116-2 (Pujara 12, Rahane 22) Lyon comes back for Starc, the changes keep rolling. Not a bad idea from Paine to give Starc a quick burst and see if he could do something, with Lyon always available to return to. Rahane tries to turn over the strike, flicking firmly towards midwicket but the ball is saved. Then he’s missed at short leg! The shortness being too short in this instance. Lyon gets the classic off-spinner’s zip into the pads, takes an inside edge on the way and loops over Wade’s lid. The fielder leaps up and back, and gets the slightest phantom of a fingertip to it as he cranes back with his arm well behind his body, but he was no chance of keeping it. Rahane decides to assert authority back over the contest, and two balls later comes down to hit down the ground for six. A neat lift of the ball over long-on, contained and controlled. That’s probably the right idea, can’t just keep defending or there’ll be more catching chances. 53rd over: India 110-2 (Pujara 12, Rahane 16) More good stuff from Rahane: flicks a couple of runs off his pads, then hooks another single. Cummins has fine leg and deep backward square on the rope now, the classic bouncer field. Pujara sees out the rest, including a really fierce bouncer that has the crowd getting vocal as Pujara sways away, calm as a monk. 52nd over: India 107-2 (Pujara 12, Rahane 13) Starc in to bowl, back over the wicket, and there’s the first boundary of the day! Lovely from Rahane, he sees the overpitched length angling across him, just outside his off stump, and he’s ready to make use of it. Just leans minimally onto the front foot and eases a cover drive through it, short backlift and short follow-through, but timed and using Starc’s pace to zoom to the boundary. Starc sends a couple of short ones in at Rahane’s armpit in response. But when one gets a touch shorter than those, up to shoulder height, Rahane hooks a single along the ground to long leg. This is excellent batting. 51st over: India 102-2 (Pujara 12, Rahane 8) Cummins in at the pads, and Rahane slants away a single behind square leg. He’s been clever at this so far, Rahane, finding a run here and there to make sure it’s not entirely a defensive exercise. Considering how hard it might become to face Lyon later, it won’t be a big help to block out the quicks without scoring. Pujara sees out the next five balls. 50th over: India 101-2 (Pujara 12, Rahane 7) Now Starc comes around the wicket to angle in at the right-handers. He’s also using the bouncer approach, with a couple of fuller balls thrown in for variety. Pujara though does what Pujara does: waits, watches, endures. 49th over: India 101-2 (Pujara 12, Rahane 7) Cummins now sends down a full over back of a length, in at the body of Rahane. The one proper bouncer that he bowls goes astray, down leg side and easily ducked, but the last ball of the over is nasty at the gloves, and you can see Rahane relax his back-foot defensive push at the last instant to try to make sure that the ball falls softly to ground rather than skewing into the air. It does, after smashing his top hand against the handle, but luckily it hits him flush on the padded part at the front of the fingers and doesn’t seem to have done him any damage. No run. 48th over: India 101-2 (Pujara 12, Rahane 7) Now it’s Mitchell Starc to bowl, left-arm fast. Interesting, in that things already looked tasty for Lyon in the one over he bowled. Starc is similarly bowling with a leg-side field, left-arm over the wicket, with his natural swing into the pads of the right-handers. Rahane takes four balls to size it up and then works him square for a single. India’s deficit is currently 237 runs with eight wickets in hand. 47th over: India 100-2 (Pujara 12, Rahane 6) Pat Cummins to bowl from the other end, and already Australia have gone with a very leg-side field. One slip in, but there’s a short midwicket and a leg gully and a short leg. Cummins bowls full at the stumps, some threatening deliveries with a bit of shape through the air. Seeing if he can get Pujara to play off the pads in the air, but Pujara bats out a maiden. Pujara did make 193 last time he was here, batting for about two days. It looks like harder work this time around. 46th over: India 100-2 (Pujara 12, Rahane 6) Nathan Lyon will start proceedings for the day, Australia’s off-spinner who Ric was writing about in the previous post. He has plenty of company around the bat: short leg, slip, and a roadblock as Jim Maxwell calls it, at bat-pad on the off side of the pitch. Rahane knocks away a single and then it looks like Pujara has decided that he doesn’t want to be a duck in a shooting gallery today with those catchers waiting: twice he moves away from the line and forces through the off side, first for a brace and then for a single. Raises India’s hundred, and that was much more positive already than the defensive play – the necessary defensive play – of last night. I mean, the stat is great but the best part is seeing ABC statistician Ric Finlay adopt the usage of “shout-out”. It was especially interesting yesterday to welcome back Steve Smith to the runs list. It wasn’t like his last year and a bit was terrible – he still made three fifties in eight Tests and averaged 30. For a lot of players that would constitute a career. But by Smith’s standards it was a long stretch. Since his first Test century, the longest gap without one was four matches. Yesterday he made 131, equalling Allan Border with 27 Test hundreds. Border played 156 Tests, Smith is in his 76th. If you’d care to get into a bit more detail interspersed with a bit less seriousness about the second day, Adam Collins and I went on a giant ferris wheel to talk about it. Why? I don’t have an answer to that. For the main points of yesterday’s day of play, here’s our wires report. Get in touch The communication game. Yodel from the hills, twirl the rotary telephone. Or just send me an email. Details are in the sidebar box. The Sydney Test, day three, match three, and it’s still all to play for. The Australians got themselves out on day two for a moderate kind of score of 338, but it’s going to take a lot of hard work if the Indians are to match it. They scored 96 runs in 45 overs, barely 2 per over, against some extremely good bowling. Nathan Lyon looked dangerous throughout, Pat Cummins did too, and the pitch looks pretty difficult to score on. A few bits of misbehaviour, with some balls leaping or creeping, but mostly just slow and hard to time shots. So, 338 for India is a long way away. Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane make up the pair to resume, the two most reliable and senior players for India. They’ll need to do a lot of the spadework. Australia will be feeling very cheered up by Steve Smith’s return to the runs after his century on day two. India will be cheerful after another influential performance from Ravindra Jadeja, who was sensational with four wickets and the final thrill of a ridiculous run out to end Smith’s day and Australia’s innings. The deficit is 242, eight wickets in hand, and the forecast chance of rain has dropped to 20%. Here’s hoping. Shall we?