68th over: Australia 208-5 (Green 23, Paine 0) Australia’s captain to the crease, so he’s in prime position to dictate how Australia approach this match tactically from here. His lead is 302. He blocks Ashwin’s last two balls. WICKET! Smith lbw Ashwin 81, Australia 208-5 Raucous appeal from Ashwin bowling to Smith, flighted outside off, turning past the inside edge and hitting the pad in front of off stump! Umpire Reiffel thought there was a nick, I’d fancy, it looked like there might be. He says not out. But Rahane goes upstairs and DRS shows no nick, hitting just in line, and collecting leg stump flush. Ashwin is a man in the desert falling on his knees at an oasis. 67th over: Australia 206-4 (Smith 80, Green 22) Suddenly the game has become easy for Smith. The bowlers haven’t showed up after lunch. Another help-yourself way down leg from Siraj and it’s glanced for four. A few singles as well, the score passes 200 and the lead passes 300 in that over. 66th over: Australia 199-4 (Smith 74, Green 21) Ashwin from the other end, and he’s bowled poorly today at times. Another over with too many balls outside leg stump, and Smith sweeps one hard for four, then plays the standing paddle for a single. Smith has obviously had a strategy talk at lunch and decided to get things moving. He’s on for twin tons here... 65th over: Australia 194-4 (Smith 69, Green 21) Siraj resumes after lunch. Green pushes a single to cover, bringing Smith on strike. And Smith’s first ball after the break he hooks for six! Whoosh. Has a big swing at a ball down the leg side, top edge, clears the fine leg rope. Next ball, glanced for four. Leg side again, no good. Big over to start, a dozen from it. Lunch – Australia 181 for 4, leading by 276 in the third innings They’re in a commanding position, the Aussies. They can throw the bat after lunch or just grind on to a lead over 300. Either way, they’ll probably be declaring around tea time or a bit afterwards. India are missing two players with injury remember, with both Pant and Jadeja not fielding at the moment and an unknown quantity with the bat once the fourth innings comes. Smith has been pretty cautious and gradual today, adding 29 runs to his score in the session. Green has looked very good thus far. We’ll carry on in half an hour. 64th over: Australia 181-4 (Smith 58, Green 20) Ashwin with the last over before lunch. Smith chops a run away to point. Green circles like a caged animal after each delivery, thinking and breathing and preparing. Short leg, leg slip, slip, short midwicket, but he shovels the last ball behind square for one more run. He’ll have the strike after lunch, and the lead is 276. 63rd over: Australia 180-4 (Smith 57, Green 19) Driven down the ground by Green for four. Siraj doesn’t overpitch by much, but Green sends a garbage truck back through the ball. A lot of power and a broad blade. Siraj hits back two balls later, so nearly having Green lbw again but for a tiny inside edge! Rahane doesn’t review because he’s confident he heard the nick, and he was right. So was Umpire Blocker Wilson. 62nd over: Australia 176-4 (Smith 57, Green 15) Ashwin losing his line outside leg stump again, Smith scrabbling a single behind square. Green flicks another. No rush. Six minutes till stumps. 61st over: Australia 174-4 (Smith 56, Green 14) Mohammed Siraj has a delay while he gets the ground staff to attend to the bowler’s footmarks. He bowls a maiden to Green, who’s content to play it out. I’m seeing some agitation online that Australia should be scoring faster to have more time to bowl, but the rule of thumb tends to be that if you have four bowlers, you’re not going to be effective bowling more than four sessions to win a Test. So, if you can’t do it in that time, you’re not going to get it done. So I reckon they’ll bat until tea unless they’re bowled out. Ruth Purdue writes in about the article we linked earlier about racist abuse from the stands. “Life bans please for those responsible for this behaviour. Surely with a reduced crowd it’s not hard to work out who it is. Cricket Australia should not be kind or sugar coat this in any regard with PR speak. If the team has changed in attitude (play hard but fair) then they too must show it.” 60th over: Australia 174-4 (Smith 56, Green 14) Ashwin flicks out the carrom like he’s rudely disposing of a cigarette, but he’s astray with his line and it goes down the leg side. Smith sweeps it away for one run. Green forces a run through point. Smith whips two runs through square leg – there’s a third umpire replay to see if Green got home with Ashwin whipping the bowler’s bails off, as Ashwin loves to do at any time, but Green is home despite not sliding the bat. Leg side again, and Smith plays the stand-up paddle sweep a la Sachin Tendulkar but can’t beat the fielder behind square. 59th over: Australia 170-4 (Smith 53, Green 13) Siraj bowling to Green, who is batting out of his crease this innings after being done lbw in his last couple of hits. Shifting forward, shuffling back, he’s using his feet a lot even to the fast bowler. Stands still to the fifth ball and clips two runs off his pads. The Australian lead is 264, if you’re wondering, which in my humble is already well past what India can make batting fourth. After Headingley though I doubt you’ll see Tim Paine set any team less than 400 if he has the choice. 58th over: Australia 168-4 (Smith 53, Green 11) Ashwin to Smith, six shots in the over and every one goes leg side, Smith working with the spin to defend or to score. No run until the final ball, which Smith gets fine for two, but until that point he kept playing into the leg-side net. 57th over: Australia 166-4 (Smith 51, Green 11) Mohammed Siraj back into action, the top-knot flying in the breeze. To Green he’s bowling straight and sometimes short. Green misses a pull shot to a ball that wasn’t short enough. Half an hour until lunch, now. Green just wants to bat through. 56th over: Australia 166-4 (Smith 51, Green 11) Ashwin to bowl now, ending a three-over spell from Bumrah that does nothing to dispel the idea that he’s sore. Ashwin bowls a few balls over the wicket, then comes around the wicket. Catchers on the leg side to Green, trying to get him to pop something up. Green uses his feet to defend, and finds a run to square leg from the sixth ball. 55th over: Australia 165-4 (Smith 51, Green 10) Smith takes a moment to compose himself, facing out a maiden over from Saini. Fifty! Smith 50 from 134 balls 54th over: Australia 165-4 (Smith 51, Green 10) Bumrah bowls short and Smith pulls a run past that leg gully down to the man in the deep. There’s his milestone, to follow his century in the first innings. That makes it the ninth time that he’s made a hundred and a fifty in the same match. They add a couple more singles to follow. 53rd over: Australia 162-4 (Smith 49, Green 9) Saini to continue and he nearly has Smith caught at leg gully. Again! So many times for Smith. Same shot, flicks it away, airborne, and it dips on Gill late and bounces in front, but he wasn’t very fast to try moving forward. Might have got under it if he’d been anticipating it, but perhaps that’s unrealistic given the time he had. Smith plays the same shot next ball for a single. Green faces out a few, then the last ball of the over he strides forward and drives through extra cover for four. That had authority. 52nd over: Australia 157-4 (Smith 48, Green 5) Bumrah to Green, beating him with a really testing delivery outside the off stump. Bowls fuller and straighter the next couple, Green getting his huge forward stride in to defend. Then drives at the fifth ball and edges it for four! Could have had a second slip for the new batsman against your premier bowler. Pujara is standing at about second slip, but he’s the only one in the cordon. That ball goes through third slip. 51st over: Australia 153-4 (Smith 48, Green 1) Another top over from Saini, cranking his pace up, hitting an uncomfortable length. Green manages to jab a single behind square to get off the mark and off strike. Smith gets an unpleasant ball that splices him, making him yank the bottom hand off the bat. Now, here’s an extremely disheartening story. Really grim. I’m not sure why it’s being reported as “alleged” given that no one has been named. 50th over: Australia 152-4 (Smith 48, Green 0) Smith starts to accelerate as the wickets fall, as he did at times in England in 2019. Bumrah comes back to try to prise this opening wider, but he overcooks one ball outside off stump and Smith destroys it through cover. In picturesque fashion, but destroys it nonetheless. The follow-up balls from Bumrah are more challenging, on the stumps and using that variable bounce, one a bit low and one a bit high. So it does look like Smith’s approach might be to attack anything wide, defend anything straight, given that erratic bounce. WICKET! Wade c Saha b Saini 4, Australia 148-4 49th over: Australia 148-4 (Smith 44) Drinks break, then Saini continues to Smith. Tapping, walking, watching, blocking. Tapping, walking, dispatched through cover point for four! Hurled his hands at that one outside his off stump, took it off a length with a square slash. That’s fierce. But from the fifth ball, Smith works a single, and from the sixth... a perfect delivery from Saini! Around the wicket, very wide, angled in, seaming away, and Wade trying to defend can’t deal with the length. That was absolutely perfect to make him play but let it deck away. What a ball, caught behind! Saha might be on for the record for catches by a substitute. 48th over: Australia 143-3 (Smith 39, Wade 4) Smith takes a single first ball, and Ashwin immediately comes around the wicket to the left-handed Wade, giving the ball lots of loop outside his off stump. Pitching on a nice length, turning the ball away from the bat by a distance. This will be the challenge for Wade: which ball turns, which ball comes on straight to hit his pad. 47th over: Australia 142-3 (Smith 38, Wade 4) So one of the Twitch Twins is gone, and Matthew Wade comes to the middle. He gets off the mark beautifully, smoked through cover for four! That’s so good. He looked a million bucks in the first innings, playing through the off side and middling his sweep shots that kept hitting short leg, then he got out to one of the most daft shots of his life. So if he can avoid the latter, he can do damage with the former. WICKET! Labuschagne c Saha b Saini 73 What a catch from Saha! Saini bowls at the hip of Labuschagne, who tries to glance it to fine leg. But the erratic bounce gets bigger on that occasion, and flicks the glove instead. It’s flying for runs but Saha comes in flying as well. Fully extended, diving to his left, launching off both feet and getting both gloves to the ball having turned sideways. He snares it miles down the leg side. And he won’t be credited with that catch to his Test record, because he’s a fielding substitute. 46th over: Australia 138-2 (Labuschagne 73, Smith 38) Reverse-sweep from Labuschagne. That’s tactical, with nobody out there behind point for the spinner, and it picks him up a comfortable boundary against Ashwin. He tries another reverse but mistimes it for a single, then Smith flicks a couple of runs square. 45th over: Australia 131-2 (Labuschagne 68, Smith 36) Saini bowling to Labuschagne who drives on the up, nicely through covers, looks like four except that Mayank Agarwal who is substitute fielding out there chases it and puts in an Indian Jones roll to stay parallel to the rope, flicking it back just in time. Three runs. 44th over: Australia 128-2 (Labuschagne 65, Smith 36) Against Ashwin, Labuschagne is happy to play the sweep shot and gets off strike. Smith is playing upright instead, stepping back onto his stumps and turning the ball to square leg. Basically playing it off the pitch. Looks comfortable enough despite the short leg fielder standing by. 43rd over: Australia 127-2 (Labuschagne 64, Smith 36) Hmm, it appears that Bumrah is off the field. Getting some running repairs. That dropped catch from his second ball starts to look all the more important, if that was him pushing through some injury to create that chance. Saini comes on to bowl this over, and one keeps low. It beats the inside edge as Smith tries to force square. Tricks in the wicket if you hit just the right spot. 42nd over: Australia 126-2 (Labuschagne 63, Smith 36) A maiden from Ashwin, though it’s not like Smith isn’t trying to score. Down the track, going back, turning to leg, but can’t beat the field. 41st over: Australia 126-2 (Labuschagne 63, Smith 36) Siraj pitches up a few to Smith before going short, and Smith plays an ungainly pull shot, falling over to the off side as he shovels it down to fine leg for a run. 40th over: Australia 125-2 (Labuschagne 63, Smith 35) Down the track comes Labuschagne and drives Ashwin for four. They’ve been very specific about going after Ashwin in this Test, and this wasn’t a convincing shot: he hit it flatter than intended, so that a straighter mid-off might have caught it. But that doesn’t happen. 39th over: Australia 119-2 (Labuschagne 58, Smith 34) A couple of singles from Siraj, Australia’s lead is up to 213. “Typing sleepily from Naples,” says Colum Fordham. “I thought Bumrah’s smile after Vihari dropped a straightforward catch from Labuschagne was the height of magnaminity. Had that been taken, it might have given the Indian team a vital lift. Both India’s quicks are bowling magnificently but, as the Aussie commentators are reiterating on my ever so slightly dodgy streaming site, catches win matches.Dropped catches invariably lead to lost matches. Not rocket science but true. Hope Ashwin can weave his magic but things looking ominous for India now.” I don’t want to talk this game down, but I think it’s pretty well done already. This pitch is getting harder to score on, India will be eight out, all out, given their injuries, and Australia could lose eight for none right now and still be the favourites to win with more than 200 runs for India to get. From here, the game is really whether India’s bowlers can slow the scoring so much that Australia can’t declare before tea, to reduce the time to bat for a draw. Even that’s a real long shot. 38th over: Australia 117-2 (Labuschagne 57, Smith 33) Here’s Ashwin now, the off-spinner. Bowling just outside off stump, aiming at the pads of the right-handers. Smith tucks away a single first ball, but Marnus looks vulnerable as he goes down to sweep, misses, gets hit on the pad, and survives an appeal because he’s hit outside the line of off stump. This is why that part of the Laws should go, in my opinion: the ball-tracker shows that it’s smashing off stump straight on, but the impact is outside off stump so it can’t be given out. There’s no good argument for that. Rahane was confident about the impact point, so he doesn’t send that decision up to the third umpire. Last ball of the over, a true outside edge from Labuschagne that gets him two runs. 37th over: Australia 114-2 (Labuschagne 55, Smith 32) There is some strike for Smith now, who pushes a single out to cover and runs sharply with the shot. There’s the difference between the teams: sharp decisive running, and a throw putting no pressure on the non-striker’s stumps. As opposed to what we saw yesterday, three run-outs thanks to poor judgement on one part and superb fielding technique on the other. India have not long lost a bowler in Jadeja but their best fielder by an absolute mile. No need for fielders as Siraj overpitches though, and Labuschagne drives straight for four. Lovely shot, big stride forward. 36th over: Australia 109-2 (Labuschagne 51, Smith 31) Bumrah keeps working away at the off stump of Labuschagne. A slip and a gully waiting. All defence. Another maiden. Ashwin is going to have to do a lot of work today, with Jadeja out. 35th over: Australia 109-2 (Labuschagne 51, Smith 31) Siraj follows up Bumrah with a beauty of his own, also searing past the outside edge of Labuschagne, poking the bat around off stump. After four balls he’s able to divert a single through the leg side. Smith has been facing little and scoring even less. Fifty! Labuschagne 50 from 82 balls 34th over: Australia 108-2 (Labuschagne 50, Smith 31) It hasn’t been smooth as yet, but Marnus has gathered the two runs he needed to take his overnight score to 50. A little drive past the bowler to mid-on, saved by the fielder tumbling across. That came after the batsman had been beaten conclusively by Bumrah decking the ball away from his edge on a good length. Just didn’t get the nick. 33rd over: Australia 107-2 (Labuschagne 49, Smith 31) Siraj starting well, shifting a ball into Labuschagne that bangs him on the pad, too high, and otherwise pinning him down until the final ball of the over is inside-edged away for a scruffy single. Tall and quick is Siraj, another of these bowlers with a very whippy bowling arm. 32nd over: Australia 106-2 (Labuschagne 48, Smith 31) Bumrah continues, and maybe the next over is even more deflating than the one where the catch goes down, because Smith has to play at every ball but defends them all away with control. Any bowler in this position could be forgiven for now thinking just how long the day ahead of them might be. Can the Indians create more chances? 31st over: Australia 106-2 (Labuschagne 48, Smith 31) Mohammed Siraj with the ball from the other end, an over with just a Smith single to the leg side. Reports coming in are that Jadeja’s thumb was dislocated, not broken. When he was hit he kind of had the thumb bent back rather than smashed, so that’s a different kind of painful. 30th over: Australia 105-2 (Labuschagne 48, Smith 30) The day begins, with Bumrah gearing up to bowl again. He’s done a power of work, this wonderful bowler, and he’s tired. Only his 17th Test match but he’s carried so much work for this team on tours away from home. Still never played in India. His first ball is blocked away, his second... Labuschagne is dropped! Oh, goodness. That was a simple chance, it was the trap that India have had baited and set all tour, and Labuschagne is spared. The leg gully that has been in position especially for this pair of batsmen. Labuschagne turns the ball off his legs, gets done by some extra bounce and hits it in the air. It dips as it approaches Vihari, who only has to take one sidestep to his left and get low to receive it. But he’s not in the right spot, doesn’t watch the ball all the way in, and it hits his wrist rather than his hand and spills away. Bumrah cannot believe it. He doesn’t rage, but he just smiles and smiles and smiles to himself for the rest of the over, shaking his head each time as he walks back to his mark. If you’d like the detailed summary of the day, there’s always me with Adam Collins doing our own wrap-ups on video each evening after play. With bonus picturesque Melbourne background and creative camera work. Here is the wires summary from the third day, if that’s of use to you. Get in touch The usual style. Pop an envelope in the internet with my address on it. That’s in the sidebar, and when I’m replaced by someone else then it will change to someone else’s address. That’s how we roll. Emma Kemp is taking the second half of the day. Preamble Hello again, it’s day four from Sydney, and from a Test series that looks very much changed by yesterday. It was a bruising day from Australia’s fast bowlers. They roughed up India on a pitch that was a bit hard to score and had some inconsistent bounce, but wasn’t hugely difficult to bat on, in theory. On a day when India were in a position to score more and match Australia’s 338, they were bowled out for 244, and it was hostility that did it as well as alertness in the field. Three run-outs and two Indian batsmen injured by the short ball, it was like a return to the way Australian teams of the past used to make tours to Australia impossible for shellshocked tourists from the subcontinent. We resume today with Australia 197 runs ahead, at 103 for 2 in the second innings, with Smith and Labuschagne to resume. Could be a hard day for India from here. Having Rishabh Pant off the field isn’t the biggest loss, as the substitute keeper Wriddiman Saha is generally better with the gloves, but fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah looks a bit sore too, and Ravindra Jadeja was the other casualty of the short ball yesterday and can’t bowl with a fractured left thumb. Can the others rally?