Australia 474 and 228 for 9 (Labuschagne 70, Lyon 41*, Bumrah 4-56, Siraj 3-66) lead India 369 (Reddy 114, Jaiswal 82, Boland 3-57, Cummins 3-89) by 333 runs
After staying in the match for much of the day, India were frustrated by Lyon and Boland, who put on a precious 55 runs and failed to separate themselves before the stumps on the fourth day. Lyon should have become Bumrah’s fifth wicket in the last over of the day when he reached third slip, where KL Rahul somehow held the ball between his legs, but an exhausted Bumrah had gone over the top. Lyon ended up taking 14 off the over to close the day with his second highest score in the Test.
However, at 99 for 6 came a potentially decisive moment when Labuschagne, on 46, was dropped into the gully by Yashasvi Jaiswal while trying to push the hapless Deep to third position. Jaiswal, who had bombed Usman Khawaja early in the leg gully, had a day to forget on the field as he also gave life to Cummins in the final over before tea when he missed a low chance at a silly point.
Labuschagne and Cummins extended their partnership to 57, and each run felt like gold dust before Labuschagne was beaten by Siraj, who had his best day of the series since Perth.
Any thoughts that Australia would freely increase their lead were soon dashed in the morning as India played excellently with the new ball on a pitch that offered more seam movement than previous days. This time Bumrah got the better of Sam Konstas when he put one through the gate and didn’t hold back in a celebration that seemed to mimic Konstas’s interactions with the crowd.
Bumrah moved the ball so much that it was sometimes impossible to hit, while both Akash and Siraj were challenging, although the former might have wanted to bowl the ball with a fuller touch. The benefit of bowling a fraction more was demonstrated when Siraj got a delivery through Khawaja. At one point in the morning session, the broadcast said Australia’s batsmen had been bowled 21 times in 18 overs.
Shortly after lunch it looked like Labuschagne and Smith, who had started the innings within 51 off 10,000 runs, were trying to pick up the pace, but any thought of that soon ended.
Siraj opened the door when Smith chased a wide delivery, then Rohit Sharma sensed a moment and immediately brought back Bumrah, who was impressive. On his second delivery, he made Head move forward to square leg and four deliveries later, he continued Marsh’s lean series with a delivery that climbed and grazed the glove. Marsh took 73 runs from seven innings (47 of which came in one over) and will likely be at the center of much debate ahead of the Sydney Test, regardless of the result here.
When Bumrah hit Alex Carey hard, the game threatened to turn upside down just 24 hours after India looked likely to concede a lead of over 200. Then came Labuschagne’s respite and Australia breathed again.
The score was never clear, but Labuschagne put together one of the biggest innings of his career, although at times he could only smile as another delivery whizzed past his edge. Overs like one from Deep that went for nine, with a boundary each for Labuschagne and Cummins, were like little swings of momentum.
When the pair survived Bumrah’s first spell after tea, it felt like a good result for Australia, but Siraj produced a superb delivery to win an lbw against Labuschagne that was upheld by the umpire’s decision.
Mitchell Starc fell due to a misunderstanding with Cummins and some brilliant work from Rishabh Pant who took off a glove to collect Reddy’s shot from deep and produced a direct hit to the non-striker’s side. Cummins then overtook Jadeja and fell having produced his highest number of runs in a Test.
Contributions from the lower teams have made Australia favorites, although nothing seems certain.
Andrew McGlashan is deputy editor of ESPNcricinfo
