There was nothing much to differentiate between India and Australia after the first innings, with Australia securing one run first innings lead.
India struggles
In response to Australia’s 263, India was struggling at 135/7 at one stage. A brilliant partnership between Axar and Ashwin helped them to narrow the lead to one run.
Earlier in the day, Nathan Lyon picked up three wickets in quick time to put India in the back foot. Murphy and Kuhnemann pitched in with a wicket each in the first seven wickets before Ashwin and Axar rebuilt the innings.
Cummins managed to break through dismissing Ashwin with the new ball, and soon India wrapped up for 262.
Aussies play BazBall
Warner was not available to open and substituted with Matt Renshaw for the test match. However, it was Travis Head, who opened with Usman Khawaja in the second innings.
While Khawaja departed early in an attempt to attack Jadeja for the second time in the over, Head and Labuschagne continued to accelerate the scoring.
It was much similar to the way England played under Stokes and Baz for a short period on the second day. Labuschagne scored three boundaries in the second over of Jadeja.
Head scored the bulk of the runs and hit the boundary now and then, including a massive six in Ashwin’s over.
It looked like the Aussies came up with the intent to put runs on the board for the period they batted in the last hour on day two.
Head scored almost run a ball with Labuschagne giving him the perfect support with attacking from the other end. They put up 50 runs on board in the 10th over and took Australia to 61/1 at stumps.
The overall lead is just 62 at the moment. India will have the task to fight back and pick up early wickets to restrict the Aussies to a small second innings score as the pitch will deteriorate further as the game progress.
