India 296 and 164 for 3 (Kohli 44*, Rohit 43) want one other 280 runs to beat Australia 469 and 270 for 8 dec (Carey 66, Labuschagne 41, Starc 41, Jadeja 3-58, Shami 2-39, Umesh 2-54)

Below shiny skies and on an Oval pitch that appeared to ease out in opposition to all expectations, India’s batters arrange a probably thrilling remaining day, racing to 164 for 3 at greater than 4 an over to maintain alive their pursuit of a world-record fourth-innings goal. Australia stay favourites, with India needing an extra 280 on the ultimate day, however they might have plenty of onerous work forward of them to take the seven remaining wickets, with the second new ball 40 overs away.

India might have nonetheless felt somewhat cross with themselves at stumps, although, dropping maybe a wicket greater than they’d have favored by then, two of them to aggressive photographs. Rohit Sharma was lbw to Nathan Lyon, lacking a sweep from a stump-to-stump line, and Cheteshwar Pujara toe-ended an tried ramp over the slips off a Pat Cummins bouncer.

Each batters will argue, although, that these are photographs they normally play nicely. They may even argue that the identical positivity had helped them sew a second-wicket stand of 51 in 77 balls. The 2 wickets, nonetheless, fell within the area of 5 balls, turning 92 for 1 to 93 for 3.

It was the right opening for Australia to bulldoze by means of, however Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane had been having none of it. They ended the day reprising the identical positivity that had gone earlier than, placing on an unbroken 71 for the fourth wicket, with each batters trying in glorious ball-striking rhythm. Circumstances, too, did not appear to check them, with the pitch displaying far much less tendency to supply inconsistent bounce than it had carried out by means of the primary three innings of the match. Kohli and Rahane ended the day with management percentages of 93 and 97 respectively.

As they safely negotiated the final over of the day, a largely India-supporting crowd was in superb voice, a bit of them belting out this quantity from the 1975 blockbuster Sholay: “yeh dosti, hum nahin todenge [we’ll never break this friendship].” Australia will need to break it as quickly as attainable when day 5 dawns.

The group had been far much less happy some…..

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