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Match Report:

Scorecard

Aussie hopes slip away on tough day

India need 87 more to win Border-Gavaskar Series after bowling out Australia on third day

A more contemporary iteration of the history that so haunted Australia coming into this epic India series now looms as their last forlorn hope of plucking a rare India triumph that burned so bright before fading faster than a Himalayan dusk today.

India enters day four of the final Test of the campaign that remains balanced at 1-1 needing 87 runs with a full batting complement available after the visitors were rolled over for 137 this afternoon on the best pitch they have encountered on this trip.

Possibly the best one they will find in India for as long as they keep coming back, which makes the state of the Test they have held in their hands numerous times but never quite managed to tame all the more galling.

But if one theme has been woven through every day of this series since the first Test at Pune, which Australia dominated utterly, it is that just when trends and outcomes seemed apparent it turned more sharply than Kuldeep Yadav's wrong-un from the rough.

It is that belief in what has come so recently before rather than the inevitability of a series defeat that has been the destiny of most teams to precede them – and was forecast for this resilient outfit when they arrived here – that might steel the Australians for one final tilt.

After they capitulated in barely 50 overs this afternoon, setting India a nominal victory chase of 106 to win the Test, the series and the Border-Gavaskar Trophy that they surrendered in Australia two years ago.

More than that, India have proved themselves the best Test outfit in the world – certainly in their own conditions – by completing an absurdly hectic home summer that stretched 13 Test matches against four opponents for a solitary defeat thus far.

And have largely been the better team in this decisive fixture, outperforming their hard-nosed foes in close catching, spin bowling and – decisively, given the unexpected nature of Dharamsala's maiden Test pitch – the seam bowling stakes.

The only clear advantage the Australians wielded throughout three fluid days was the batting superiority of their captain Steve Smith on day one, and which briefly threatened a reprise today.

When Smith again found himself at the crease with no foundation beneath him, and stroked three effortless boundaries before erring in pursuit of a fourth.

India seamers remove Warner, Smith early

That came after India's quicks Bhuvneshwar Kumar (playing his first Test of the four-match series) and Umesh Yadav inflicted some serious mental doubt in Australia's top-order when the ball was new and hard, and excised three vital wickets before their team's first innings advantage of 32 was erased.

Blasting out openers David Warner and Matthew Renshaw, who had worn a brutal opening spell with the ball spitting and flying from the lively and cracking surface, and then Smith who had again looked imperious until shown fallible by chopping on to his stumps.

Image Id: DA9008A0AB0D4C419BD0318164BFD277 Image Caption: Warner was ruffled by the short ball in the second innings // BCCI

Such has been the dominance of the Australia captain among all comers in this most compelling series – he posted almost 500 runs at more than 70 across four Tests – that when he fell in the ninth over, many felt his team's hopes of forcing a win left the field with him.

Even though Australia were but two-down and a couple of runs from taking a lead, in a Test that had yet to reach its mid-point.

But once the quicks had opened a path to a middle-order that has been resolute but rarely menacing without the skipper's presence, the spinners rolled in to take care of the clean-up.

Image Id: 59742EA6968542E68E72D22F762791B5 Image Caption: Steve Smith departs, bowled off a bottom edge for 17 // BCCI

Peter Handscomb and Glenn Maxwell undone by Ravi Ashwin, India's premier spinner who was identified as their most dangerous weapon pre-series but was kept until third-change today.

And Shaun Marsh, who was shuffled down the batting order to number six after jarring his back during Australia's frustrating morning session in the field, snaffled by Ravindra Jadeja as he pushed stiffly at a ball that popped obligingly for short leg.

Maxwell leads way as Aussie bats falter

Marsh's removal that coincided with the tea break meant Australia began the final session 60 runs in front with seven sessions to play and Maxwell – proud owner of his first Test century at Ranchi the previous week – seemingly the only genuine hope of pushing that target towards the 200 that was thought defendable.

Less than half an hour after the break, Maxwell went for an innings-high 45 from 60 balls that on some occasions showed the potential to lift Australia to the brim of the hole they had topped into.

Image Id: B1D9B46B207B4F05BE10297792BDE925 Image Caption: Maxwell top scored in Australia's second innings with 45 // BCCI

But was just as likely to crash short of its target, so fine was the line between taking on the game and being game for anything.

Once the allrounder was excised the latter half of the innings fell away like the bottom of a sodden cardboard carton to the familiar spin threat of Ashwin and Jadeja, with Australia's last five wickets adding just 45 (with 25 of those coming unbeaten from Matthew Wade).

And just as this series has yielded more turns than the switchback road from Dharamsala to the Dalai Lama's residence at Mcleodganj, there was one more unpleasant flashpoint as the shadows lengthened on a fractious contest.

India opener Mural Vijay claiming a low catch from Australia's last wicket Josh Hazlewood only for the home team to be stopped at the door of the dressing room and ordered back to the field when replays showed the ball had clearly hit the ground.

Which, in turn, prompted Smith to mouth his own allegation of unfair practices from the dressing room balcony to level the score with his rival (now injured) captain Virat Kohli, and prompting another outbreak of verbal warfare between not out batter Wade and several India fielders.

It delayed the end of Australia's innings by all of two deliveries and added a final pinch of piquancy to what has been an unpalatably spicy battle, but one that now seems destined to end in favour of the overwhelming favourites.

Amid all the pre-tour previewing for this series, a message oft repeated by the Australians was a match can be lost – though rarely won – in the course of an inattentive hour or two.

And while this morning's wicketless first 60 minutes robbed Australia of the momentum they had clawed back through Nathan Lyon's bowling the previous evening, it was their pair of bookending batting calamities that were far more decisive.

DRS drama in firecracker start to day three

The 5-77 that crashed between lunch and tea on day one, and the equally disastrous 5-92 the tourists surrendered during the same session two days hence will long burn in the gut of Smith and his team.

The identifiable cause of that discomfort not being the by-product of seven weeks of chilli-infused cuisine and tummy churning expectation, but the knowledge they were ultimately brought undone by the opponent they feared least.

India's seam bowlers, on a pitch that got faster and bouncier as the game wore on, reminiscent of those famous Perth strips before that deck came to resemble a stretch of the Eyre Highway.

At one point today, with Australia barely in the lead and their first three batters already back in the sheds, India employed four men in close catching positions – as would be expected in the second innings of a subcontinent Test.

Except this was not a brace of blokes crouching within touching distance of the pitch, waiting to pounce on an inside edge caught by savage turn, or the ball that detonates in a puff of dust and loops off a glove.

These were three slips catchers set in staggered formation 20 metres behind the stumps, and a short square leg a metre or two off the pitch for the instinctive fend off the face.

Image Id: B2F4332079784C78A020690EDA974C24 Image Caption: Ashwin celebrates Handscomb's dismissal // BCCI

Terrain that should have been comfortably familiar to the tourists given it looked a lot like home, but which left their opening pair skittish and the world's best player victim to a self-inflicted wound.

That's not to say batting was as straightforward as India's seventh pair Ravindra Jadeja and Wriddhiman Saha had made it seem against a similarly new ball on the self-same pitch earlier in the day.

When they endured for more than 20 overs against Australia's taller, quicker seamers Hazlewood and Pat Cummins to take India to the lead and the visitors to the brink of combustion.

A frustration that took root from the day's opening delivery when Cummins had Jadeja given out caught behind only for the batter's immediate review to show his bat had clipped pad, not ball.

Image Id: 44F18B6B5B80476FB5D41F413F06D38E Image Caption: Jadeja signals for a review after day three's first ball // BCCI

And sprouted into escalating annoyance with each subsequent play and miss, declined appeal, and boundary that took India further into the ascendancy.

But the peril that lurked in a surface that was cracked and sporadically bare as well as being fast and bouncy was exposed when Jadeja dragged a wide, full offering from Cummins into his off stump.

India take 32-run lead as Aussies run through tail

From that point, India's tail dropped between its legs as they lost 4-15 in just six overs – a couple of those wickets to catches of brilliance by the irrepressible Smith – and the tourists were back in the game having restricted the deficit to 32.

Less than four hours later, the Test, the series and the chance to create some rare Australian sporting history lay in pieces at their feet.

And barring a final intrigue as unlikely as it might seem inevitable, the Border-Gavaskar Trophy with India.


Australia's schedule in India


Feb 23-27, First Test, Pune – Australia won by 333 runs.


Mar 4-8, Second Test, Bengaluru – India won by 75 runs.


Mar 16-20, Third Test, Ranchi – match drawn.


Mar 25-29, Fourth Test, Dharamsala