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Kohli epic leads action-packed day

Test match evenly poised after Indian batsmen flay 354 runs in three sessions

On a day book-ended by two of the most spectacular catches that Brad Haddin has snared in a career that is now destined to march on, India has once more taken the fight to their hosts on the back of a pair of inspired centuries.

While Virat Kohli’s peerless 169 was terminated when Haddin pulled in his second screamer in front of first slip off the day’s ultimate delivery, the Indian superstar shared the spotlight with Ajinkya Rahane who was dismissed earlier in the final session for 147.

In setting a new fourth-wicket benchmark at the MCG of 262, Kohli and Rahane have not only raised India’s hopes of saving a Test that looked to have drifted beyond their grasp yesterday, but may even have floated faint, improbable hopes of a victory.

Anyone who dismisses that notion has forgotten the 2006 Ashes classic in Adelaide where England piled on 551 in the first innings, Australia closed to within 38 runs by late on day four and then skittled the incredulous tourists for 129 inside 75 overs to romp home.

If that scenario has slipped memories in the broader cricket world, they will remain very much alive among the Australians who resume tomorrow nursing a lead of 68 with two Indian wickets and as many days remaining.

Having squandered a handful of chances in the field and with opener David Warner troubled by the badly bruised right forearm he injured yesterday, the Australians will be eyeing tomorrow as a day on which they can’t slip up if they are to regain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

India will resume at 8-462 with only the legitimate tailenders remaining, but as they found to their cost yesterday those final few wickets can deliver runs that are both useful to their own cause and endlessly frustrating to the opposition.

The scenario facing Australia at day’s end seemed an unlikely one just a few minutes after today’s resumption when Haddin first grabbed the spotlight.

The only scenario by which the day could have kicked off any better for the home team was if Ryan Harris had jagged with his first delivery instead of having to wait for the second.

But the manner in which it arrived more than compensated for the delay.

Having forestalled the mounting doubts over his batting by scoring a crisp half-century yesterday, the ‘keeper was then subjected to the sorts of whispers to which sportsmen closing in on age 40 are prone when he dropped a sharp but catchable chance off Josh Hazlewood’s bowling later in the day.

It wasn’t so much the degree of difficulty but the method he employed – thrusting his right glove at the ball as he sunk to his knees only to have it hit closer to his wrist before spilling to ground – elicited another collective ‘hmmmm’ from the hard markers.

So it was more than the realisation it was the beneficiary of that spill – Cheteshwar Pujara who had added only 13 more runs after the let-off – that caused Haddin to turn to the Australia dressing room and fling the ball skywards in satisfied defiance having held a screamer.

The satisfaction came from knowing it was a catch the equal of any in his tenure – indeed, any Test keeper’s career – as he flew instinctively to his right, plucked the ball in front of first slip’s face as if snatching an annoying mosquito and cradled it with his left hand as he returned to earth.

It was a far more fitting way to join an exclusive club of Australian glovemen – alongside Adam Gilchrist (416), Ian Healy (395) and Rod Marsh (355) – to complete 250 Test dismissals and on the evidence he tendered today then 300 is not out of reach.

Quick Single: Haddin adds to collection of classics

But any Australian hopes that such an early breakthrough might trigger the same sort of wicket-clattering free-fall that defined the final day of the second Commonwealth Bank Series Test in Brisbane were slowed as dismissals became harder to chisel as the morning progressed.

And became downright impossible for the next four hours.

Even though Brisbane century maker Murali Vijay surrendered his wicket in similar fashion to Pujara, with Shaun Marsh’s assured overhead catch at slip sparing Haddin more acrobatics – a placid, at times sluggish pitch meant batsman error remained the Australians’ best hope of further inroads.

Against batsmen the class of Kohli and Rahane, that was always going to be a long stretch.

Kohli began as he had finished in Adelaide where his elevation to the captaincy was accompanied by twin centuries, driving imperiously through the off-side when the bowling was full and swatting with confidence when they dropped short.

But as competent as he appeared from the time he came to the crease, Kohli was increasingly eclipsed by Rahane gifted his teammate a 26-run head start but soon joined him in a head-to-head race for the century mark.

Rahane’s cause was aided by some Australian catching efforts that rivalled those of India’s on the Test’s opening day for sloppiness.

The edge he offered on eight off Lyon could not be technically deemed a chance as it deflected sufficiently to miss Haddin’s waiting gloves and elude Shane Watson at slip on its way to the boundary rope.

But the gift he offered Lyon after lunch, when he was on 70, was an entirely different proposition.

Attempting to chip a full delivery down the ground, the 25-year-old instead bunted the simplest of catches at friendly pace, shoulder-high to the bowler who clasped it with all the surety of a basketball hoop.

The arrival of the second new ball an hour after lunch presented Australia’s best hope of separating the pair who by that stage had lifted their third-wicket stand close to 150 with both in sight of centuries.

As the simmering tussle between Mitchell Johnson finally bubbled over, the chance the home team sought arrived when Kohli (on 88) pushed forward and edged to Haddin’s right.

Perhaps expecting a repeat dose of his vice-captain’s early morning heroics, Watson was a split second late in throwing down his left paw and while the ball hit close to flush in the palm it failed to stick and frustrations only escalated.

In Johnson’s next over, with Kohli having not added to his total, the volatile Indian batsman aimed a pull shot at a short ball that spiralled from the top edge on a flight path likely to terminate near the square leg umpire – just a metre on from where Haddin’s exasperated sprint and dive finished.

Rahane won the race to three figures, quite some achievement given his pacemaker was one of the world’s pre-eminent batsmen riding a wave of form and almost as much emotion.

The fluent right-hander posted his third Test century – all scored beyond India in Wellington (NZ), Lord’s (UK) and now Melbourne – with a flashing drive at Watson that yielded sufficient bat to send it flying between slip and gully to the third man fence.

Three-and-a-half overs later Kohli posted his third of the series in a more authoritative manner, reaching to meet a full, flighted ball from Lyon and punching it between cover and mid-off in much the same fashion as he had started the day.

Milestones met, and with Kohli inconvenienced by cramps to both of his arms, the pair went after Johnson with no regard for his reputation or their own safety.

Kohli was especially brutal, smashing three consecutive short balls to various sections of the mid-wicket rope as their union passed 250, far eclipsing the previous best fourth-wicket stand at the ground that was held by Watson and Michael Clarke (194) against Sri Lanka two years ago.

Having galloped along at more than a run per ball after reaching their 200 partnership, Rahane lost his wicket in the pursuit of more runs when his attempted sweep of Lyon hit his back leg, triggering a flurry of late wickets that helped salve Australia’s ills.

Although the simple running chance muffed by substitute fielder Peter Siddle off Rahane’s replacement Lokesh Rahul added to the sting, as did the sight of Warner skirting the outfield and so inconvenienced by the blow he took to his right forearm in the nets yesterday he was forced to throw left-handed.

The only player likely to feel greater pain was Rahul who, prior to making it to the crease for his debut Test innings having spent four hours with the pads on, was described by his IPL mentor Tom Moody as a chance to bat at No.3 in place of Pujara come the final Test in Sydney.

Having been dropped off a poorly executed leg-side flick that lobbed the simplest of catches to Siddle, only to play an even less defensible slog sweep at the next delivery and hole out to backward square leg, he is more likely to be the first dropped rather than the first-drop when India’s next XI is finalised.

The day closed with Kohli's dismissal, and it was fitting that such a magnificent catch would end such a masterful innings. Haddin, as he had done in the morning's opening minutes, sprung to his - and even Watson's - right and pouched another sublime catch to give Johnson his first wicket of the day.