4th Test
Day-4 Morning Session Highlights:
India’s new-ball threat has kept the Australia team on edge
At The Lunch of Day-4:
Australia scored 474 (1st Innings) & 53/2 (2nd Innings), where as India scored 369 (1st Innings).
So, finally Australia lead by 158 runs.
Marnus Labuschagne miraculously survived India’s probing new-ball attack to help guide Australia to 53/2 at Lunch on Day 4 at the MCG, alongside Steve Smith.
This came after Australia had secured a first-innings lead of 105 runs.
India added 11 runs to their overnight score of 358/9 before Nitish Reddy was dismissed, caught out off Nathan Lyon.
This followed a controversial third umpire’s call on a catch in the slips involving Mohammed Siraj, which frustrated Pat Cummins.
Siraj had attempted to fend off a yorker-length delivery from the Australian captain, only for it to fly off the outside edge to Steve Smith at second slip.
The umpires were unsure whether the ball carried cleanly and referred the decision upstairs.
Despite a lack of conclusive evidence, the third umpire ruled the ball had bounced after hitting the edge of the bat and declared it not out.
Cummins, displeased with the decision, requested a review, only to be informed that no review option was available.
Australia, however, wrapped up the innings with the final wicket before India could add another run.
Jasprit Bumrah then claimed the second round of his battle against the young and aggressive Sam Konstas, cleaning him up with a nip-backer from length, much to the crowd’s delight—echoing Konstas’ earlier celebration.
Bumrah then tormented the struggling Usman Khawaja, repeatedly beating the outside edge of his bat, but the opener survived the spell.
Bumrah nearly set up Khawaja by getting the ball to move inwards after several deliveries deviated away.
Yashasvi Jaiswal, stationed at leg gully, couldn’t hold onto a flick Khawaja played in his direction.
Akash Deep bowled a tight spell from the other end, repeatedly squaring up Marnus Labuschagne but unable to induce an outside edge.
India was superb with the new ball, but the results didn’t match the quality, as they induced 41.6% false shots in the first 10 overs but only claimed one wicket.
After a brief break, Bumrah returned to the attack from the other end, once again beating Labuschagne several times, even getting him to miss the drive, but without success.
Mohammed Siraj, shaking off his earlier ineffective spell, then breached Khawaja’s defense, knocking back his off-stump to end the opener’s misery.
Smith then joined Labuschagne in playing-and-missing against India’s bowlers, but like his batting partner, he enjoyed some luck as the pair managed to see Australia through to Lunch without further damage.
Leave a Reply