This morning was the fourth day of the Test Match at Melbourne Cricket Ground, where the Border-Gavaskar Trophy again provided an enthralling performance with Bumrah and Siraj’s spells. Australia found themselves on the receiving end for some time before they reversed the dominance to have India frustrated at the end of the day as they were unable to take out the Australian team’s last blows. This fluctuation made the game equally interesting; by stumps, Australia stretched their lead to 333 runs.
They also lost a thrilling last over bowled by Jasprit Bumrah while Nathan Lyon and Scott Boland remained unbeaten. In the fourth delivery of the third ball of the over, Bumrah gave a length ball to Lyon, who is moulded to defend. To the delivery, the batsman straightened up, got his bat to the outside edge, and the ball went flying towards the third slip. It was another terrible drop by KL Rahul, but on the second attempt to take the catch, he was very alert to trap the ball between his legs. The unusual dismissal proved great at that time, but once again, it was made worthless because it happened on a free-hit ball.
Lyon took advantage of the break and got two runs on the same ball to take Lyon bits and pieces of a 50-run partnership for the last wicket and Boland. This just turned out to be another jolt for the Indian bowlers when Lyon came up with some lusty hitting to take the Aussies past the 300 mark and then add another boundary on the last delivery of the day and take Australia past 333. It was for the second time in the match that Lyon and Boland, Australia’s last pair of wickets, were able to sustain aggressive Indian bowling for more than 50 balls. No other final-wicket pair has put up such an effort since Pakistan’s Afaq Hussain and Haseeb Ahsan made 144 for the last wicket against England in Lahore in 1961.
It threw the spirit and the doggedness of Australia’s lower order back into the series as the fused last act of the series looms large, ruminatively, for India.
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