Usman Khwaja Catch. (Photo Source: Twitter)
Australia have tightened their grip on the third Test at the Holkar Cricket Stadium, Indore on Day 3 as they got a lead of 88 runs in the first innings. The Kangaroos scored 197 in reply to India’s first innings total of 109.
India had a huge deficit to eat up before they looked to set a target for Australia. After Matthew Kuhnemann picked up a fifer in the first innings, it was Nathan Lyon’s turn to wreak havoc in the second innings.
The veteran spinner picked up three wickets in the first 31 overs of the innings to leave India reeling at 78/4. Shreyas Iyer walked in at no. five and looked to attack the spinners straight away. He quickly moved to 26 off 25 balls with the help of three boundaries and two sixes. Seeing Iyer take on the spinners, captain Steve Smith brought speedster Mitchell Starc back into the attack and the ploy worked straight away.
On just the second ball of the over, Iyer flicked a delivery on his pads towards mid-wicket but failed to keep it down. Usman Khawaja, who was stationed at short mid-wicket, dived towards his left and completed a spectacular catch to send Iyer back into the pavilion.
Watch the dismissal here:
Coming back to India’s innings, only Cheteshwar Pujara could stand tall against the spin dominance of Nathan Lyon as he scored a brilliant half-century. The Australian spinner ended up picking a five-wicket haul as he got the prized scalps of Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin and Srikar Bharat.
India were 53 runs ahead after 49 overs with just three wickets in hand with Pujara (51) and Axar Patel (1) at the crease (at the time of writing this article).
Earlier in the Day, Ravichandran Ashwin and Umesh Yadav sparked a dramatic collapse of the Australian batting line-up as they picked up three wickets each in the first session. Courtesy of their efforts, Australia went from 186/4 to 197 all out. Ashwin ended with figures of 3/44 after 20.3 overs while Yadav picked up 3/12 after five overs. Ravindra Jadeja also picked up 4/78 in 32 overs.
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