Oz tour of India, Feb 9 - March 22

[Durhamfootman]

What to do? Try and accelerate the scoring tonight and for an hour tomorrow, or just keep batting and batting and try and completely shag out the Aussie spinners before the final test on Friday?

Do India just have to win the series to join Aus in the WTC final, or do they need 3 wins in the series as well? I can't remember what the permutations are

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4 more. Lead by 28. Every run will help India going into Day 5.

Bad over by Cameron. Two full toss. One missed by Virat and one hit for 4.

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Short and goes for 4 at DBSL. India 512/4. Leading by 32.

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50 for Axar on his homeground. Apart from one high risk sixer he has batted well.

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Sixer. Nicely tonked by Axar. Takes lead to 45

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Two sixers by Axar in the over by Matthew. Both well connected. Axar moves to 78 .

India 551/5 with lead of 71.

[sussexpob]

What to do? Try and accelerate the scoring tonight and for an hour tomorrow, or just keep batting and batting and try and completely shag out the Aussie spinners before the final test on Friday?

Do India just have to win the series to join Aus in the WTC final, or do they need 3 wins in the series as well? I can't remember what the permutations are

I think if they draw, it depends on SL v NZ....SL can qualify with two wins in that series.

I think they'll aim for a lead of 200 and 2 sessions to bowl

[sussexpob]

Axar falls 21 short of a 100.

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Starc bowls Axar. He was scoring runs easily. Hit 3 sixers and couple of fours and bought some time for India.

[meninblue]

What to do? Try and accelerate the scoring tonight and for an hour tomorrow, or just keep batting and batting and try and completely shag out the Aussie spinners before the final test on Friday?

Do India just have to win the series to join Aus in the WTC final, or do they need 3 wins in the series as well? I can't remember what the permutations are

Lead of 84 now. Less than an hour of play. Australian bowlers have slowed down over rate. Shreyas Iyer is not going to bat it seems in second innings as well. I would say take a cover of 120 runs lead and declare or get out whichever is earlier. India should not continue first innings tomorrow even if wickets are intact. 120 and declare.

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Ashwin caught trying to hit a 6. Lyon gets 3/150. Right approach by Ash. India should look to take advantage of this situation and see if Austrlaia crumble under pressure tomorrow.

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Virat dropped by Peter Handscomb trying to take a low catch running in.

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Tea break. Another good session for India. . India 472/5. Trail by just 8 tuns now.

Virat batting on 135. Axar on 38.

India should make Australia bowl atleast 180 overs. That is 22 more from now. I want to see that kind of batting in test where patience, determination and temperament of batting unit is at its peak. Will be special if that is acgeived inspite of being one specialist batsman shot.

This has to be that kind of innings from Team India.

India all out for 571. Batted for 178.5 overs. I would have liked if we would have made them bowl 180 overs, but making opponent bowl 178.5 overs with one specialist batsman short is a tremendous achievement in this age of T20 and impatience, lack of concentration etc. Very pleased by India's response to total of 480 after having been on filed for 2 days in hot climate.

Shubman had little break batting as opener to change between innings after having fielded for 167 overs. To score 128 after that is just great. Virat though got relatively more rest, played a cracking innings. Shreyas is suffering from back injury. Axar's 79 from 113 helped India buy time to put Australia under pressure. All first 6 partnerships for India were above 50 runs atleast. Everyone contributed to make this big total look not so tough. There is not much in wicket but Day 5 play is tricky as it brings pressure. Lead of 91 with little over days play is enough cover for India not to lose this test.

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Matthew takes strike as opener Ashwin to begin Indian bowling innings. SKY is probably in field as replacement of Shreyas.

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Edged but dropped by keeper. Should have been wicket for Ashwin.