05:12

Australia armwrestled their way into clear ascendancy today, after a grinding early partnership between Usman Khawaja and Tim Paine set them up. Both batsmen managed to cobble together what may be a match-winning partnership - withstanding a barrage of near-fearsome Indian pace bowling. They eked out one’s, two’s, and multiple blows to the hand and body to eventually give Australia the edge, before a flurry of wickets saw India storm back into contention. 190-4 quickly became 207-9 - yes, Australia lost 5-17 - before a crucial 36 run partnership between Lyon and Hazlewood took some sting out of India’s ambition. For India, Shami was the destroyer with 6-56, ably assisted by Bumrah and Sharma in particular.

Starc and Hazlewood kicked things off with the ball for Australia, leaving India 13-2 at one point, before a steady partnership between Kohli and Murali Vijay threatened to bring India back into it. However, cometh the hour, cometh the Goat - and it was Nathan Lyon who dismissed Kohli, who to that point had batted impervious to the fact seven wickets had fallen for fifty-odd runs prior to his arrival. From there, India batted positively, but without the requisite precision to give themselves much hope tomorrow. Murali Vijay followed soon after, before Rahane gave it away, slicing one from Hazlewood to point.

There’ll be plenty of talk about the wicket and its fluctuating character, as well as on field verbals between Paine and Kohli, but ultimately it’s been hard-nosed cricket that has secured Australia the advantage here. They’ve hung in there through the tough batting periods a little better than India, and should be able to make the most of their advantage tomorrow.

Thanks for joining me this evening, we’ll catch you back here tomorrow.