Australian great Allan Border felt India missed an opportunity to seal the Boxing Day Test against Australia and put themselves in control of the four-match series by not enforcing a follow-on on Friday. India, at the back of a fantastic 6/33 spell by Jasprit Bumrah, bowled out Australia for just 151 runs but despite a lead of 292 runs, Virat Kohli and the Indian think thank decided to bat again.

As India looked to add runs on the board, Pat Cummins came up with a brilliant spell that saw him dismiss Hanuma Vihari for 13, Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli for a duck and Ajinkya Rahane for 1. By stumps, India were 54/5 with a lead of 346 runs.

Despite the big lead, Allan Border felt that the bowling performance might have given Australia a glimmer of hope of saving this Test.

"You would like to think so [that Australia can come back into this] and I think this afternoon's cricket has obviously given the Australia a little bit of hope but the lead now almost to that stage where it's going to be hard to chase down. The pitch is still playing okay and we know it doesn't deteriorate too much over here the next couple of days.

India vs Australia, Boxing Day Test: DAY 3 REPORT | HIGHLIGHTS | SCORECARD

"India are still in the box seat but they've left the door slightly ajar for the Aussies," Border said at the post-day show on Sony Sports.

Experts and commentators were surprised that an aggressive captain like Kohli chose not to enforce the follow-on despite the big lead and when they came on to bat, Cummins's inspired spell rolled them over.

Border was of the opinion that even though the lead was still huge, with the prediction of rain on Saturday and Sunday, it surprised him that India decided to bat again. Since Kohli has taken up Test captaincy, India have enforced follow-on five times - they won four by an innings while one was a rain-truncated draw against Bangladesh in Fatullah.

"I was really surprised that follow-on wasn't enforced given that talking about high percentage of rain on Day 5 and even tomorrow some rain. So just with that lurking in the background, I thought you've got all the momentum you way, you've bowled Australia out and Bumrah has been fantastic. You've only bowled like what 67 overs so I thought you could mix and match your bowlers this afternoon and get them freshen over the night and attack Australia in the morning.

"So they could have had the game just about done today and even if you gotta chase, say Australia have batted extraordinarily well and you've got to chase 120-140, this pitch here can get those runs. Look I thought India missed an opportunity to really seal the game but they've still got the higher ground," Border further said.

However, Border still felt that India had the match under their grasp.

"India have got the ascendency, they've got a fantastic bowling line-up. Bumrah has been quite phenomenal in the series and today he was tremendous. Just with that bowling attack India do have, I just think they'll wrap this game up but as I said, just this afternoon's cricket has given Australia a little bit of an outside chance."

Border and Michael Clarke were concerned about the Australian batting line-up and the lack of big runs especially on the top. Border even joked with Clarke that he has got to get back to batting for Australia to score big.

"It's [Australian batting] been a concern and you've [to Clarke] been watching the last 19 Test matches, I think we've made like one Test hundred in that time. I mean you're not going to win many games with that kind of scenario.

"You've [to Clarke] got to strap back your pads yourself, you've been practicing in the nets, haven't you?" Border joked.

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