04:53

A gripping day, with a quality contest that has moved one way and then the other, without finally making a categorical shift. It’s been stubborn cricket, and while it hasn’t moved fast on the scoreboard, you couldn’t call it sedate. It’s been a quality fight back and forth all day.

Australia ground their first innings out to 326 during the first session, but after Paine and Cummins batted over an hour, India would have been relatively pleased to wrap things up where they were. It was a decent score without being huge. But things looked very grim for the visitors when both openers were gone with 8 runs on the board.



That was the situation that Pujara and Kohli had to salvage. They did so with a partnership worth 84, but the relatively slow pace meant that India was still a long way short of safety when Pujara nicked down the leg side. Rahane came out and counterattacked at first, then settled down into the next partnership. Kohli adjusted his pace throughout, attacking when opportunities came, defending when the bowling demanded it.

That partnership now stands at 90, and India will be feeling energised with the Australians a little deflated. But moving themselves out of the emotion of the moment, Australia still have a huge advantage in the match. The lead remains at 154, and with India’s fragile lower order and questionable middle, one more wicket could easily see the rest slide away.

So we’ll resume tomorrow with that key partnership resuming, with Kohli eyeing yet another century, and Rahane to show what he can do after a vital innings of 70 in Adelaide.

Australia, meanwhile, will hope their fast bowlers can rest up enough to provide the sort of quality we saw today, attacking the channel and beating the edge time and again, and making runs very difficult to come by.

We’ll be back with you first thing before tomorrow’s play. In the second session, I’ll bring you some responses to Robert Wilson’s question on how best to artistically represent the life of Sir Isaac Vivian Alexander Richards. Till then.

