Match Report
Aus vs Ind (Third Test): India Comfortably Achieves 2-1 Lead
By Sandy - Dec 30, 2018 1:34 pm
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India took the safety lead of the ongoing four-match Test series against the hosts Australia after beating them in the third Test of the series at Melbourne by 137 runs. With this victory, India has taken the 2-1 lead in the four-match Test series with one to go.

India
Indian cricket team

The crucial day five had the small naturalistic drama before the game started. The day start delayed due to the rain and it forced to take the lunch 15 minutes earlier than scheduled.

However, it started just after the end of the lunch break and the visiting side took around just 15-20 minutes to secure the game. Starting the day on their overnight score 258/8 against the target 399 runs, Australia was bundled out for 261 runs. Among the overnight batsmen, Pat Cummins (63 runs) added only two runs before Jasprit Bumrah (7 runs) dismissed him while Nathan Lyon only added one run before Ishant Sharma ended his innings.

Among the Indian bowlers, Jasprit Bumrah (3/53) and Ravindra Jadeja (3/82) both picked up three wickets each while Ishant Sharma (2/40) and Mohammed Shami (2/71) picked up two wickets each. India won the game by 137 runs and has taken the 2-1 lead of the series with one Test to go, starting on 3 January at Sydney. As they have secured the series, India will retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy this time as they won it previous time on their home soil (won by 2-1 during 2016/17 season).

Indian Pacer Jasprit Bumrah won the Player of the Match award for his brilliant bowling efforts in this game as he finished with the match bowling figure of 34.5-7-86-9.

Earlier in the game, India declared their first innings on 443/7 after winning the toss. Four Indian batsmen played 50+ knocks and those were Cheteshwar Pujara 106, Virat Kohli 82, Mayank Agarwal 76 and Rohit Sharma 63*.

In reply, Australia was bundled out for just 151 runs after Jasprit Bumrah’s dominating spell 15.5-4-33-6. None of the Australian batsmen reached the 30-run mark while the highest score was just 22 (Marcus Harris and Tim Paine).

India decided not to force the hosts for follow-on and scored 106/8 before another declaration. While only two Indian batsmen played 20+ knocks – Mayank Agarwal (42) and Rishabh Pant (33), Australian pacer Pat Cummins dominated that innings with the bowling figure of 11-3-27-6.

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