India close in on victory as Australia face historic run chase at first Test in Adelaide
Australia were staring at defeat in the first Test, losing four wickets in a record run chase at the Adelaide Oval after being set a target 323 to win by India.
At stumps they were 104-4, needing another 219 for an unlikely victory with their fate resting on the shoulders of Shaun Marsh, who was 31 not out, and local boy Travis Head who remained unbeaten on 11.
India amassed 307 in their second innings with vice captain Ajinkya Rahane smashing 70 and first innings century-maker Cheteshwar Pujara a composed 71.
A late collapse got the crowd on their feet and gave Australia a flicker of hope, with India’s last four wickets falling for just four runs.
Spinner Nathan Lyon was the pick of the bowlers, taking six wickets for 122 runs off 42 overs. It was his 13th five-wicket haul in Tests. Mitchell Starc snared 3-40.
Australia still need to make history to win. The only successful fourth innings Test run chase of more than 300 at Adelaide came in 1902, when the hosts made 315 to beat England, with the biggest in modern times the 239 West Indies managed in 1982.
The home side can take some comfort, though, by Western Australia in a domestic match last month scoring 313 to beat South Australia here when Marsh was 163 not out.
“We definitely still believe we can win this. It’s just about coming out tomorrow, winning the first ball, the first over, the first hour,” Lyon said.
“Just simple cricket, we need to not complicate things and just go out there and enjoy ourselves and compete hard and fight our backsides off.”
India’s assistant coach Sanjay Bangar said he was disappointed his team’s tailenders could not add more runs, but praised Pujara and Rahane.
“There was a lot of resistence shown by Pujara and he was well supported by Rahane. We managed to scrape through to that total, and then bowlers were brilliant,” he said.
“Pujara and Rahane are two of our best Test players, they have put us in a good position.”
Australian opener Aaron Finch – who survived being given out lbw second ball when a review showed Ishant Sharma had overstepped the crease – made just 11 in his second failure of the match.
He was caught behind off spinner Ravichandran Ashwin when the ball whistled past his glove. He chose not to review the decision.
Replays showed the third umpire would have overturned it.
Debutant Marcus Harris matched his first innings score of 26, hitting three crunching boundaries before he was caught by Rishabh Pant off Mohammed Shami, getting an edge on an attempted cut shot.
Australia desperately needed the experienced Usman Khawaja to bat long but he came down the pitch to an Ashwin delivery and sliced it to Rohit Sharma for a difficult catch.
And when Peter Handscomb miscued a pull shot off Mohammed Shami on 14 to Pujara, they were in deep trouble.
Finch was caught behind but chose not to review the decision. Replays showed the third umpire would have overturned it