MELBOURNE : Opener Chris Rogers smashed a half-century as Australia reached 174-4 at tea in their second innings, taking an overall 239-run lead against India on the fourth day of the third cricket Test, here today.
After polishing off the Indian tail early in the morning, Australia rode on David Warner’s pacy 40 and Rogers’ patient 69 to extend their lead before off-spinner R Ashwin picked up two wickets at the MCG here.
Rain intervened after lunch, resulting in a loss of 85 minutes of play and when play resumed, regular wickets fell to leave the hosts at 174/4 in 43 overs at tea, which was taken after an extended second session.
The scheduled close of play will be pushed by an hour to allow the day’s quota of overs to be bowled.
At the Melbourne Cricket Ground, in the morning session India were bowled out for 465 runs in their first innings, handing the hosts a 65-runs lead.
At tea, Shaun Marsh (15*) and debutant Joe Burns (8*) were the unbeaten batsmen.
After play resumed at the MCG, Rogers (69 runs, 123 balls, 8 fours) and Shane Watson (17) tried to increase their lead further and they were nearly helped by Shikhar Dhawan, who dropped a tough one-handed chance at second slip, diving in front of R Ashwin (2-21) at first slip.
Rogers, who was batting on 33 at that time, was the batsman to benefit against Ishant Sharma (1-38) in that 23rd over of the innings. The breakthrough came two overs later though as Ishant this time had Watson caught behind.
Steve Smith (14) came out to bat and took Australia past the 100-run mark in the 26th over adding 33 runs for the third wicket. Meanwhile, Rogers went on to score his fourth successive half-century of the series, getting to the mark off 81 balls, in the 28th over.
Four overs later his partnership with Smith was broken by Umesh Yadav (1-55) when the young skipper was caught by Ajinkya Rahane as the leg slip finally came into play.
With just 20 minutes left in the session, Ashwin returned into the attack and dealt a big blow to Australia, cleaning up Rogers in the 41st over, the batsman looking solid until then.
Marsh and Burns then negotiated the rest of the session without damage.
Earlier, the hosts had got off to a rousing start with Warner (40 runs, 42 balls, 6 fours) coming out to bat despite a bruised right arm to go with his already hurting left thumb.
He took first strike and smacked Yadav for three fours in his first two overs, racing to 18 off just 12 balls. He kept attacking the Indian bowling, giving his team an early push as they look to set an imposing fourth-innings’ target for India.
While he was at the crease, they were scoring at nearly six-per-over though things settled down a little after drinks break. The Australian 50-mark came up in the 12th over, 38 off those coming off Warner’s bat.
He was finally removed by Ashwin in the 15th over, LBW as the delivery hit him on the backfoot. Watson and Rogers then negotiated the six-plus overs left until the lunch break.
Earlier, Australia made quick work of the Indian tail as the visitors resumed at their overnight score of 462/8.
Overnight batsmen, Shami (12) and Yadav (0) lasted all of 15 deliveries as Mitchell Johnson (3-135) finished the job at hand without any fuss.
The fast bowler’s figures overnight had read 1/133 from 29.2 overs and this morning he finished with 3/135 from 30.5 overs.
He removed Yadav off the second ball of the day, caught behind by keeper Brad Haddin, and then needed five deliveries of the next over to get rid of Shami, caught by Steve Smith (0-11) at second slip. This meant India had collapsed from 409/4 to 465 all out in the space of 21.1 overs.
Ryan Harris (4-70), Nathan Lyon (2-108) and Shane Watson (1-65) were the other wicket-takers for Australia. Josh Hazlewood (0-75) was the other bowler deployed. (AGENCIES)
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