[srishiva]

When you swing, you need to pitch up. Not bowl short. Need to keep them on tenterhooks and doubting.
Hope we do good and Kohli comes back as batsman. RCB then buys Rahane and continues as captain Nice dream?

[kannan666]

Australia bowled out for 195, they are yet to cross 200 in this series ! Hope we come up with decent batting this time around and try and get a deciding first innings lead if possible.

[PPS]

Find it hard to believe that Indian bowlers managed to take out the Australian tail so cheaply!

Meanwhile, Australian bowlers are really steaming in. Work cut out for our batsman.

[NPV]

Gill almost made Jadeja drop a catch, these fielding moments can sometimes go awfully wrong, got lucky today though. Gill also got lucky getting a life from a dropped catch, hope he goes on to get a decent score.
India ended on 36/1, damn, that number is a scary one now

[VWAllstar]

That was a good day for bowlers in Australia. Very few times we get to say this. Reading all previous posts and feel there is some good contention for KL Rahul in the playing XI. Considering the performance and technical flaws of Mayank Agrawal, we should not be surprised if we see Rohit and Rahul opening the innings with Gill slotted in for Vihari.
Hoping to see a century from Gill tomorrow and a good 150* by Pujara.

[Vinod_nair]

Exciting 4 days of a classic test match left, hope it doesn't collapse and end on day 3.

[harry10]

Good debut for Siraj and Gill so far. Siraj bowled a very good line and length throughout and Gill looked solid barring the drop by Marnus.

Bumrah and Ashwin were the stars today. Smith going cheaply is a great thing as he has been our primary tormenter. Paine run out went against us but didn't cost us badly. I believe this is the best 11 among the available players and if we can't win this match then any further changes ain't gonna do miracles.

MCG pitch traditionally produces lots of runs but this one looks a little helpful to bowlers. Still, if we manage close to 300 then Aussies will be under tremendous pressure.

Mayank needs to correct his backlift which isn't too difficult to manage. Hopefully, he does better in second innings.

Also, thankfully we grabbed all catches.

[phamilyman]

My favorite podcaster GreatBong aka Arnab Ray wrote a podcast on this - sorry no transcript to copy in:
https://anchor.fm/appodcast/episodes...I-guilt-eo1jo5
OR
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcas...=1000502985804

Key themes:
- Countries need to choose T20 vs test cricket
- Australia and India have made exactly different decisions on this one
- Kohli's choice of Shastri as a yes man coach
- How this could've been the moment for any Indian cricketer to shine even as the chips were down - whether it is Kapil Dev's iconic 175 or VVS's 281 vs Australia

All in, an amazing take on this utter capitulation by the Indian team.

[NPV]

Gill and Pujara out - Pat Cummins finally gets rewarded for his relentless accuracy and speed. India 64/3, hope there isn't a batting slide from here.

Gill lived quite dangerously with some inside edges and dropped chances, but also played some confident shots in between, decent debut innings and luck favoured his as well.

[vibbs]

Gill had a lucky stay at crease yesterday. Thank fully it was Australians dropping the catches in this match. Hopefully we would be able to make use of this.

Rahane and Vihari need to contribute with fifties atleast and then some usefull contribution from tail. If we have to get any chance of chasing what Aussies set us, we need a sizeable lead in the first innings.

[VWAllstar]

Originally Posted by vibbs

Rahane and Vihari need to contribute with fifties atleast and then some usefull contribution from tail. If we have to get any chance of chasing what Aussies set us, we need a sizeable lead in the first innings.

Vihari has got out after being a bit greedy. Played well throughout his short stay however need to learn from Pujara / Rahane on how to carry on the grind. All eyes on Pant now. He has been preferred over our best wicket keeper. We need either of these two to score a century and some another 100 runs from Jadeja, Ashwin and tail.

[vibbs]

What an inspired innings this has been by Rahane. Captain's knock so far.

Strangely though, the second new ball is doing nothing for the Aussie bowlers.

[hemanth.anand]

Originally Posted by vibbs

What an inspired innings this has been by Rahane. Captain's knock so far

True...a 100, the first 100 of the series so far, in the 100th test match between India and Australia.

Strangely though, the second new ball is doing nothing for the Aussie bowlers.

a new ball always either gets quick wickets or on the contrary increases the scoring speed. It would've been a different story if Smith had caught that catch of Rahane at slips or if the ball hadn't popped out of Head's hands.

All in all, a good wicketless 3rd session for India. A good 82 run lead to build on for tomorrow. 150 run lead seems very much possible now

[Venkatesh]

A look at the Honours Board at the MCG.



Rahane scored a Test century in 2014 and here he is today all set to get his name engraved again.



Link

[pandey.jai]

Aussie bowlers especially Cummins bowled a great line today. I wonder how much of a role the lack of left handers in the Indian top order helped matters.

There is a general lack of variety in the Indian batting these days - everyone is a right handed batsman who does not bowl.

The selectors need to look at including or identifying talent that offers some variety in the batting order.