Australia 348 ahead at the end of Day 4 of 4th Test against India in Sydney
Australia led by 348 at the end of Day 4
By Nishad Pai Vaidya
Jan 9, 2015
On Day Four of the fourth Test between India and Australia, the hosts went on to extend their lead to 348 after bowling India out for 475. India managed to reduce Australia’s lead to under 100, but then the Australian batsmen took charge and went about scoring at more than a run-a-ball to set India a potential target for Day Five.
Resuming the day on 342 for five, India had to deal with an early blow as Virat Kohli was dismissed for 147. He played one from Ryan Harris straight to mid-wicket. Wriddhiman Saha had batted very well as he left the short ones. His gritty 35 came to an end as he fended at a short ball and was caught at first slip. Ravichandran Ashwin thereafter scored a fifty and Bhuvneshwar Kumar gave him good support. Their partnership was going very well until Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s 30 ended with a contentious decision. The ball hit the ground and went to first slip, yet the third umpire ruled him out.
Ashwin’s fifty helped India get closer to the 500 mark. But, soon after reaching his fifty, he was dismissed. Mohammed Shami hit the ball around the park a bit and helped India bring Australia’s lead down to 97.
Ashwin was unleashed on Australia soon and he picked up a wicket in his very first over as he had David Warner caught at first slip. It was an interesting tussle to start the day as he was turning the ball and the Australians were counterattacking. He dismissed Shane Watson who got another start. However, Chris Rogers and Steven Smith continued to bat well and attacked the bowlers. Both batsmen got their fifties and put Australia in the safe zone. Rogers got his sixth consecutive fifty.
Smith was in record-breaking form yet again. He went past Don Bradman to record the most runs by a batsman in an India-Australia Test series. Smith in fact, went on to complete 750 runs and went up to 770. It was quite a good exhibition of batting as usual until he was dismissed by Mohammed Shami. Joe Burns smashed it around to score a T20-paced half-century He got there off 33 balls and got his second fifty of the game. This is was the third fastest fifty for Australia in Test cricket. Brad Haddin also joined in the act of hitting it around. Burns was ultimately dismissed for 66 off 39 balls.
Brief scores:
Australia 572 for 7 decl. (Chris Rogers 95, David Warner 101, Steven Smith 117, Shane Watson 81; Shaun Marsh 73, Joe Burns 58; Mohammed Shami 5 for 112) and 251 for 6 (Chris Rogers 56, Steven Smith 71, Joe Burns 66; Ravichandran Ashwin 4 for 105) lead India 475 (KL Rahul 110, Rohit Sharma 53, Virat Kohli 147, Ravichandran Ashwin 50; Mitchell Starc 3 for 106, Ryan Harris 2 for 96, Nathan Lyon 2 for 123, Shane Watson 2 for 58) by 348 runs.
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(Nishad Pai Vaidya is Correspondent with CricketCountry and anchor for the site’s YouTube Channel. His Twitter handle is @nishad_45)