‘Won’t Be An Easy Chase,’ Says Mitchell Starc As Australia Gear Up For A Rare Test Win In Indore

New Delhi: After two crushing defeats in the first two tests, Australia are on the brink of a rare Test win in India. Against all odds, the visitors outplayed India on a rank turner in Indore and bowled them out for 109 and 163 runs in the two innings respectively to stage a strong comeback.

Australia need just 76 runs to win the third Test. Even though 76 is not a big target, Australia pacer Mitchell Starc feels that the chase won’t be easy. The pitch in Indore is not the easiest to bat and with three quality spinners, India will be slightly optimistic about pulling off something extraordinary.

“It is not going to be an easy chase,” said Starc in SEN cricket.

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Australia took a handy lead of 88 runs in the first innings, courtesy of fighting 60 by Usman Khawaja and 31 by Marnus Labuschagne. They were in a strong position at 186-4, leading by 77 runs before Umesh Yadav and R Ashwin ran through their batting and bowled them out for 197. However, Nathan Lyon was exceptional in the second innings as he picked eight wickets to restrict India from taking a 120+ lead, which could have been a winning total on the surface.

For India, Cheteshwar Pujara was at his gritty best and fought hard with a valiant 59. The batter looked fairly comfortable but his stay was cut short by a stunner from Steve Smith. Shreyas Iyer too looked good during a brisk 26-run knock but failed to carry on. When Pujara and Iyer were batting, India looked like setting a decent target for Australia but the wicket of Iyer triggered yet another collapse as India slipped from 113-4 to 163 all-out.

The pitch has seen multiple collapses in the Test and India will be optimistic about one more Australian collapse.