After 3 days of Bon homie, Aus vs Ind tour finally started with the tensions between players showing how badly both team want to win. First it was Warner vs Aaron and then Smith vs Rohit confrontation that challenged to turn ugly. Indian tail added quick 75 runs losing remaining 5 wickets and Australia tried to score fast and led by 363 runs at stumps. Lyon with a 5-wicket haul and Warner with his 2nd century of the test stole the show as India looks forward to the challenge of not being bowled out on the last day of the test.
2014-2015 Indian Tour of Australia: Schedule
Day 4 Statistics
- Lyon grabbed 2nd 5-wicket haul against India. That is one more than Shane Warne.
Warner scored his 6th century of the year, and is just one short of Australian record of 7 centuries in a calendar year by Ponting.
Warner became the 5th batsman to score centuries in both innings TWICE in a year. Clyce Walcott (1955), Gavaskar (1978(, Aravinda de Silva (1997( and Ponting (2006) have achieved the feat before.
Starting with their overnight score, Rohit and Saha added 32 runs for 6th wicket. Lyon was the key destroyer today. First it was Rohit (43) who was caught and bowled, then Saha (25) fell as 8th wicket. In between, Siddle bowled Karn Sharma for 4 runs. Ishant Sharma fell on duck to become Lyon’s 5th victim, while Shami who played a good cameo of 24-ball 34 runs was the last one to fall of the bowling of Siddle as India scored 444 runs to conceded a deficit of 73 runs. Indians added 75 runs in 19.4 overs.
As Aussies started their second innings, spinners were introduced early to emulate Lyon, but Karn, Murali Vijay and Rohit Sharma did not taste that greater success. Rogers (21) was the first to go to Karn Sharma. Watson (33) added 102 runs for 2nd wicket before bbeing bowled out by Shami. Clarke (7) was caught behind on the bowling of Aaron, and then Warner fell as 4th wicket again to Karn Sharma, and again after scoring a century. He scored 166-ball 102 runs with 11 boundaries and a six.
After that 26-ball 40 runs by Mitch Marsh in the company of Smith saw Aussies finally able to increase the pace. Mitch fail to Rohit Sharma. At stums Smith (52) and Haddin (14) were unbeaten. Karn Sharma was again the most expensive with 2/95 and was never as threatening as Lyon proved to be for Indians.
If Karn Sharma concedes 5 more runs he will become the first Indian spinner to concede 100+ runs in both the innings of a test match.
Aussies lead by 363 runs. But can they dare to declare and ask India to start batting on Day 5!! That is a big question. India’s past history proves it should be a challenging day for them to survive another defeat in Away matches. But this young team has already showed grit to score 444 runs. Clarke might feel bit unsafe to declare with a lead less than 400 runs.
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