Australia vs India, 4th Test Day 3: Talking Points

Joyful tidings are pouring out all the way from Sydney as the Men in Blue continue to remain rampant whilst making their giant strides towards a first-ever series win Down Under. Having declared their first innings at 622/7 yesterday and keeping the Australians stranded in a sea of questions at 24/0 while batting second, India resumed their efforts with the ball earlier today.

They had to wait for 12 overs for the first break to come through as Usman Khawaja, who was finding it difficult to read Kuldeep Yadav, found Cheteshwar Pujara at mid-wicket while trying to attack the young chinaman to release some pressure. They had to wait for another twenty-odd overs to get the next breakthrough, but afterward, wickets kept falling at regular intervals, much to the hosts' chagrin.

A smattering of rain eventually stopped the proceedings of the day prematurely, as umpires called Stumps with more than 16 overs of legitimate play remaining. Australia is now at 236/6, with 187 more runs still required to avoid a follow-on. Even if that target is crossed, it will by no means guarantee a result in favor of Australia, as their fate is very much packed and sealed.

Let us now look at some of the key takeaways from Day 3's play of the final test of this enthralling Border-Gavaskar Trophy:

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#1. The abundance of discipline among Indian bowlers

Indian bowlers' have made a big difference in the series

In what appears to be not just a talking point from a single day's game in a single Test match, the Indian bowlers have been plying their trade with great discipline throughout the series. Not only have they outclassed the Australian bowlers in their own backyard, but they have also given the Indian fans something more to be hopeful of in the coming years.

The pacers and the spinners alike did their work with the help of an impressive awareness about the pitches on offer. They bowled in the right areas and forced the Aussie batsmen to make errors in judgment on many occasions.

In today's game as well, for instance, Kuldeep initiated the advance by forcing Khawaja to attack him, the latter eventually holing out to Pujara at mid-wicket. This was followed by Jadeja taking Harris' bails by inducing him to push the ball from wide of off-stump. The ball simply moved inwards, caught his bat's inside-edge and clattered into the stumps.

Kuldeep and Jadeja continued to break down their hosts' batting lineup, eventually accounting for five of the six wickets that fell today. The pacers, on their part, bowled in tandem with the spinners and didn't allow any batsman to settle and look good to take the game away.

The pitch was supposed to help the turning ball from Day 3, and that was exactly what happened. The Indians on their part, mainly the spinners, just bowled according to the conditions available, and they reaped their results.

#2. The sub-standard condition of Australian batting

Australia needs someone to step up in the batting department

In a game of cricket, as in every other field of life and living, credits must be given where they are due. And for the first part, we did credit the Indian bowlers for bowling so beautifully earlier today, like they have done this whole series. But so have the Aussies too. It is their own home conditions, and they definitely did well to restrict India to scores less than or equal to 250 on more than two occasions. They even helped win the game at Perth. So where did Australia get it wrong?

Most of the fingers could point to the batsmen. In the past week and a bit more, the Aussie willow-wielders have shown a serious lack of temperament, and a whole lot of carelessness in their shots selections, that would put even out-of-favor Indian batsmen to shame.

Khawaja, Harris, Marsh, Head, and Paine - 5 out of the 6 wickets that fell today, came from shots that could have been avoided. Khawaja's and Harris' dismissals were explained earlier, and Marsh's was something similar to Harris - only the ball caught his outside edge instead and flew straight to Rahane at slips, while Head simply pushed a loopy full toss back at the bowler.

Finally, Tim Paine, the Aussie skipper was tempted to drive away from his body but was done in the flight and played the wrong line as the ball crept in between bat and pad and crashed into the stumps.

The side is seriously reeling in the absence of their two best batsmen at the moment in Steven Smith and David Warner, and it has been showing in almost every game that Australia has played in the past eight months or so. Such bad shots are highly uncharacteristic of a team like theirs, and Justin Langer will have to ponder deep on how to influence his batsmen's thinking and prevent it in the future.

#3. The repeated failures of Shaun Marsh

The time is ticking at a rapid pace for Shaun Marsh

Fun fact: Shaun Marsh rose into the high legions of his national side after a superhuman performance in season 1 of the Indian Premier League (IPL) back in 2008. He was the top-scorer of the event, with 616 runs from just 11 innings.

But the Shaun Marsh we know these days is very different, and it's almost saddening to note the fact that he has not played more than a couple of good innings across formats, over the whole of the past one year and more.

He was one of the few batsmen who seemed to have cemented their places in the Test squad, especially in the absence of heavyweights Smith and Warner. As a senior batsman, he was also supposed to help out in the process of saving the sinking ship, but unfortunately, he has not been able to put his hand up and take that responsibility.

A flurry of unnecessary dismissals mark his Test career in its whole length, and the same has been the case in the ongoing series as well. Today, for instance, Marsh looked solid as he executed a neat cover drive for four off Jadeja, only to try and push one past square in another ball immediately after.

He did not read the spin or the bounce at all, and so it can only be deemed a blind shot at best. As fate would have it, he could only edge the ball straight to the slips, and the cover drive boundary remained the only runs he could score at all.

With the likes of Bancroft, Smith, and Warner pushing for a return into the side, Marsh may as well find his place in the squad being removed at the earliest. It is rather sad for that to happen to a batsman who began with so much promise.

#4. Moments of good spirit on the field, by India

Umpire praises Rahul for playing the game in the right spirit

India always takes its cricket seriously. It is not surprising that an Indian fan once chanted with the help of his poster, "Cricket is my religion..." while a match was going on. While the latter half of the chant is the more popular part, it doesn't take away the fact that the sport is, in fact, followed religiously by a whole set of people in the country.

At the same time, the current set of team-mates and their skipper Virat Kohli, have also often proved how they are not going to sacrifice their morals or intellect, no matter how important a moment they seem to be enjoying at any time.

Earlier in the day, Marcus Harris batting on 24 runs forced a powerful hit down the ground. The ball was still in the air and available for KL Rahul to make a catch, provided he made a headlong dive. He did make up the attempt, but the ball just kissed the ground before he could palm it to himself.

The viewers, including the umpire, couldn't notice it, and Kohli and Jadeja were so sure of the wicket that they had started celebrating. That was when Rahul intervened and said it wasn't a catch, dismissing all doubts and rendering Harris safe. Umpire Ian Gould praised Rahul for his sportsmanship, and the youngster also won a lot of hearts from among those who watched the game.

#5. Rain will have no effect on the impending result

Rain spoiled today's play but is not expected to spoil the remaining days.

Winning the first game at Adelaide and the third one at Melbourne in the ongoing series, have brought the visitors so close to a series win. In fact, this was the first time that they have ever entered the final match with a lead in the series so far. Batting first, India scored 622 runs thanks to Pujara's 193, Pant's 159*, Jadeja's 81 and Mayank's 77 among others.

Australia is still 386 runs short of a first innings lead - even after three days have been played out. They still require 187 runs to avoid a follow-on, and even if they succeeded, there is very little chance that they will live to tell the story of a possible glory at the SCG right now.

Rain did prevent 16.3 overs from happening today, but those can be covered by starting the game a half-hour earlier in both of the upcoming days and the lost overs will have no impact on the ultimate outcome of the match and on that of the series.

It is often said, cricket is a game of miracles and anything can happen till the match is actually over, but, sometimes the result is evident before the match is over and this game seems one such instance.