Australia vs India, Second Test: 5 talking points from Day 4

At the end of the penultimate day's play at the new Optus Stadium in Perth, Australia continues to exercise their dominance over the visitors. Team India is five wickets to chase down a deficit of 175 more runs, to win the game tomorrow - as of now, not many odds of that happening.

Earlier, Australia resumed at 132/4 in their second innings and enjoyed a whole wicketless session as Khawaja and Paine took the score to 192 runs. Things changed immediately afterward, Shami coming up to remove Paine and Aaron Finch, followed by Cummins who was cleaned up by Bumrah and Khawaja who was dismissed by Shami, all within a space of six more runs.

Lyon departed as the ninth scalp, at 207 runs but then Starc and Josh Hazlewood combined to produce a 36-run stand, that eventually took the overall Aussie lead to 286 runs.

India lost Rahul and Pujara by the time their reply score read 13, and despite the odd 30-40 run stands between Vijay and Kohli, and later by Rahane and Vihari, the side hasn't recovered. Their final score at the end of the day reads 112/5, 175 runs short of a win.

Here are the talking points from Day 4 play at Perth:

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#1 Mohammad Shami's tryst with the second innings

Shami was at his best in the 2nd innings at Perth

Mohammad Shami was good enough with the ball in the series so far, but his effort remained incomplete because of the lack of due rewards. The "issue" has, at last, been sorted as Shami eventually finished with his best-ever Test figures, 6/56.

Shami used the short ball to good effect, and the uneven bounce effected by the greenish Perth surface did its job as well. Aaron Finch, Usman Khawaja, Shaun Marsh, Tim Paine, and Travis Head were included in the list of players who were deceived by the pace and bounce, all of them eventually ending up inside fielders' palms.

Ishant Sharma and Jasprit Bumrah, who for their own merit, bowled well in the first innings, may as well take a leaf out of Shami's book when it comes to using the short ball. On the other end, Umesh Yadav made an uninspiring performance with the ball and should look to read the pitch and bowl more in favor of it.

#2 Australian tail-enders made some useful contribution

Starc and Hazlewood made a useful contribution with the bat

At 192/4, India were starting to get hopeless when Shami and Bumrah inspired them to make a comeback of sorts, to 207/9. To take five wickets in a space of fifteen runs is magnificent, but only if the visitors were able to pick up that final scalp which evaded them until another 36 runs were added to the Kangaroos' scoreboard.

Mitchell Starc (14 from 29) and Josh Hazlewood (17* from 25) played brilliantly, considering that what they did is not the primary reason why they are in the team. The last-wicket stand and the runs they added, will have the value of a thousand gems, provided the match eventually turns out to be a close contest tomorrow.

One can only imagine the danger that India would have faced, had Nathan Lyon and Pat Cummins also added another 20-30 runs. The match may have already been decided in favor of the hosts, had that happened.

#3 Rahul's and Vijay's Test career hangs by a thread

KL Rahul might be seen warming the bench at MCG

"Another day, another failure", seems the order of the day for Indian openers KL Rahul and Murali Vijay, who disappointed once again. Prior to the fourth innings, the pitch rollers were employed on the surface to make the track more easy to bat on, and even if that cut down the difficulty levels only by a whisker, Rahul and Vijay should have stayed on for at least an hour, and played down some shots, especially given that one and half days was enough time to chase down 290 runs.

Vijay in 2018 is very different from the Vijay of yore. The batsman has adopted a different technique which has not worked in his favour, yet he refuses to change. The number of balls left outside off-stump has also reduced considerably, and nothing bodes well for the opener right now.

Rahul, on the other hand, owns the dubious distinction of being LBW in nine of his 11 innings as an opener, and for a change this time, he patted down a ball that should have been left and guided it straight to his stumps - a true nonsense of a shot. The openers' dismissals set a huge dent into Team India's hopes, from where they never recovered.

#4 Pujara and Kohli fail to rekindle India's fire

Virat Kohli's controversial dismissal in 1st innings

India doesn't worry much as they should, when their openers fail, because of the options that follow: Cheteshwar and Kohli. However, neither of the two batsmen were able to deliver today, Pujara succumbing to an outswinger off Hazlewood which he edged to Paine, and Lyon getting the better of Kohli for the seventh time in his career.

Both batsmen were back in the hut at 48/3, and India's chances which were already nearly non-existent, slimmed down further. It looked as if the failure of the openers were casting shadows and weights on arguably two of India's best batsmen.

Credit should be given to Rahane meanwhile, for displaying some kind of responsibility after the failure of their top-four batsmen. He was able to stitch a 43-run stand with Hanuma Vihari and give promises of at least a fightback if not eventual glory.

#5 Hanuma Vihari remains as India's final glimpse of hope

Hanuma Vihari and Rishabh Pant

Maybe I have jinxed by saying it, but I don't regret it - the youngster is definitely a great find for India, and he plays for his side just like he deserves it. If it was through some key bowling performances in the first innings, Vihari's latest essay is being written using his bat - his primary role with the squad.

As mentioned above, Hanuma Vihari chipped in a valuable stand of 43 runs with Ajinkya Rahane and has since played a role in the unbeaten 19-run stand with Rishabh Pant. The batsman ended the day with 24 runs off 58 balls, including four hits to the fence.

On a surface where India's best batsmen faltered, Vihari displayed the right mix of poise and attack, and would be India's best bet at wishing for a turnaround win tomorrow.