The visitors didn't lose a single wicket in the second session.
If it was India’s seventh wicket-pair of Cheteshwar Pujara and Wriddhiman Saha who batted out two full sessions on Sunday, it was the turn of Australia’s fifth wicket duo of Shaun Marsh and Peter Handscomb to play out an entire session and take their team to safety.
Marsh and Handscomb survived the two testing hours post lunch to give Australia the hope of salvaging a draw in this third and penultimate Test and go into the final one in Dharamshala starting on Saturday with even honours at 1-1.
The left-right combination defended a majority of the deliveries and scoring runs were not a priority. At the same time, the loose deliveries were not left unpunished. Australia added only 66 runs in 33 overs post-lunch but more importantly, they did not lose a wicket.
The teams went in to tea with Australia on 149/4. Marsh (38*) and Handscomb (44*) have so far raised 86 for the fifth wicket and are still going strong. They still trail by three runs. With only one last session coming up, and Australia having Glenn Maxwell, wicketkeeper Matthew Wade and the bowlers to follow, India will have to come up with something different and hope for the Aussies to make mistakes.
Marsh and Handscomb frustrated the Indians with their willow work. The right-handed Handscomb was effective with his footwork, playing some handsome strokes including twice stepping down the pitch to pick up fours off Ravichandran Ashwin.
While Jadeja looked to be the only one to take wickets, or asked questions of the batsmen, Ashwin could not do much despite changing ends, bowling from the end Jadeja bowled throughout the match. Perhaps the ball losing its hardness as it became old did not assist Ashwin and Jadeja much in this session.
The only moment India had was when Handscomb, on 6*, played Ashwin to forward short leg and Karun Nair was not alert enough to take on a tough offering.
Brief scores: At tea: Australia 451 & 149/4 in 69 overs (S Marsh 38*, P Handscomb 44*; R Jadeja 3/34, R Ashwin 0/56, I Sharma 1/24) vs India 603/9 dec.
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 "Cricket, India, Australia, India v/s Australia, Web Exclusive, Ranchi, Cheteshwar Pujara, Wriddhiman Saha, Shaun Marsh, Peter Ha")
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