Melbourne, Dec 29: Top-order batter Marnus Labuschagne stood tall for Australia by hitting an unbeaten 65 after Jasprit Bumrah’s mesmerising spell left the hosts’ dazed on day four of Boxing Day Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

At tea, Australia are 135/6 in 49 overs and their lead over India stands at 240 runs. It was a session where India clawed back in the game, thanks to Bumrah taking out Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh and Alex Carey in quick succession, and become the fastest India pacer to reach 200 Test wickets.

At 91/6, after being 80/2 at one point, Australia were in all sorts of trouble, but Labuschagne and Pat Cummins (21 not out) survived very top-class bowling to stitch an unbroken partnership of 44 runs and keep Australia steady in their pursuit of setting a daunting target for India, who were also hurt by Yashasvi Jaiswal dropping the catches of both set batters in the session.

In the second session, Labuschagne and Steve Smith were just looking to stay in the middle, while taking a boundary each off Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj respectively. Just when it looked like the partnership would go big, Siraj had Smith chasing a full and wide ball with very little foot movement, and got him to nick behind to Rishabh Pant.

The Bumrah show under bright Melbourne sunshine began when birthday boy Head was on the back foot and flicked straight to mid-wicket for just one, giving the pacer his 200th Test wicket.

Bumrah wasn’t still satisfied – he got Mitchell Marsh prod at a rising ball indecisively and took a faint shoulder edge behind to Pant, as the all-rounder was out for a five-ball duck. Alex Carey was next to fall for just two as Bumrah got a ball to jag in from outside the off-stump and sneak through the gate to hit off-stump.

Akash Deep was beating Labuschagne and Cummins consistently, and got the former to edge to Jaiswal at gully, who dropped a straightforward chance, leaving the pacer, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli irate.

After Labuschagne got his fifty in 105 balls, he and Cummins got three more boundaries collectively, before the latter was dropped by Jaiswal again, this time at silly point. After that, both teams walked off for tea break, with Australia well in danger of setting India less than 300 to win in Melbourne.

Brief Scores: Australia 474 and 135/6 in 49 overs (Marnus Labuschagne 65 not out; Jasprit Bumrah 4-30, Mohammed Siraj 2-40) lead India 369 in 119.3 overs (Nitish Kumar Reddy 114, Yashasvi Jaiswal 82; Scott Boland 3-57, Pat Cummins 3-89) by 240 runs.

(IANS)

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