Late strikes hand Australia the edge after Smith ton

Brief Scores: Australia 338 (Steve Smith 131, Marnus Labuschagne 91, Will Pucovski 62; Ravindra Jadeja 4-62, Navdeep Saini 2-65, Jasprit Bumrah 2-66) lead India 96/2 (Cheteshwar Pujara 9*, Ajinkya Rahane 5*, Shubman Gill 50, Rohit Sharma 27) by 242 runs

Steve Smith became the first Australian to score a century in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar series with an awe-inspiring knock of 131 at the Sydney Cricket Ground after battling a rough patch in the previous two Tests. India were sitting pretty as Shubman Gill slammed his maiden Test fifty after Australia were snuffed out for 338, but the departure of both Rohit Sharma and Gill late in the evening left them in a spot of bother. Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara remained unbeaten at the crease as India concluded day three at 96/2, trailing behind by 242 runs. 

Resuming on an overnight score of 166/2, Australia held the reins in the first hour of the morning session with Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith looking like immovable objects at the crease. Mohammed Siraj did rap Smith on the pad flap early but India's tactical review bore little fruit with the ball missing the leg stump by a fair margin. A slight drizzle forced the players off the field for a while but halted soon, thankfully, to permit action. With the surface as flat as a pancake, the seamers worked around defensive, into-the-body lengths with a jampacked leg-side ring to keep the scoreboard in check, but spin twins R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja erred on the shorter side way too often as the Aussie duo munched on the freebies to aggregate a 100-run stand, their team's second in the game. 

India persisted with Jadeja despite him not being at his orderly best and his darter brought a wicket against the run of play as Labuschagne edged a cut to slip to fall in the nervous nineties. The much-needed wicket against the run of play paved the path for another, with Matthew Wade shimmying down the track to Jadeja only to skew a lofted whip to mid-on in what was a xerox copy of his dismissal against Ashwin at Melbourne. India opted for the second new ball right away as Jasprit Bumrah put the icing on the cake by trapping Chris Green plumb at the stroke of Lunch. The triple whammy saw Australia nosedive from 206/3 to 255/6 as the visitors walked into the break with a spring in their step. 

Their batteries recharged, India made further inroads after the interval as Smith kept running out of partners. Bumrah breached through Tim Paine's defences while Jadeja castled Cummins for a duck to bag his third. Smith hardly broke a sweat in reaching the magical three figures and his bid to shift the gears forthwith was complimented superbly by Mitchell Starc, who pulled off a quickfire cameo worth 24. Navdeep Saini's economy bore the brunt of his pyrotechnics but the debutant had the last laugh as a miscued swipe across the line travelled only as far as mid-wicket. 

With a single wicket left in the tank, Smith had the license to go for the jugular. He farmed the strike and resorted to sweetly-timed slog sweeps and a bit of unorthodoxy as Australia squeezed some vital runs under their belt. India stood on the verge of hitting the panic button when Jadeja zipped off the blocks from deep square leg and hit the bull's eye to catch Smith napping in the pursuit of a brace. Smith marched off to a resounding ovation but kept shaking his head as he knew there were more runs for the taking with India's agitation growing manifold. 

Having folded the hosts for a below-par total on the placid SCG track, India cruised through the nine overs they had to negotiate before Tea, losing no wickets in their 26, trailing by 312. Both Gill and Sharma helped themselves to a few ballistic strokes as Australia rued squandering the new ball by pitching the ball a tad too short for their liking. Rohit used his feet to hoist Nathan Lyon over his head while Gill improvised to upper cut Starc with aplomb as India brought about their first 50+ opening stand in 14 innings. 

There was a hint of trepidation in the Indian camp when Rohit was adjudged caught at forward short leg but technology came to his rescue with neither Hotspot nor Snicko registering a nick. However, Josh Hazlewood finally broke the partnership as Rohit drove on the up to lob a simple return catch to the bowler to exit for 27. Gill chugged along in style to raise his bat to a fifty but Cummins dealt a late blow as the youngster steered a good length delivery to gully, where Green hung on to a sharp chance to his left. 

Survival was high on India's agenda henceforth with Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane assuming charge in the middle. The skipper had a close shave when he deliberately padded Lyon to be given not-out on-field as Paine reviewed in the nick of time only for ball-tracking to vindicate the umpire's call. The senior pros trod water, scoring barely a run per over as they shouldered India safely through to Stumps. They will have the onus of consolidating India's position on the morrow so that the kickstart given by their openers doesn't go to waste.

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