Watch cricket video highlights of India tour of Australia 2024. 4th Test between Australia and India. Venue of the match will be Melbourne.
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Another outstanding effort from Jasprit Bumrah blasted the game wide open in one of the most captivating Test cricket days you could ever want to witness. However, before the final-wicket duo of Nathan Lyon and Scott Boland increased Australia’s advantage to 333 and maybe out of India’s grasp, Marnus Labuschagne and Pat Cummins played their second crucial innings of the game. India was frustrated by Lyon and Boland, who managed to score a valuable 55 runs and were unable to be separated before stumps on day four.
After they had maintained their position in the contest for the whole of the day. When Lyon edged to third slip in the day’s last over, where KL Rahul managed to hold the ball between his legs, he should have been Bumrah’s fifth wicket, but a tired Bumrah had overstepped. Lyon finished the day with his second-highest Test score, taking 14 off the over. Regardless of India’s ultimate goal, it will undoubtedly bring up flashbacks of the Gabba in 2021, especially considering how the lower order kept them in the game on day three.
Since no team has ever pursued a bigger fourth-innings total for a victory at the MCG—the highest being England’s 332 for 7 in 1928—they will once more need to defy history on that occasion. Over the first four days, 299,329 people have watched the match, which is the most people have ever seen at a Boxing Day Test. Earlier, Australia’s first-innings lead was reduced to 105 thanks to Nitish Kumar Reddy’s first century. With Bumrah receiving strong backing from Mohammed Siraj and Akash Deep.
India’s new-ball bowling made life very difficult for the top order, and the host team advanced at a rate of just two and a half runs per over. However, at 80 for 2, with a 185-run advantage, Australia was on the verge of more comfortable territory, but the situation quickly changed. In the first half of the afternoon session, Steven Smith’s wicket set off a collapse of 4 for 11 in three overs, which featured Bumrah’s 200th Test wicket in a thrilling burst of action that saw him dismiss Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh, and Alex Carey.
However, a potentially pivotal moment occurred at 99 for 6 when Labuschagne, on 46, attempted to glide the unlucky Deep to third but was dropped in the gully by Yashasvi Jaiswal. In addition to giving Cummins a life in the last over before tea when he missed a low chance at silly point, Jaiswal, who had earlier shelled Usman Khawaja at leg gully, had a memorable day on the field. Before Labuschagne went lbw to Siraj, who had his greatest day of the series since Perth, he and Cummins had extended their partnership to 57 runs, with each run feeling like gold dust.
India bowled brilliantly with the new ball on a ground that offered more seam movement than previous days, quickly dispelling any hope that Australia would add freely to their advantage in the morning. In a celebration that seemed to emulate Konstas’s antics with the audience, Bumrah defeated him this time by seaming one past the fence and showing no restraint. Akash and Siraj were both difficult to hit, but the former could have preferred to pitch the ball a little fuller. Bumrah moved the ball so much that it was occasionally impossible to hit.
When Siraj seamed a ball through Khawaja, it demonstrated the advantage of pitching up a bit more. The announcer stated at one point during the morning session that Australia’s hitters had suffered 21 defeats in 18 overs. Smith and Labuschagne, who had begun the innings within 51 of 10,000 runs, seemed to be attempting to quicken the pace just after lunch, but any notion of that was quickly put out of their minds. When Smith pursued a wide delivery, Siraj opened the door. Rohit Sharma saw an opportunity and promptly brought back the stunning Bumrah.
Four deliveries later, he resumed Marsh’s lean sequence with a delivery that ascended and brushed the glove. His second delivery had Head flipping to front square leg. Regardless of the outcome, Marsh will probably be the subject of a lot of discussion leading up to the Sydney Test. He finished with 73 runs in seven innings, 47 of which came in a single stroke. Barely 24 hours after India appeared poised to give up a lead of more than 200, the game was on the verge of being completely upended when Bumrah smashed one back at Alex Carey.
Australia began to breathe again after Labuschagne’s reprieve. Although he could occasionally only smile when another pitch whistled past his edge, Labuschagne put together one of the most significant innings of his career despite the fact that scoring was never free. Small momentum switches occurred during overs like Deep’s that went for nine, with Labuschagne and Cummins each receiving a boundary. It seemed like a promising outcome for Australia when the two survived Bumrah’s first spell after tea.
But Siraj’s outstanding delivery against Labuschagne earned him a leg before wicket that was upheld on the umpire’s ruling. Due to a miscommunication with Cummins and an outstanding action by Rishabh Pant, who took off a glove to catch Reddy’s deep toss and delivered a straight hit to the non-striker’s end, Mitchell Starc was dismissed. Then, after scoring his most runs in a Test, Cummins pushed Jadeja to slip. Although nothing seems definite, Australia has become a favorite thanks to the lower order’s contributions.
