Lyon returns to Plan A and reaps the rewards

For the best part of two days, it appeared the pitch that Australia so wantonly craved but believed would be harder to find in India than personal space, might have somehow contrived to work against them.

In the sort counter-intuitive circumstances that often rule on the subcontinent, the genuine bounce and pace that lurked beneath the equally unexpected mat of green grass on Dharamsala's debut Test strip had the tourists scarcely trusting their eyes.

And, especially when the coin fell in Steve Smith's favour on Saturday morning, almost licking their lips.

Day Two report: Lyon preys on India

But after a jet-propelled opening session, the Australians spluttered and stalled with their batting as they pressed too hard to keep scoring and then couldn't quite find the right gear across two sessions today where the fast bowlers did much of the work, and posed most of the threat.

Until Nathan Lyon, in the space of 90 minutes after tea, reaffirmed that this is indeed India, and it is spin bowlers who have the decisive say as Test matches wear on in these parts.

Lyon, who has battled illness in recent days to compound the split spinning finger he's carried since Bengaluru, looked tidy but rarely intimidating in the nine overs he bowled to India's set batting pair KL Rahul and Cheteshwar Pujara prior to the main adjournment.

But a bit of self-reflection over the lunch buffet and some on-the-run alterations to his bowling strategy meant he divested himself of the 'Asian bowling method' he worked so hard to acquire for this series.

And instead reverted to the tried and true tactics he uses on pitches in Australia that offer pace and bounce like this most un-Indian Dharamsala track, with the rewards arriving in the final session where he grabbed 4-36 from 14 unchanged overs.

"After bowling a couple of overs before lunch I sat down and thought about what it (pitch) is similar to," the former curator said tonight with Australia 52 runs in front and seeking the last four India first innings wickets come the morning.

"And it was closer to a home wicket where the bounce is my biggest weapon, where I am getting guys caught at bat pad and slips.

"I went back to how I bowl, which is probably how I should bowl.

"I should just go out there and back my skill and enjoy the challenge of bowling to the best side in the world in their home conditions."

It was an admission that all the remodelling and recalibrating that the 29-year-old has done at the insistence of those who questioned his effectiveness on Asian pitches might have been a touch unnecessary.

That he might have been better advised to simply work on his existing skills set, and just having the confidence and belief that he would ultimately get the results some started to question his capacity to achieve.

Lyon also tweaked his strategies after the tea break, prior to the spell that has left the fourth and final Test tantalisingly in the balance.

He altered his mode of attack to over the wicket, and then increased his pace in a ploy to target India's acting captain Ajinkya Rahana – who he had caught at slip for 46 midway through the session.

"It was a bit of a tactic," Lyon later revealed.

"If you looked at the way the Indians have been playing me, especially Ajinkya (Rahane), my plan was to come over the wicket and try and get him not to sweep me, so my stock ball would be more effective.

"I spoke to Steve Smith about that at tea, and was happy with the way it turned out."

The sight of a pacy, bouncy pitch that India opener Rahul tonight described as the best of the series might just have convinced a few Australia batters to expand their shot repertoire, thinking they were suddenly in more familiar climes.

So when India resumed their innings, just an over old, this morning and promptly reverted to the same batting template they had employed on the vastly different surfaces earlier in the series, a demarcation line was drawn.

Whereas Australia had looked to push the game decisively forward and ram home the advantage they gained at the curator's hand and then the coin toss, India stuck with the blueprint that worked so effectively against England late last year.

And carried them to the cusp of a win in Ranchi last week.

Eliminating all risk from their batting plans, wearing down the four-man Australia attack (excluding the non-bowling allrounder), keeping them out in the field, exhausting their bodies and fogging their minds.

They scored not many more (153) in two sessions today than Australia did in the first two hours of the Test (131), and for the loss of one more wicket.

But they had not given up batters to needless haste, even though some more steeped in the Australia way of playing – to attack and, if that fails, go harder – queried the merit of India's tactics given they must win this Test to wrest the Border-Gavaskar Trophy from its holders.

Former Australia captain Michael Clarke was one of them, identifying the time when Pujara and Rahane were at the crease and scored just 45 runs in 20 overs prior to tea as a pivotal time of a must-win Test.

"If India do lose this Test match, I'll tell you where they lost it – it's 30 minutes before tea today, on day two," Clarke said on television commentary for Star Sports India.

"It was so negative with their batting.

"Australia bowled spin from both ends, they sat on the crease and blocked and blocked and blocked.

"If you sit there to someone like Nathan Lyon who does get that extra bounce, and can get the variation, you'll get one with your name on it.

"If India can't get a decent total in this first innings, batting last here is going to be extremely tough chasing 200 runs."

Clarke's former Test deputy Brad Haddin was another to query India's batting approach, in his role as a panellist for Fox Sports Australia's coverage of the Qantas Tour of India

"India have to win the Test match, and I don't think you're going to get better batting conditions than in that session there," Haddin said during the tea break before Lyon began his valuable final spell.

"I was bit shocked that Pujara didn't try to move the game forward a little bit.

"It looked like he put a lot of pressure on Rahane, then he's sort of got bogged down in his shell a bit too.

If you look on stats, it looks an okay session for India (1-89 from 32 overs), but Australia are two wickets away from the allrounders …".

By day's end, they are an early breakthrough with the second new ball away from India's bowling tailenders.

And a game that was drifting from their reach earlier in the day is now clearly back within reach.

Test Squads

India (for fourth Test): Virat Kohli (c), Murali Vijay, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Wriddhiman Saha, Ravichandaran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Karun Nair, Jayant Yadav, Kuldeep Yadav, Abhinav Mukund, Mohammed Shami.

Australia: Steve Smith (c), David Warner (vc), Ashton Agar, Jackson Bird, Pat Cummins, Peter Handscomb, Josh Hazlewood, Usman Khawaja, Nathan Lyon, Shaun Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Stephen O'Keefe, Matthew Renshaw, Marcus Stoinis, Mitchell Swepson, Matthew Wade

Australia's schedule in India

Feb 23-27, First Test, Pune – Australia won by 333 runs.

Mar 4-8, Second Test, Bengaluru – India won by 75 runs.

Mar 16-20, Third Test, Ranchi – match drawn.

Mar 25-29, Fourth Test, Dharamsala