Aussie batting woes put India in box seat to level series

Eight days after plumbing their lowest ebb, India are poised to seal one of their most famous Test victories after their injury-hobbled bowling attack again exposed Australia's fragile top-order batting.

On the back of stand-in skipper Ajinkya Rahane's majestic century, and in the absence of their premier batter Virat Kohli and three injured front-line fast bowlers, India ended day three of the second Vodafone Test just two runs in arrears and needing four tail-end wickets before they start their pursuit.

The Australia batting that failed to reach 200 in the two previous completed innings of this series lurched further into crisis today to be 6-133 and, with fine weather forecast for Melbourne over the remaining two days, in need of another Adelaide-like miracle to prevent India levelling the battle 1-1.

Having chiselled 65 runs from 28 overs of quality bowling, Australia collapsed after tea and lost 4-28 in 27.1 overs as well as their grip on the match, given the minimal likelihood India will fold as meekly as they did in Adelaide where they posted their lowest Test score – 36 all out.

The sole shadow on a day when India basked in success after the gloom of the first Test was a calf injury to seamer Umesh Yadav who limped from the field midway through his fourth over and was sent for scans late in the day.

If they reveal a tear he could join fellow quicks Ishant Sharma (side strain) and Mohammed Shami (fractured arm) on the sidelines for the remainder of the four-Test Vodafone Series.

Under-siege Australia opener Joe Burns again failed to reach double figures, as did Steve Smith (for the fourth time in as many innings, albeit with one of those not out) while Marnus Labuschagne (28) and Travis Head (17) once more proved unable to withstand India's pinpoint bowling plans.

The only Australia top-order batter to offer meaningful resistance was makeshift opener Matthew Wade who shelved his habitually aggressive mindset to survive more than three hours in scoring 40 from 137 balls faced.

Along the way, Wade became engaged in some spirited sparring with India keeper Rishabh Pant whose incessant giggling behind the stumps seemed to irritate the combative Australian.

And he was compelled to undergo a standing concussion test after being hit flush on the back of the helmet by a bouncer from Jasprit Bumrah that rebounded more than 10 metres in front of the wicket.

Wade continued his innings unaffected until he played back to spinner Ravindra Jadeja and was pinned in front of his stumps, prompting a middle-order collapse that saw Head and Tim Paine (1) also dismissed within 22 balls for the addition of one run.

Head was left to rue another squandered start when he flashed, flat-footed, at the first ball of a new spell from debutant Mohammed Siraj that angled across the left-hander and was obligingly edged to second slip, accompanied by an audible groan from the former Australia vice-captain.

Paine's reaction to his decision was less voluble.

But he clearly conveyed his annoyance at being adjudged caught behind after India reviewed an unsuccessful appeal that showed no bat contact on the Hot Spot technology but a small spike on the real-time snickometer that saw the decision overturned.

That left Australia still 32 runs in arrears with only rookie allrounder Cameron Green (who resumes tomorrow 17no) and the bowlers to push their team to a lead, with the evening carnage in keeping with the chaotic start to their second innings.

In the course of 15 minutes and just 10 deliveries faced, Burns might have been run out (twice), and came within a row of stitching on the ball from being adjudged lbw before being caught behind from the ball of the Test summer to date.

Under heavy scrutiny even before he scratched his guard to face Umesh's first over, the Queenslander's anxiety was laid bare when he pushed the fourth ball he faced to Ravi Ashwin at mid-on and called Wade through for a desperate single.

It was only Ashwin's lumbering pick-up and inaccurate shy at the bowler's end stumps that saved Burns the indignity of a self-inflicted pair.

His overworked fortune finally deserted him when a near unplayable late out-swinger from Umesh took the edge of the right-hander's bat as he lurched forward in defence.

The extent of Burns' scrambled thinking amid the frenzy was betrayed when he approached Wade upon being given out, and indicated he felt he'd brushed his bat on pad which might have accounted for the noise that umpire Paul Reiffel detected.

But Burns's review call was quickly struck down when it was clearly shown he had hit it, and also showed if it had struck pad rather than bat he would have been palpably lbw, and if it had somehow missed both lines of defence it would surely have clipped off stump.

With injured opener David Warner making progress in his race to be fit for the third Test, Burns now finds himself under increased pressure to retain his Test place having scored 125 runs from 13 first-class innings this summer at an average of 10.41.

And those numbers are significantly inflated by the unbeaten 51 he peeled off as Australia chased down a paltry fourth innings victory target in Adelaide.

The only Australia specialist batter enduring a leaner trot in the Vodafone Series is the world's top-ranked Test player Smith who sports a scarcely believable average of 3.33 after two matches, less than his tailender teammates Nathan Lyon (15) and Josh Hazlewood (12).

While the eight runs Smith scored today represented his highest score of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy campaign to date, it was the manner of his dismissal that became a bigger talking point.

After falling to Ashwin's canny off-spin in the space of just a handful of balls earlier in the series, Smith fell to a carefully conceived and expertly executed plot from Bumrah whose importance to India's bowling increased exponentially in Umesh's absence.

Australia's best batter had been snared in Ashwin's leg-side trap in the first innings and, with catchers once more placed in readiness for the flick off his pads, Smith worked so far across his stumps in a bid to work the ball fine he left a sliver of leg peg exposed.

So delicately did Bumrah kiss the top of the wicket the leg bail rolled gently from its perch and, with eyes on keeper Rishabh Pant given the ball had clipped his own strides on the way past, Smith was initially oblivious to his fate and then reluctant to accept it until it had been confirmed on the MCG's giant scoreboard.

Australia might have conceivably been batted out of the match before their second innings got going but for a needless error from India that rekindled memories of the dramatic shift taken in the preceding Test in Adelaide.

That came when Rahane sacrificed Kohli to a run out at a time when the then-India captain was in command and seemingly on course to steer his team to a dominant position.

This morning it was Rahane on the receiving end in his assumed guise as skipper, when his batting partner Jadeja decided his need to reach 50 was worth the risk of calling Rahane – with the sole century of the series to date against his name – for an always-risky single.

When slow-motion replays confirmed Rahane's bat was on, but crucially not over, the popping crease Paine's demeanour changed markedly in the knowledge Australia had stolen a bonus wicket to end the 121-run sixth-wicket stand.

But Rahane's calm expression remained unaltered, and where Kohli had bristled with annoyance at his dismissal in Adelaide his replacement as captain simply exchanged a fist bump with the batter who had burned him and walked off acknowledging the warm applause for his game-changing knock.

It was the first time the 32-year-old had been run out in 112 Test innings.

In Adelaide, Kohli's run out proved the Test's turning point as India lost their last seven wickets for 56 runs before being bowled out for a humiliating 36 two days later.

History seemed poised to repeat after Rahane's removal saw the visitors' lower-order once again implode as they surrendered 5-32 in 93 deliveries when they had been eyeing a first-innings lead beyond 200 an hour earlier.

Jadeja succumbed soon after celebrating his half-century, having been softened up with a series of short balls from Mitchell Starc he swung wildly at a wide bouncer before slapping a pull shot to Pat Cummins at deep mid-wicket.

Cummins initially looked to have added another dropped catch to the five his teammates turfed on day two, but managed to trap the ball to his midriff after it had slipped through his hands.

The missed-opportunities file gained a sixth entry when Labuschagne grassed a sharp chance from Ashwin (on 4) at leg slip, a bountiful position for India's fielders on day one when they held every offering that came their way.

However, it did not seem a costly mistake as Lyon and Hazlewood – who had to wait until his 23rd over to claim his first wicket having snared five in as many overs in his previous outing – removed India's last three batters for the addition of a single.

Lyon can complete an elongated hat-trick when he takes the ball in India's second innings, the first two legs of it having been completed in separate overs.

That's if Australia can post enough of a lead to ensure the spinner gets a roll in the second innings.

Vodafone Test Series v India 2020-21

Australia Test squad: Tim Paine (c), Joe Burns, Pat Cummins, Cameron Green, Marcus Harris, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Moises Henriques, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Michael Neser, James Pattinson, Will Pucovski, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson, Matthew Wade, David Warner

India Test squad: Virat Kohli (c) (first Test only), Ajinkya Rahane (vice-captain), Rohit Sharma, Mayank Agarwal, Prithvi Shaw, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Hanuma Vihari, Shubman Gill, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Rishabh Pant (wk), Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Navdeep Saini, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Mohammed Siraj

First Test: Australia won by eight wickets

Second Test: December 26-30, MCG, 10.30am AEDT

Third Test: January 7-11, SCG, 10.30am AEDT

Fourth Test: January 15-19, Gabba, 11am AEDT