Perry digs in as India pile pressure on Australia

Barring a couple of adventurous declarations, India will head into the final stages of this one-off CommBank Test on the Gold Coast as the only side in a position to win the match following a dominant display from the visitors on day three.

On the first full day's play of the match, which began under a bright blue sky and was then played out amid a balmy evening, India dictated terms from go to whoa, first via Deepti Sharma's fine 66 and later through the excellent pace bowling of Jhulan Goswami.

At stumps, Australia had stumbled to 4-143 in reply to India's 8d-377, with Ellyse Perry (27) and Ashleigh Gardner (13) the not out batters.

As impressive as the tourists were, Meg Lanning's side will doubtless have again been disappointed with both their efforts in the field as well as their failure to make inroads with the ball.

Perry might have twice given her side an early wicket when she began brightly:  the Australians should have appealed when the pace bowler struck Taniya Bhatia (22) on the toe with a full delivery; and an over later there was an outside edge from Deepti that fell short of wicketkeeper Alyssa Healy.

Deepti had another life an hour into the day when Lanning spilled a hot chance at second slip from Annabel Sutherland, before debutante quick Stella Campbell (2-47) found good pace and bounce to claim her first Test wicket courtesy of an edge behind from Bhatia.

As India maintained a sedate scoring rate, it appeared Australia would have to either bowl them out or wait for a dusk declaration, and when Ashleigh Gardner gave Pooja Vastrakar a life with a dropped return chance, the frustration for the hosts grew.

Beth Mooney finally reversed the fielding trend with an excellent diving catch in the slips to at last account for Vastrakar (13) and give Perry her milestone 300th international wicket, while Campbell snared a second after the ball kept low and Deepti was trapped lbw.

The declaration came soon after, and Australia began their batting innings with the lights powering up and the natural light still quite strong, and perhaps as a consequence, India didn't find the swing they might have hoped for with the new pink ball.

Mooney (4) would have been furious when she was bowled by a straight one from Goswami which she attempted to whip through the leg side, and when Healy was dismissed for 29 after an highly skilful working over by the same bowler, India seemed to sense an opening.

Lanning enjoyed an early life when she lashed at a wider delivery from Vastrakar and was put down by Deepti, and as the Australia skipper played some delightful shots, she looked to be settling in for the long haul.

That notion was rudely interrupted when she was very unfortunate to be given out lbw for 38 from Vastrakar, despite a clear inside edge.

Perry then teamed up with Tahlia McGrath (28) to steady the ship, but there was one more wicket to fall when the latter hammered one straight to a deepish point to give Vastrakar her second wicket.

Together, Gardner and Perry carefully saw out the final 11 overs of the day, but with India on top and more than 100 overs scheduled to be bowled tomorrow, their work is only just beginning.

Australia XI: Alyssa Healy (wk), Beth Mooney, Meg Lanning (c), Ellyse Perry, Tahlia McGrath, Ashleigh Gardner, Annabel Sutherland, Sophie Molineux, Georgia Wareham, Darcie Brown, Stella Campbell

India XI: Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Punam Raut, Mithali Raj (c), Yastika Bhatia, Deepti Sharma, Tania Bhatia (wk), Pooja Vastrakar, Jhulan Goswami, Meghna Singh, Rajeshwari Gayakwad

CommBank Series v India

Australia lead India 4-2 on points

Australia squad: Meg Lanning (c), Darcie Brown, Maitlan Brown, Stella Campbell, Nicola Carey, Hannah Darlington, Ashleigh Gardner, Alyssa Healy, Tahlia McGrath, Sophie Molineux, Beth Mooney, Ellyse Perry, Georgia Redmayne, Molly Strano, Annabel Sutherland, Tayla Vlaeminck, Georgia Wareham

India Test and ODI squad: Mithali Raj (c), Harmanpreet Kaur (vc), Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Punam Raut, Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma, Sneh Rana, Yastika Bhatia, Taniya Bhatia (wk), Shikha Pandey, Jhulan Goswami, Meghna Singh, Pooja Vastrakar, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Poonam Yadav, Richa Ghosh, Ekta Bisht.

India T20I squad: Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Smriti Mandhana (vc), Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma, Sneh Rana, Yastika Bhatia, Shikha Pandey, Meghna Singh, Pooja Vastrakar, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Poonam Yadav, Richa Ghosh (wk), Harleen Deol, Arundhati Reddy, Radha Yadav, Renuka Singh.

First ODI:Australia won by nine wickets

Sep 24: Australia won by five wickets

Sep 26: India won by two wickets

Sep 30 – Oct 3: Test match, Metricon Stadium, Gold Coast (D/N)

Oct 7: First T20, Metricon Stadium, Gold Coast

Oct 9: Second T20, Metricon Stadium, Gold Coast

Oct 10: Third T20, Metricon Stadium, Gold Coast