Aussies fight back after Bumrah blitz to set up thrilling finish

It will require the biggest successful fourth-innings run chase at the MCG, but India have a long shot at retaining the Border-Gavaskar Trophy tomorrow thanks to another withering burst of fast bowling from trump card Jasprit Bumrah.

Australia will also fancy their chances of victory and a 2-1 lead with one match to play, given they extended their 105-run first-innings advantage to an overall lead of 333, but the game could be more safely in their keeping but for Bumrah's mid-afternoon carnage.

In the course of three mesmerising overs, the 31-year-old with the idiosyncratic action grabbed 3-4 with the crucial wickets of Travis Head (1), Mitchell Marsh (0) and Alex Carey (2) as Australia suffered another crippling collapse.

Coupled with the removal of Steve Smith (13), Australia surrendered 4-11 in the space of 21 balls to crash from 2-80 to 6-91 and suddenly in peril of losing a game they had dominated since day one.

So far in this series that has netted Bumrah 29 wickets at 13.24, Australia have endured top-order implosions of 5-38 and 4-17 (Perth), 5-33 (Brisbane) and 3-9 in the first innings of this match.

If not for the brave efforts of Marnus Labuschagne (70) and Pat Cummins (41), who stood defiantly firm after Bumrah had become the first bowler in Test history to reach 200 wickets with an average below 20, Australia's position might have been more fragile.

As it stands, Australia will have around 90 overs to capture 10 India wickets while the visitors will need to score at more than three runs per over to decide who heads into the final NRMA Insurance Test at Sydney starting Friday with a decisive lead.

After the frantic pace at which events unfolded during much of Australia's batting today the day's final hour became something of a stalemate as last pair Nathan Lyon and Scott Boland added 55 vital runs unbeaten while India seemed none too keen to bat amid the lengthening shadows.

Lyon ended the day unbeaten on 41 and in sight of his maiden Test half-century in his 133rd appearance.

India's unwillingness to confront a new ball was perhaps unsurprising given the damage Bumrah and his fellow quicks inflicted with theirs for the first 50 overs of Australia's innings, which would have been even more devastating had Yashasvi Jaiswal not turfed three catches.

Australia had begun their second innings shortly before 10.30am and with an obvious intent to extend their 105-run advantage as smartly as possible.

That was obvious as debutant opener Sam Konstas carried on his Boxing Day pyrotechnics by stepping down the pitch and aiming a huge (and unsuccessful) across-the-line heave at the fourth ball he faced from Bumrah.

But it soon became just as obvious that batting against India's fired-up pace attack was a markedly tougher assignment than it had proved for lower-order pair Nitish Kumar Reddy and Washington Sundar when Australia took their second new ball yesterday.

Scott Boland, the Australia seamer who knows more about the MCG pitch's characteristics than most, noted last night there remained "a bit of nip" in the surface but India's quicks made that seem something of an understatement.

Bumrah, Akash Deep and even out-of-form Mohammed Siraj found extravagant seam movement which, coupled with some discernibly variable bounce, meant Australia's focus shifted from scoring to survival.

Konstas, who had sought on-field treatment to his left forearm, was first to succumb when he was undone by a delivery that Bumrah sent down from wide on the crease to exploit the gap between bat and pad and tilt back the teen's middle stump.

Barely had the bails hit the ground than the normally undemonstrative Bumrah unleashed a mocking mimic of the exhortations Konstas had been making to the crowd during India's batting innings.

Usman Khawaja managed a solitary boundary in his 65-ball innings of 21 that might have been terminated on two had Jaiswal held a sharp chance at leg gully off Bumrah, and ultimately lost his off stump to an exuberant Siraj.

But the difficulty suddenly facing the besieged batters was best exemplified by first-innings century maker Smith who took 16 deliveries to find his first run today.

Labuschagne's sole boundary prior to lunch proved worth the wait, an exquisite cover drive off a rare Bumrah over-pitch and upon resumption – with Australia 2-53 and 158 ahead – the experienced Australia duo looked to ramp up the scoring.

Smith flagged that from the first ball of the session when he launched a hefty swing at Siraj, followed by his first boundary that flew in the air through point, then a lofted drive that would have landed in the hands of mid-off had that fielder not been pushed back.

However, the burst of aggression came at a heavy cost when Smith tried to flay a wide yorker from Siraj and edged behind to trigger another Bumrah-led collapse that swung the game in India's favour.

Head celebrated his 31st birthday by avoiding a pair by knocking the first ball he faced from Siraj to gully for a single, but his party was quickly pooped by Rohit Sharma's shrewd decision to immediately bring back Bumrah who had bowled just two overs immediately after lunch.

With his first delivery at Head he had Australia's leading scorer for the series flicking an easy catch to square leg, then removed Marsh who left the field sporting the air of faith as well as form.

The reigning Allan Border Medallist has reached double figures just once this series and has posted single-figure totals (including three ducks) from his past 10 Test knocks.

When Alex Carey – the only Australia batter to have reached double figures in every innings prior to today – had his stumps rearranged by a Bumrah ball that veered violently past the inside edge of his angled bat, Australia was in freefall.

Where conversations at innings' start had mused when they might time their declaration to bring the best chance of victory, at 6-91 and barely 200 runs ahead with almost five sessions to play, the chat was how they might conceivably halt India's victory push.

For the second time in the match Cummins came to his team's rescue with bat in hands, forging a 57-run seventh-wicket stand with Labuschagne (from 116 probing deliveries) that was every bit as valuable as his 112-run union with Smith in the first innings.

During their stoic resistance, Labuschagne was charged with the substantial responsibility of facing Bumrah to the extent the pair would refuse runs if it meant Cummins might end up in the sights of India's one-man wrecking ball.

Labuschagne's credentials for that job were underscored shortly after lunch when he unfurled a sweetly timed straight drive for four, making him the only Australia batter to manage multiple boundaries off Bumrah for the innings.

He had also survived a couple of scares, the most frightening being the regulation catch he guided to Jaiswal at third slip only for the beleaguered opener to shell another chance to the undisguised fury of his skipper.

The Australia number three had also been forced to sweat through India's review of a huge lbw shout (when he was on 10) which was struck down when ball tracking supported the umpire's call, which showed the ball clipping the bails.

It was the same verdict that ended Labuschagne's 228-minute stay when adjudged lbw to Siraj with the batter's review confirming the same outcome, sparking a wild celebration from the bowler who had gone wicketless in the first innings.

The prescriptive approach Australia's batters took to their individual bowler match-ups cost Starc his wicket when he mistakenly took off for a second run when Cummins wanted to settle for a single, and failed to beat keeper Rishabh Pant's direct hit.

But it was Cummins' decision to keep the strike by knocking back a run and opting to face the spin of Ravindra Jadeja that saw his contribution end on 41, caught by his rival captain at slip as he tried to caress a late cut to the third boundary.

When Cummins departed, Australia's overall lead was 285 and India was eyeing the possibility of more than an hour's batting to put a dent in that target before stumps.

However, they were forced to wait a further 80 minutes as Australia's last pair Lyon and Boland scampered every available run and negotiated a dropped catch (return chance to Siraj), a missed run out opportunity and two unsuccessful lbw reviews.

To compound their frustration, Lyon was caught at third slip by KL Rahul for 35 in the day's final over only to be recalled to the crease upon confirmation Bumrah had overstepped.

It was almost as dramatic as the events of the previous evening when India's last man Siraj survived to see Reddy to his maiden Test century, with the last-wicket pair adding a further 11 runs this morning before the latter holed out for a memorable 114.

That dismissal came after a bizarre interlude with Siraj squeezing what the Australians believed was a catch off a yorker-length delivery from Cummins, which – upon umpires' review – was deemed a bumped ball following cursory off-field examination.

Cummins was clearly unhappy with the outcome of that process and tried unsuccessfully to review the decision, which would have effectively seen the judge who handed down the original verdict re-trying his own case.

NRMA Insurance Men's Test Series v India

First Test: India won by 295 runs

Second Test: Australia won by 10 wickets

Third Test: Match drawn

Fourth Test: December 26-30: MCG, Melbourne, 10.30am AEDT

Fifth Test: January 3-7: SCG, Sydney, 10.30am AEDT

Australia squad: Pat Cummins (c), Sean Abbott, Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Travis Head (vc), Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Sam Konstas, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Marsh, Jhye Richardson, Steve Smith (vc), Mitchell Starc, Beau Webster

India squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Jasprit Bumrah (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Devdutt Padikkal, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant, Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar. Reserves: Mukesh Kumar, Navdeep Saini, Khaleel Ahmed, Yash Dayal