Oz Carey on with pounding

LONDON, June 10

Australia were within touching distance of capturing the World Test Championship title as India’s hopes of chasing down a monumental 444-run victory target appeared to be slipping away after they ended Day four on 164/3 today.

When Australia captain Pat Cummins declared their second innings on 270/8, the challenge that lay ahead for India looked insurmountable.

With Shubman Gill (18), Rohit Sharma (43) and Cheteshwar Pujara (27) back in the pavilion and the deficit cut by only 93 runs, many were left wondering if India would even be able to stretch the match into a fifth day.

Indian fans will do well to block out the statistics listed in the record books which suggest they have been set an impossible mission.

India will have to pull off the highest-ever successful fourth-innings run chase if they are to win their first global ICC trophy in 10 years.

West Indies set the record when they chased down 418 to beat Australia in Antigua in 2003.

India’s task looks even more daunting since the highest-ever successful run chase at The Oval is 263, which England achieved against Australia more than a century ago, in 1902.

However, following Australia’s declaration, India came out fighting, with skipper Sharma timing the ball sweetly as he stroked a number of boundaries and even launched a spectacular six.

But by tea, they were down one man after Cameron Green took a spectacular, if controversial, left-handed diving catch to dismiss opener Gill from a Scott Boland delivery. Multiple video replays failed to confirm whether the ball had brushed the ground before Green completed the catch.

While Indian fans made their feelings known by shouting “cheat, cheat, cheat”, Australia wicketkeeper Alex Carey said: “I thought he caught it fair and square. It looked good from where I was, and he was really happy with it.”

A livid Sharma, though, was not convinced and his protests to the umpires fell on deaf ears as Gill trudged off.

When Sharma and Pujara were dismissed within the space of six deliveries to leave India teetering on 93/3, there were fears India were heading for a repeat of their first-innings collapse.

Relentless bowling

Former captain Virat Kohli (44 not out) and Ajinkya Rahane (20 not out) made sure they survived the remaining overs and will be hoping to pull off a miracle on Sunday by surviving Australia’s relentless bowling onslaught.

Earlier in the day, Australia stuck to their tactic of “crawling” towards setting India a big victory target.

Resuming on 123/4, slow-and-steady was the order of the day as Marnus Labuschagne (41) swallowed up 126 balls, Green (25) faced 95 deliveries and Alex Carey frustrated the Indian bowlers for 105 balls to remain unbeaten on 66. Reuters

Scoreboard

Australia 1st innings 469

India 1st innings 296

A Rahane c Green b Cummins 89

R Jadeja c Smith b Lyon 48

S Bharat b Boland 5

S Thakur c Carey b Green 51

U Yadav b Cummins 5

M Shami c Carey b Starc 13

M Siraj not out 0

Extras: (b 10, lb 10, nb 8, w 1) 29

Total: (all out, 69.4 overs) 296

FOW: 1-30, 2-30, 3-50, 4-71, 5-142, 6-152, 7-261, 8-271, 9-294

Bowling O M R W

Mitchell Starc 13.4 0 71 2

Pat Cummins 20 2 83 3

Scott Boland 20 6 59 2

Cameron Green 12 1 44 2

Nathan Lyon 4 0 19 1

Australia 2nd inns (overnight 123/4)

U Khawaja c Bharat b Yadav 13

D Warner c Bharat b Siraj 1

M Labuschagne c Pujara b Yadav 41

S Smith c Thakur b Jadeja 34

T Head c & b Jadeja 18

C Green b Jadeja 25

A Carey not out 66

M Starc c Kohli b Shami 41

P Cummins c sub (Patel) b Shami 5

Extras: (b 9, lb 9, nb 2, w 6) 26

Total: (8 wickets, 84.3 overs) 270/8d

FOW: 1-2, 2-24, 3-86, 4-111, 5-124, 6-167, 7-260, 8-270

Bowling O M R W

Mohammed Shami 16.3 6 39 2

Mohammed Siraj 20 2 80 1

Shardul Thakur 8 1 21 0

Umesh Yadav 17 1 54 2

Ravindra Jadeja 23 4 58 3

India 2nd innings

R Sharma lbw b Lyon 43

S Gill c Green b Boland 18

C Pujara c Carey b Cummins 27

V Kohli not out 44

A Rahane not out 20

Extras: (lb 1, nb 5, w 6) 12

Total: (3 wickets, 40 overs) 164

FOW: 1-41, 2-92, 3-93

Bowling O M R W

Pat Cummins 9 0 42 1

Scott Boland 11 1 38 1

Mitchell Starc 7 0 45 0

Cameron Green 2 0 6 0

Nathan Lyon 11 1 32 1