Finance
Shubman Gill hit his second Test century and first in India, while Virat Kohli was unbeaten on 59 as the hosts reached 289/3 in 99 overs, trailing Australia by 191 runs at stumps on day three of the fourth Test.
On another scorching day at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Gill wowed the crowd with his 128 off 235 balls, which included 12 fours and a six. Kohli, on the other hand, overcame a shaky start before tea to score his first fifty in the format since the Cape Town Test in January 2022, putting India in a strong position as only three wickets fell on Saturday.
Gill hit a lovely cover drive for four against Mitchell Starc with little help from the pitch. In the 13th over, with Starc pitching short, Gill got a glove edge on the pull and evaded the keeper to get another boundary.
After that, Rohit Sharma joined the party to take runs off Starc, with a swivelled four followed by another trademark pull over long leg for six. With Australia bringing in Matthew Kuhnemann and Nathan Lyon from both ends, the visitors were able to gain control as the odd ball did some interesting things, while Steve Smith constantly shuffled fields in an attempt to force an error from the Indian batters.
Australia finally broke through after losing a review against Gill when Kuhnemann dropped short and Rohit, shaping for an uppish backfoot punch, send the ball straight to short extra cover in the 21st over.
With Cheteshwar Pujara intent on scoring runs from the start, Gill reached his fifty in 90 balls with a backfoot punch through cover off Starc. When Starc returned for his next over, Gill used his trademark short-arm jab to send the short ball through mid-wicket for four.
Pujara made excellent use of his feet, as evidenced by his dance down the pitch to drive an overpitched Todd Murphy delivery through extra cover. Murphy created an interesting moment when he got one to run through the gate from the footmarks, but it missed the stumps and eluded both the batter and the keeper.
Gill’s timing was impeccable after lunch, closing the face of the bat at the perfect moment to clip Cameron Green through mid-on for four. Pujara, on the other hand, took advantage of Green’s short ball’s pace to guide it fine for four.
Australia then held Gill and Pujara at bay for 97 balls. But the duo handled a tricky phase well when Australia dried up the runs and never lost their cool.
In the 57th over, Gill broke the shackles with back-to-back boundaries — a punch on backfoot through cover was followed by a sumptuous cover drive between mid-off and cover. Pujara used his feet against Murphy to drive down the field for four, and Gill danced down the the pitch to smash a boundary off Lyon.
Gill then reached the three-figure mark with a sweep over the leg slip off Murphy, drawing applause from the large crowd. However, the off-spinner ended the over by lbw trapping Pujara with a delivery that turned in and went past the inside edge to hit him low on pads.
Lyon posed a threat to Kohli in the final over before tea, beating him and edging short of a slip. Gill picked up where he left off in the second session, landing a reverse sweep off Murphy for four. Gill broke a five-over non-boundary period by dancing down the pitch to whip Lyon through mid-wicket with him and Kohli rotating the strike.
Kohli began the over by driving through mid-off with the straight bat and ended it by clipping through square leg for a pair of boundaries. He improved as the overs went on, driving Murphy through cover for a boundary.
Kohli was quick to open the bat face and dab through third man when Starc pitched back of the length. In the 79th over, an exhausted Gill was on the backfoot to face a full off-break ball from Lyon, and Australia finally had a wicket. After being beaten on the inside edge, he was trapped right in front of the stumps.
With batters’ conditions not changing much, Kohli continued to score runs, tucking Lyon through fine leg to eventually get his fifty in 107 balls and raised his bat for a half-century in Test cricket after 14 months.
Shortly after Australia took the second new ball, Ravindra Jadeja shattered the shackles by dancing down the pitch to thump Kuhnemann for a six over wide long-on, three overs before stumps, with India amassing 101 runs from the final session on a quiet day of Test cricket.
Brief scores: Australia 480 lead India 289/3 in 99 overs (Shubman Gill 128, Virat Kohli 59 not out; Matthew Kuhnemann 1-43, Todd Murphy 1-45) by 191 runs
Source:OCN
