Bumrah, Siraj and Labuschagne headline fast-paced day four at the MCG

Jasprit Bumrah became the first bowler in the history of the sport to pick 200 wickets at an average of less than 20, his massive influence being felt on another day’s cricket in the Border Gavaskar Trophy. Mohammed Siraj reversed his first-innings waste by quickly finding his rhythm and keeping it to snare three wickets. For Australia, Marnus Labuschagne used his share of luck to score his second fifty of the Test to keep his team afloat on an up-and-down day of cricket. Beyond the impact of this trio, Australia pushed their lead to 333 thanks to a stubborn final wicket between Nathan Lyon (41* off 54) and Scott Boland (10* off 65).

India’s reliance on Bumrah stood out in this Test – in the first innings he bowled 28.4 off 122.4 overs – only three times previously had he bowled more in a single innings during testing. In the second, he has taken on a bigger share – dispatching 24 out of 82 overs so far. In those 24 overs, he picked up four wickets to rattle the Australian cage after India had conceded a lead of 105 points in the first innings.

He got the fourth day off to a flying start, knocking out his first-round nemesis, Sam Konstas, and celebrating like the 19-year-old had done with the crowd the day before. He and Akash Deep then endured a session in which they regretted their luck as Usman Khawaja and Labuschagne survived a myriad of games and failures and continued to face off. India were top class with the new ball with no matching results to show for it – they induced 41.6% false shots in the first 10 overs, but picked just one wicket in that period.

Siraj then played as if he had something to prove after his wayward efforts in the first innings. He pushed back Khawaja’s stumps to end his misery. India then accelerated their rise in the match in the post-lunch session as Bumrah and Siraj combined to pick four wickets in the space of 22 balls.

The procession began with Steve Smith sending a full, wide delivery from Siraj behind before Travis Head suffered a rare double miss against India – sending a ball from Bumrah to Nitish Reddy at mid-wicket. This was Bumrah’s 200th scalp in this format. The Pacer ace quickly allowed an out-of-form Mitchell Marsh to take a behind and then break the gap between Alex Carey’s bats and strikers, to leave Australia at 91 for 6.

Just when India were on the rise, Pat Cummins arrived to dampen their enthusiasm by taking a stand with Labuschagne, who made the most of his near misses and two dropped catches – both from Yashasvi Jaiswal. They made a vital 57 runs to extend Australia’s lead before Siraj and India found themselves on the right side of an ‘umpire’s call’ for an LBW appeal against Labuschagne. With Labuschagne’s dismissal, Rohit Sharma continued to bring back Bumrah for short spells to try and wrap up the lower order, but it didn’t happen the way he would have liked.

Mitchell Starc fell to a sharp dismissal by Pant, and Cummins sent Jadeja to Rohit at first slip to fall for 41, but the final wicket alliance remained unbeaten. From 173 for 9, Lyon and Boland frustrated India to comfortably push the lead beyond 300. Together, the duo have now batted for a combined 25 overs in the two innings of this match. While India were unable to end Australia’s innings, the hosts also opted not to do so themselves through a declaration as the batters appeared to be getting easier on the surface.

Brief scores:Australia 474 and 228/9 (Marnus Labuschagne 70; Jasprit Bumrah 4-56, Mohammed Siraj 3-66) leads India 369 (Nitish Reddy 114, Yashasvi Jaiswal 82, Washington Sundar 50; Scott Boland 3-57, Pat Cummins 3-89, Nathan Lyon 3-96) by 333 points