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

Jasprit Bumrah became the first bowler in the history of the sport to take 200 wickets at an average of under 20 as his huge impact was felt on another day of cricket in the Border Gavaskar Trophy. Mohammed Siraj canceled out his first innings profligacy by quickly finding his rhythm and sustaining it to take three wickets. For Australia, Marnus Labuschagne capitalized on good luck and scored his second Test fifty to keep his team afloat on a turbulent day of cricket. Beyond the impact of this trio, Australia extended their lead to 333 thanks to a stubborn final wicket stand between Nathan Lyon (41* off 54) and Scott Boland (10* off 65).

India’s reliance on Bumrah was outstanding in this Test – he bowled 28.4 overs of 122.4 in the first innings – only three times before in Tests had he bowled more in a single innings. In the second, he made a bigger contribution, losing 24 out of 82 overs so far. He picked up four wickets in those 24 overs to rattle Australia’s cage after India conceded a 105-run lead in the first innings.

He got Day 4 off to a blockbuster start by striking out his nemesis Sam Konstas in the first inning and celebrating like the 19-year-old had done with the crowd the day before. He and Akash Deep then had a session in which they regretted their luck as Usman Khawaja and Labuschagne survived countless plays and misses and kept getting into trouble. India were top-notch with the new ball and had no results to match – they missed 41.6% in the first 10 overs but picked just one wicket in that period.

Siraj then bowled as if he had something to prove after his erratic attempts in the first innings. He threw back Khawaja’s stumps to put the first hitter out of his misery. India then accelerated their rise in the game in the post-lunch session as Bumrah and Siraj combined to pick four wickets in 22 balls.

The procession began with Steve Smith fending off a full and long throw from Siraj behind him before Travis Head suffered a rare double fault against India – chipping a ball from Bumrah to Nitish Reddy at mid-wicket. This was Bumrah’s 200th scalp in this format. The ace pacer managed to quickly put an out-of-action Mitchell Marsh behind and then broke the gap between Alex Carey’s bats, leaving Australia 6-1 down to 91.

Just as India were on the rise, Pat Cummins came along to dampen their enthusiasm by tackling Labuschagne, who made the most of his near misses and two dropped catches – both from Yashasvi Jaiswal. They put on a crucial 57 runs to extend Australia’s lead before Siraj and India found themselves on the right side of an “umpire’s call” that saw Labuschagne appeal LBW. After Labuschagne was sacked, Rohit Sharma kept bringing Bumrah back for short periods to try and unite the lower order, but it didn’t quite go as he would have liked.

Mitchell Starc was denied by a sharp run-out from Pant and Cummins nodded Jadeja straight off to Rohit for 41, but the last-wicket alliance remained unbeaten. At 173 for 9, Lyon and Boland frustrated India and comfortably extended the lead to over 300. Together, the duo now batted for a total of 25 overs in the two innings of this game. While India failed to end Australia’s innings through stumps, the hosts also chose not to do so through a statement themselves as batting seemed to become easier on the surface.

Short results:Australia 474 & 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) with 333 runs