Melbourne: India reached 346 for 4 at tea on the second day of the third Test against Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) here Thursday.Ajinkya Rahane and Rohit Sharma were batting on 30 and 13 respectively at the break. Cheteshwar Pujara and captain Virat Kohli were out for 106 and 82 in the post-lunch session.
India looked ready for another hard day’s grind, with Kohli reaching his half-century, off 110 balls, in the very first over of the day. The two batsmen scored quickly in the first hour and kept the scorecard ticking, before Australia went back to their tactic of cutting runs.
Pat Cummins bowled another wonderful spell, extracting most out of the pitch than any other Australian bowler, and he beat the edges of both batsmen on a couple of occasions but without any luck.
Nathan Lyon bowled with a predominantly leg-side field and into the batsmen. His duel with Pujara was quite remarkable, as the batsman kept turning him to the onside again and again. On the rare occasion, Lyon pulled his length back and Pujara used his feet well and drove him to the offside against the turn.
The four-match series is pegged at 1-1, after India won the first Test in Adelaide by 31 runs and Australia took the second Test in Perth by 146 runs.