Virendra Sehwag kept India's hope alive by taking 3 crucial wicktes out of the 4 wickets that fell on Day 3. The first hour of play was well played by Hayden and Katich. They did not lose their cool and ensured that they stay in the crease.
Hayden, the usual aggressive batsman compared to Katich was slow today mostly due to his poor runs in the first two tests. Katich reached his 50 in 91 balls with 8 boundaries. The first wicket added 123 runs before Katich was bowled by Mishra. The much awaited break through for Indians came in the 20th over of the day.
Ponting and Hayden played good shots of the pads, swept few deliveries and hit few on the point region. Hayden scored his maiden fifty of this series in his 96th delivery with 9 fours and a six off Mishra.
Sehwag trouble Hayden a little bit. The edge dit not carry to Dravid at slip and was beaten couple of times. When the score was on 202, Sehwag changed the angle and brought one quicker and straight to the stumps. Hayden was caught on the crease hitting just above the knee roll and trapped leb before. He scored 83.
Ponting reached fifty and looked comfortable to score another 100 in this tour. He hit two fours off Zaheer Khan and that should have added more confidence to him. In the next over, Sehwag flighted the delivery on the off stump which invited Ponting to come out and drive. Ponting missed the ball and the ball turned and knocked the middle stump. Ponting scored 87 with 14 fours.
Kumble injured his right little finger while trying to catch in short mid-wicket. He was sent to hospital for treating his bleeding finger.
Dhoni took the new ball, but brought in Sehwag quickly realizing that he is turning the ball well. He bowled Hussey through a typical off-spinner delivery that pitched on the middle stump and turned to strike the off stump. Hussey scored 53.
Michael Clarke survivied the last ball of the day through a lucky inside edge. Otherwise, one more time in the series, he would have been out in the last over.
The session before lunch is crucial for India, if they wanted to win. They have to pick at least 4 more wickets before lunch and complete the Australian Innings at least one hour before Tea.
Assuming India has 150 runs lead and can score at 4 runs per over in the 40 overs, they can end the day with 310 run lead. Score another 50 runs in the morning 8 overs and have Australia bat at least 80 overs which would be difficult on the last day.
Scoreboard at the end of Day 3:
India 1st Innings 613 for 7 declared in 161 overs (Sehwag 1, Gambhir 206, Dravid 11, Tendulkar 68, Laxman 200 not out, Ganguly 5, Dhoni 27, Kumble 45, Zaheer Khan 28 not out, Extras--22 (b 6, lb 8, w 2, nb 6), Lee 30-2-119-1, S Clark 33-9-69-0, Johnson 32-4-142-3, Watson 20-4-66-2, White 15-1-73-0, M Clarke 14-0-59-0, Katich 15-3-60-1, Ponting 2-0-11-0)
Fall of Wickets: 1-5 (Sehwag, 2.1 ov), 2-27 (Dravid, 10.4 ov), 3-157 (Tendulkar, 51.5 ov), 4-435 (Gambhir, 123.6 ov), 5-444 (Ganguly, 126.2 ov), 6-481 (Dhoni, 133.4 ov), 7-579 (Kumble, 155.4 ov)
Australia 1st Innings 338 for 4 in 105 overs (Hayden 83, Katich 64, Ponting 87, Hussey 53, Michael Clarke 21 batting, Watson 4 batting, Extras--26 (b 16, lb 3, w 1, nb 6), Zaheer Khan 16-4-57-0, I Sharma 19-5-46-0, Kumble 17-3-53-0, Mishra 30-7-95-1, Sehwag 22-4-66-3, Tendulkar 1-0-2-0)
Fall of Wickets: 1-123 (Katich, 34.1 ov), 2-202 (Hayden, 57.2 ov), 3-284 (Ponting, 85.4 ov), 4-326 (Hussey, 101.6 ov)
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