Twitter Reactions: India only two wickets away from sealing a historic Boxing Day Test victory

India are on course for a memorable 2-1 lead in the ongoing four-match Test series against Australia. Chasing the target of 399 runs, Australia lost eight wickets in a hurry before Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon kept the tourists at bay even as the extra half hour was taken in the end to wrap things up. But the credit should once again go to the Indian bowlers as they never let the opposition batsmen settle and kept the team ahead in the game.

Earlier in the morning, India resumed at 54/5 in their second innings with Mayank Agarwal and Rishabh Pant batting. The former couldn’t add much to the total and was castled by the ever consistent Pat Cummins for 42. But Pant continued to blunt the leather and hit some lusty blows with the wickets falling at the other end. The lead swelled and went close to 400 but at the same time, Pant was dismissed by Josh Hazlewood to reduce India to 106/8.

This is where Virat Kohli decided to declare and set the target of 399 runs for Australia on a treacherous surface with the uneven bounce.

Australia lose wickets consistently

The chase wasn’t going to be easy for Australia at all and it proved straight away as Aaron Finch tried to cut a delivery too close to his body only to edge it to the second slip. Jasprit Bumrah broke through only in the second over and then the hosts started playing positively. There was a brief partnership between Usman Khawaja and Marcus Harris but the latter was scalped by Ravindra Jadeja thanks to some brilliant fielding from Agarwal at silly point.

There were partnerships right through but none of them kicked on and made a big score. Shaun Marsh looked the best amongst all scoring 44 runs. But he was once again pinned in front of the stumps by his first innings nemesis Bumrah. Since then, wickets fell at regular intervals to leave the home side reeling. Cummins, the hero of the game for the Aussies, once again showed the top order how to bat and remained unbeaten on 61.

India opted for an extra half hour as well but Australian tail once again troubled the visitors and refused to give up. After Mitchell Starc’s resistance, Nathan Lyon supported Cummins as they tired out the Indian fast bowlers to take the game into the fifth day with a possible chance of rain as well in Melbourne.

Here’s how Twitter reacted during the course of the day:

[interaction id=”5c262e99ba7b264a61750cdb”]

Get the latest Cricket News and updates from Australia vs India series, Match Predictions, Fantasy Cricket Tips and lots more on CricTracker.com.