India 296 and 164 for 3 (Kohli 44*, Rohit 43) still need 280 runs to beat Australia 469 and 270 for December 8 (Carey 66, Labuschagne 41, Starc 41, Jadeja 3-58, Shami 2-39, Umesh 2-54)

Under clear skies and in a short oval that looked easier than expected, the Indian batters staged a potentially thrilling final day, racing for 164 for 3 in addition to four overs to stay alive in pursuit of a record of the world in the fourth round. Australia remained favorites with India needing another 280 on the final day, but they may have a lot of work ahead of them to take the remaining seven wickets, with their second ball at just 40.

India may still be feeling a bit irritated with themselves on the stumps, possibly losing more wickets than they wanted at the moment, including two due to aggressive shots. Rohit Sharma was below Nathan Lyon, missing a stump-to-stump sweep, and Cheteshwar Pujara completed a mounted attempt on a slide from guard Pat Cummins.

However, both hitters will say it’s a shot they generally play well. They will also say that same positivity helped them cement a second wicket position with 51 from 77 balls. Both wickets, however, fell to within five balls, going from 92 for 1 to 93 for 3.

As they safely negotiated the end of the day, the largely cheering crowd cheered India, some of them singing that number from the 1975 blockbuster. Sholay:”yeh dosti, hum nahin todenge (we will never break this friendship). Australia wanted to decide as soon as possible at dawn on day five.

The chant “Cheats! Cheats! Cheats!” continued to follow Green for the rest of the evening, especially while he was bowling. controversy and the needles.

In the first session of the day, Green had a very different effect on the crowd, keeping them quiet as he added 18 runs on 87 balls to last night’s 7. His spending matched the tone of his sleeves: he tried to push Ravindra Jadeja’s delivery back on goal only for the ball to hit the bearings and roll into the goal.

Meanwhile, Australia had added 44 to their 123 overnight for 4 while dropping two wickets in 19 overs – Marnus Labuschagne, another cleared hitter, slipping Umesh Yadav first. India have been fascinated with discipline while extracting just enough from the box to keep batters on their toes; with a lead of just 340 for Australia, they can hope to finish their innings before reaching 400.

Alex Carey, however, made sure he ballooned well beyond that mark, scoring an opportunistic 66 with his 48 in the opening innings, and chipping in 93 for the seventh wicket with Mitchell Starc. Both hitters started cautiously and had moments of discomfort, especially against Jadeja who found a tight turn and rose off the track past the southpaw’s stubble, but grew increasingly confident then that India was getting tired quickly.

Mohammed Shami, who played sparingly and beat the bat several times for nothing in his previous spell, returned when India picked up a fresh second ball and brushed off Starc and Pat Cummins as they looked to work hard for a quick run. Australia declared on the blow of Cummins’ dismissal, taking India to an unbeaten 444 victory.

It’s probably a moment that evokes nostalgia among the elderly on the pitch. In 1979, Sunil Gavaskar’s two cents inspired India to a draw at The Oval; they finished on 429 for 8 after being tied at 438 by England. There’s still a chance that Sunday will bring a similar level of excitement.