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At stumps on the fourth day, Australia were three for no loss in their second essay with Matthew Kuhnemann (0 batting) and Travis Head (3 batting) seeing through their six overs in the final session. Australia are behind by 88 runs.
A win on Monday will help India get a direct entry into the World Test Championship final.
Day 4 completely belonged to Virat Kohli who ended his Test century drought with a gritty 186-run knock. His 364-ball marathon knock was laced with 15 boundaries. The batting maestro put India in a comfortable position as she shared crucial stands with KS Bharat (44) and Axar Patel (79). For Australia, Nathan Lyon and Todd Murphy took three wickets each while Mitchell Starc and Matthew Kuhnemann took a scalp each.
Axar Patel said that there wasn’t any specific message from the dressing room and the only strategy was to play positively.
“When I was batting with Virat bhai, there wasn’t any specific message from the team. Virat bhai told me to continue playing positively, like I do. Once we got set, bowlers weren’t getting much assistance off the pitch too. Once I got set, I was connecting deliveries which were in my radar.
“Virat bhai was also saying that 50 is now done and I can think big since 22 overs were left in day’s play. There was no message around declaration or playing fast. The way pitch was and he was batting on 150 and I was over 50, so runs were coming in the flow.”
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