India mounted a positive reply after Steve Smith’s unbeaten 178 and Glenn Maxwell’s maiden century powered Australia to a series-high 451 on day two of the third Test on Friday.
K L Rahul made an elegant 67, his fourth half-century in five innings, before Pat Cummins dismissed him in the paceman’s first Test after more than five years in the wilderness.
India were 120 for one at close, still 331 behind, with Murali Vijay unbeaten on 42 and Cheteshwar Pujara on 10.
Vijay hit six boundaries in 102 balls showing enormous patience as he left anything that was remotely pitched outside the off-stump.
After a couple of difficult pitches, it was one of the easier tracks to bat on. After negotiating the initial spell of Cummins and Josh Hazlewood safely, Rahul opened up by hitting shots on all sides of the square.
Rahul treated all the bowlers with equal disdain. Cummins was hit for three boundaries, so was Steve O’Keefe while Hazlewood was dispatched to the ropes on two occasions.
Earlier, Steve Smith posted the highest individual score by an Australian captain in India, smashing 178 off 361 balls with 17 boundaries to his credit.
Glenn Maxwell (104) also completed a well-deserved maiden Test hundred. He had nine boundaries and two sixes in his 185-ball knock.
The Smith-Maxwell duo put on 191 runs for the fifth wicket, laying the foundation for the big Australian total.
Australia’s last five wickets fell for a mere 56 runs which prevented Smith from completing his double hundred.
For India, Ravindra Jadeja (5/124) bowled with a lot of heart sending down as many as 49.3 overs.
Equally praiseworthy was Umesh Yadav’s performance (3/108 in 31 overs), who bowled with pace and got the old ball to reverse on a consistent basis.
Ravichandran Ashwin had a bad day in office as he got 1/114 in 34 overs. More noticeably, not for once did he look menacing on a track that did not offer much help unlike the first two Test matches.
