India vs Australia, WTC Final Day 3 Highlights: AUS lead by 296 runs at Stumps

Right time to get down to the cricket. KS Bharat and Ajinkya Rahane walk out for India, Scott Boland will bowl the first over of the day. Buckle up folks, there will be a lot of action in this first hour.

It is very un-English conditions, in the way that there are clear blue skies above the Oval and the sun is beating down on the pitch, which is just brilliant for Australia with runs on board. There will be more cracks on the pitch with the deterioration that comes with the heat.

Hope. That is all India can do. Hope, and make Ajinkya Rahane and KS Bharat believe that they can hold their bat up against the Australian bowlers even if they fling grenades at them. India need some hard-nosed Test cricket batting from Rahane and Bharat here. Either that or they fling their bat at it Bazzball style and hope it sticks but the likelihood of that coming off against Boland, Cummins and Co. is rather negligible. India need Rahane and Bharat to survive the first hour. Then they need them to survive the next hour, and so on and so forth. On a deteriorating pitch, that is much, much easier said than done. 

Ravindra Jadeja's counter-attacking knock is what is responsible for a huge chunk of India's current score. The all-rounder scored 48 runs in 51 balls, hitting seven fours and one six, before falling prey to the wiles of Nathan Lyon.

Steve Smith's last nine Test innings in England are a sight to behold. His scores have been 143, 144, 142, 92, 211, 82, 80, 23 and 121. Eight half centuries, five centuries and an average of 115.33.

Siraj took four wickets in the Australian innings and has been one of the few brights lights for India in this Test thus far. The fast bowler was at his usual feisty self, particularly in a little passage of play against Steve Smith where he threw the ball angrily at the general area behind the striker's end after the batter pulled out a la Mitchell Johnson vs Kevin Pietersen 2013 Boxing Day Test. This is what Ricky Ponting had to say about Siraj. 

"Maybe sometimes he gets carried away and goes a little bit over the top, but you need those guys in your side when things aren't going well. He was the one today who said I am going to be the guy that is going to turn things around and what I loved was that his pace didn't drop at all during the whole innings," Ponting told International Cricket Council (ICC). "From the first ball yesterday morning until late this afternoon, his pace was hovering around that 86 or 87-mile-and-hour mark and that says a lot about a great attitude," he added.

Well it looked to everyone that the delivery that got Kohli out off Starc had reared up from a good length but Sanjay Manjrekar apparently something different on the pitch map. 

“A lot was being said about the ball but I looked at the pitch map and the ball had actually pitched halfway. That's a short ball and if you see Virat Kohli, that is the problem I have had with him the last couple of years. He is on the front foot no matter what. That ball is halfway down the pitch. It is a snorter if the ball is up from good length where most batters get out on the front foot. That is why I have become a proponent of the back foot play. If you see his reaction, he has gone on the front foot. Once the ball rears up while you are on the front foot, you have got no chance,” he said on ESPNCricinfo. 

It was in the 22nd over of the Indian innings that a turning point of sorts came in Rahane's stay in the middle. Until then, the former India vice-captain was looking fluid and aggressive but then came a big LBW appeal from Pat Cummins and Australia. The umpire nodded his head and raised his finger and it looked like India's last hope of putting up a real challenge with the bat was extinguished. Rahane took the review but it wasn't the confident kind that batters take when they know they have edged it and to the naked eye, he was dead for all money. But what does the naked eye know nowadays about front foot no balls. Both the camera angles available for the third umpire was somewhat obscured by either the non-striker or Marnus Labuschagne but the first replay showed clear enough visual proof. The Australian captain had overstepped and had to bowl the last ball of the 22nd over again. It was later shown that had his foot been behind the line, further replays would have held up umpire's call and Rahane would have been gone. Cummins followed that up with a length ball angling into the stumps that smacked Rahane on the finger. It would be 24 balls before he would score another run after that.

Most of the Indian fans rejoiced when Josh Hazlewood was ruled out of the WTC final due to a side strain but those who knew about his replacement - Scott Boland - didn't. Boland, a workhorse for Victoria in domestic cricket, has had a terrific start to his Test career and he was always going to be a tough challenge for any batting unit because of the constant questions he asks with his nagging line and length. He will once again be one of Australia's main weapons on Day 3 and also in the second innings.

Let's face it! India would do well if they save the follow-on from here on. They still need 119 runs to do that with only five wickets in hand and the less said about India's lower-order in overseas conditions the better it is. This is not to say Australia will make India bat again if they fail to reach 270 but it will be a psychological boost for the Rohit Sharma-led side if they save the follow-on. In order to do that, Rahane and Bharat will have to bat out of their skins.

Ajinkya Rahane looked in sublime touch till he was hit on the forefinger by a Pat Cummins delivery which raised from the length. Rahane took a fair bit of time to get over that as the physios treated him in the middle. Since then, Rahane went into a shell. He decided to bat out the day instead of going for the runs like Jadeja did. India would be hoping that the injury is not serious and Rahane can bat at his absolute best today.

"We are strong after 2 days, the pitch is a bit up and down and hopefully it will be harder for India to bat tomorrow," he said at the end of Day 2.

“I'm not sure. That's a question for him I suppose. I'm not looking at his front foot. But yeah, obviously that hurt. No balls are costly and you want your bowlers behind the line as much as possible and yeah jinx is still out there, so yeah, no balls are never good”

All the five bowlers of Australia picked a wicket each on Day 2 to give their side the edge in final. They could have gotten a sixth as well when Cummins dismissed Rahane in the 22nd over with the India batter on 17. But he survived on reviewing it as Cummins had overstepped. In fact, Australia bowled five no balls on Thursday, four of them were from Cummins.

Rohit Sharma and Shuban Gill started on a promising note before Aussie skipper Pat Cummins drew first blood with the dsimissal of his India counterpart for just 15. Scott Boland then left Gill stupefied athe crease an over later with a stunning delivery. Cameron Green bowled the exact same delivery to Pujara and the result was same. Shortly after Pujara's departure, Mitchell Starc delivered a beast of a ball to dimiss Virat Kohli as India's top order managed just 71 runs for four wickets in 18.2 overs.

Jadeja and Rahane then looked to revive India and they did with a 73-run stand before Lyon dismissed the former with a stunning delivery at the close of day.

Hello and welcome to the Live coverage of Day 3 of the World Test Championship final at the Kennigton Oval where India's Ajinkya Rahane and KS Bharat will aim to reduce the first-innings gap against Australia.