India vs Australia Highlights, 4th Test Day 3: Nitish Reddy headlines IND comeback with maiden ton, trail by 116 runs

India vs Australia 4th Test Day 3 Live Score: A typical Rishabh Pant dismissal. Very eventful three balls there, Pant pulls out just as Boland releases the third ball of the 56th over. Boland very unhappy about that, he has a word with umpire Joe Wilson who in turn talks to Pant. The batter is apologetic for that. Then Boland sends in one short of a length, Pant goes for one of those almighty heaves of his that lifts him off the ground but the ball hits him on the abdomen and he is down flat on his back. He then attempts to scoop Boland, takes a top edge and Lyon takes the catch at fine leg.

Pant c Lyon b Boland 28 (37)

India 191/6 in 55.4 overs

India vs Australia 4th Test Day 3 Live Score: All right, Jadeja gets his first four of the day off the last ball of the 54th over by Boland by tucking it away off the pads through fine leg. Cummins takes himself off and brings on Nathan Lyon for the 55th over, he is bowling to Pant. This should be interesting. Pant is on 23 off 31, Jadeja on nine off 31.

India 185/5 in 54 overs

India vs Australia 4th Test Day 3 LIVE Score: What in the world is going on with these Indian batters! Jadeja adds to the four runs he scored yesterday after facing 24 deliveries today with a single off the fifth ball of the 53rd by Cummins. Then Pant sets off last ball, Jadeja sends him back a little late and the former has to sprint back to save his life. Pant asks Jadeja to call earlier than that. He is on 23 off 31, Jadeja is on five off 25.

India 182/5 in 53 overs

India vs Australia 4th Test Day 3 LIVE Score: Six overs into the day and Jadeja is yet to get off the mark. He is still on four runs after facing 23 balls, he had faced seven yesterday. Pant at the other end has been chugging along nicely, he is on 22 off 27. Pant started the 52nd over by Boland by pulling the short ball powerfully through square leg for four. He got off strike fifth ball and Jadeja confident in defence last ball.

India 180/5 in 52 overs, trail by 294 runs

India vs Australia 4th Test Day 3 LIVE Score: Well a very eventful 50th over there and of course it is Boland who bowled it. Pant leaves the first ball, defends the second down and then has a rather lazy waft at the third. That one takes the edge and goes just wide of gully. The batters take a single and then Jadeja inexplicably taps and runs despite there being no run in it for a million years. Pant doesn't move an inch and screams at Jadeja to "wait and see", the latter turns around from almost halfway down the pitch and somehow reaches the crease; almost exactly like how Jaiswal was run out yesterday. Jadeja then backs away next ball just as Boland delivers it, called dead ball. Then the fifth ball takes Jadeja's outside edge after which Pant can be seen motioning towards him to keep things calm. Jadeja defends the last one down to his feet. He remains on four off 17, yet to get off the mark for the day. Pant on 16 off 21.

India 174/5 in 50 overs

India vs Australia 4th Test Day 3 LIVE Score: Well very good umpiring there but Alex Carey will feel a little sheepish seeing that replay. Cummins continues in the 49th over and Pant charges down the track first ball, sends the Australian captain soaring over wide mid-on for a one-bounce four. Not surprising at all considering this is Rishabh Pant. He then shoulders arms next ball and the Aussies go up immediately for caught behind, umpire turns down the appeal, Pant looks completely unbothered but Carey persuades Cummins to go upstairs. There was some sound but replays show that the ball was nowhere near the gloves or pads. Further replays show that it probably brushed Pant's chest as it went through. Pant gets off strike fifth ball and Jadeja defends the last. Pant on 15 off 18, Jadeja still on four runs off 14 balls.

India 173/5 in 49 overs, trail by 301 runs

India vs Australia 4th Test Day 3 LIVE Score: Australia decide to continue with Boland who was absolutely sensational in the closing stages yesterday. Jadeja, though, wasn't too perturbed throughout that over and manages to stay alive.

India 168/5 in 48 overs

India vs Australia 4th Test Day 3 LIVE Score: Cummins beats Pant with a peach of a third delivery in that over, late movement almost doing the job. Then the fourth ball is edged between second slip and gully for four. Pant is on 10 off 13 at the end of that over.

India 168/5 in 47 overs

India vs Australia 4th Test Day 3 LIVE Score: For all the doom and gloom, the fact remains that this ball is 46 overs old. The Indian middle order haven't come in to bat this late in a match for a while now and so it should be easier than what has usually been the case for them. But there is nothing easy about facing Pat Cummins at any time of the day, he is steaming in for the first over of the day, Rishabh Pant is on strike, Ravindra Jadeja at the other day.

India 164/5 in 46 overs

India vs Australia 4th Test Day 3 LIVE Score: All right then, the Aussies are all smiles as they walk out to the middle. Rishabh Pant and Ravindra Jadeja enter after them. A crowd of 70,000 is expected today in Melbourne which is just extraordinary for Day 3 of a Test.

India vs Australia 4th Test Day 3 LIVE Score: They love him at the MCG. Scott Boland is from these parts and he was denied for much of the day yesterday. However, he struck during that last half an hour of madness, dismissing Kohli and then nightwatcher Akash Deep.

India vs Australia 4th Test Day 3 LIVE Score: Steve Smith said that Australia thought they are set to endure a special innings from Kohli the way he was batting yesterday. “He [Kohli] looked really good today. I thought, 'Geez, he's in for a good one here,' Smith said, reflecting on Kohli's composed start. He was leaving nicely, making the bowlers come to him, and scoring well through the leg side when we went short. I thought we were in for a bit of a masterclass,” said Smith in the post-day press conference.

India vs Australia 4th Test Day 3 LIVE Score: In short - India have a mountain to climb and then some. The score stands at 164/5 in 46 overs with Rishabh Pant batting on six off seven balls and Ravindra Jadeja on four off seven balls. India trail by 310 runs and they are 111 runs behind the follow-on cut-off.

India vs Australia 4th Test Day 3 LIVE Score: Kohli walked off with his demigod status even further cemented the last time he played at the MCG (THAT game against Pakistan in the 2022 T20 World Cup). He was even very well received the last time he played a Test innings here in the 2019/20 series and ground Australia to dust in a 170-run partnership with Cheteshwar Pujara off a whopping 409 balls. This time, though, things have gone awry between the Melbourne crowd and the Indian superstar, starting with the shoulder barge with Konstas. Yesterday, there were boos whenever he went to field near the boundary, unless the majority of the fans in that particular corner were Indian though. There was also a mixture of boos and cheers when he walked out to bat and he even argued with a fan when walked back to the dressing room after being dismissed.

India vs Australia 4th Test Day 3 LIVE Score: Well we could have some rain interruptions later in the day. Rain is forecast for around 3pm to 4pm today, according to AccuWeather, and that could force an early Tea. It would be a surprise if play is interrupted any more than that though.

India vs Australia 4th Test Day 3 LIVE Score: This kid is a superstar already. Sam Konstas is probably doing everything that anyone who has ever dreamed of playing international cricket wanted to do. He took his chances against arguably the best bowler in the world and threw him off his line, scored a whirlwin half-century and got a grizzled veteran so worked up that the latter actively bumped shoulders with him. On Day 2, he went and became crowd conductor, even waving to the stands whe said grizzled veteran was dismissed. Konstas has played just one innings, he is yet to go through the hard times that an international cricketer invariably faces in his career and is still in complete unconditional love with the game. Long may this continue.

India vs Australia 4th Test Day 3 LIVE Score: It didn't really matter that KL Rahul had been demoted to No.3 to accommodate Rohit Sharma, he had to pretty much play as an opener after the Indian captain decided to try and hit a six in the second over of an innings in which his team was chasing over 470. And Rahul did a very good job at that, with Pat Cummins having to bowl arguably the delivery of the series to get him out last ball of the second session.

India vs Australia 4th Test Day 3 LIVE Score: Steve Smith scored his 34th Test century yesterday. He became the 11th batter to get there and he did it in 201 innings, making him the third fastest to 34 Test tons after Sachin Tendulkar (192 innings) and Ricky Ponting (193 innings).

India vs Australia 4th Test Day 3 LIVE Score: It hadn't been easy to bat against India in Test cricket for many years, until this ongoing season. This is the second time that Australia have scored more than 400 runs in an innings in this series. That makes it the first time since 2016 that any team scored more than 400 runs in an innings against India multiple times in a Test series.

India vs Australia 4th Test Day 3 LIVE Score: It took India more than a session to end the Australian innings yesterday, in which time Steve Smith ground them to dust. In the second session, the last wicket stand between Nathan Lyon and Scott Boland went on for more than half an hour and Bumrah had to return to finally end that stand. He avoided conceding more than 100 runs in the innings, finishing with figures of 4/99 in a whopping 28.4 overs - head and shoulders and waist above any of his teammates.

India vs Australia 4th Test Day 3 LIVE Score: Rohit Sharma, who has played 491 international matches and scored nearly 20,000 runs, saw a delivery that seemed to be short and couldn't help but shape up for the lofted pull shot. He ended up spooning the ball to mid-on in just the second over of an innings in which India were chasing 474. Virat Kohli played 86 balls and did well to consistently leave deliveries outside off. Then, he ran Jaiswal out and couldn't help but take a poke well outside off soon thereafter. This was Kohli's 206th Test innings. Both these shots have become signatures of the two players. They have also been allowed to pick and choose when they want to play and if they want any kind of practice matches or not before big tours. Now, those very shots are failing them.

India vs Australia 4th Test Day 3 LIVE Score: How poor has Rohit Sharma been in the ongoing Test season for India? He is now averaging 5.50 in this ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy, which is lower than Mitchell Marsh's 12.16; and there are genuine talks of the Australian all-rounder's Test career being on the line. It is also lower than the averages of Nathan Lyon, Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc - the Australian tail. And Rohit promoted himself to the top of the order in place of Rahul who has averaged 43.16.

India vs Australia 4th Test Day 3 LIVE Score: Sanjay Manjrekar had torn into India's decision to promote Rohit Sharma in place of KL Rahul to the top of the order during commentary. Here is what he further said about it on ESPNCricinfo: “This is something that happens a lot in Indian cricket culture. Where just to get a big name player on track, we often sacrifice a lesser or a smaller name and it doesn't ever make cricketing logic. It's never best for the team. KL Rahul has been India's most consistent batter. He stitched a record partnership with Yashasvi Jaiswal. Just because Rohit is out of form and he is a senior player and to get him back in form you can't be making these kind of changes. That just reflects poorly on Indian cricket as to what is priority for Indian cricket. It's happened in the past as well with (Sachin) Tendulkar. So it is time India moves away from the time of big players just clearing up all the places.”

India vs Australia 4th Test Day 3 LIVE Score: India played 46 overs in their innings yesterday and for much of it, they were as steady as any team can be. Captain Rohit Sharma threw it away early but after that, KL Rahul, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Virat Kohli set India in cruise mode. Then came the last six overs. It all started with Jaiswal setting off for a ridiculously, needlessly tight single and Kohli even more ridiculously choosing to look at the ball instead of his partner until it was too late. Clearly Kohli was bothered by that because he went for that push outside off miles away from his body that has never done him any good off Boland in what was effectively the next over for him. It was something he avoided and left so well throughout his innings. Nightwatcher Akash Deep was the next man to fall to Boland and India went from being 153/2 to 164/5 in a matter of just over five overs.

India vs Australia 4th Test Day 3 LIVE Score: Well Rohit Sharma packed the middle order with all-rounders to make up for the largely poor form of the top order batters, chief of which is himself. Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar and Ravindra Jadeja have all been included for exactly the kind of situation India are in right now. The extra spinner did nothing for India, it would be quite something if the extra batters do nothing either.

India XI: Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma(c), Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant(w), Ravindra Jadeja, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep