Fourth Test between India and Australia: India is in serious difficulty after losing a number of fast wickets in Friday’s fourth Test match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

With Rishabh Pant (6) and Ravindra Jadeja (4) at the bat, India ended the second day of the Boxing Day Test at 164/5 in 46 overs in their first innings. They must make a great effort to avoid follow-on since they are still 310 runs behind.

Early in the innings, the visitors lost KL Rahul and captain Rohit Sharma (3). Virat Kohli and Yashasvi Jaiswal looked well in the middle and helped the team get out of difficulties.

Jaiswal scored his second half-century of the series as he and Kohli forged a 102-run partnership for the third wicket. To the delight of the MCG audience, the left-handed batsman even scored several spectacular boundaries while displaying excellent rhythm.

Jaiswal was abruptly fired due to a major misunderstanding just when everything seemed to be going well for India.

Jaiswal smashed the ball straight towards mid-on and proceeded to single during Scott Boland’s 41st over. Jaiswal had already left his crease when Cummins tossed it to Alex Carey, and the Indian batsman left in the most regrettable manner. Kohli contested the call.

After hitting 11 fours and a six, Jaiswal was out for 82 runs off 118 balls. His firing caused India to experience a mini-collapse.

Despite his impressive 36-run total with four boundaries, Kohli lost focus and was once again caught in Scott Boland’s outside off-stump trap.

Then, with a spectacular catch by Nathan Lyon, Boland quickly doubled his total when he removed Akash Deep for 0 in his very next over.

Australia went on to score 474 before being bowled out in 122.4 overs, building on their overnight total of 311.

In Melbourne, Steve Smith once again displayed his batting prowess, smashing his 34th Test century, his 11th against India. With the aid of three sixes and thirteen fours, he scored 140 runs.

Ravindra Jadeja claimed three scalps for India, while Jasprit Bumrah claimed four.

Fourth Test Playing XIs for AUS vs. IND:

Australia: Pat Cummins (c), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Scott Boland, Alex Carey (wk), Steven Smith, Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh, Sam Konstas, Marnus Labuschagne, and Usman Khawaja

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