India kept the match going on Day 3 of the ICC World Test Championship Final. The match will go into the weekend when the WTC mace will be given to the winner.
All results still possible
Australia is definitely the favourite, but India’s great play on the third day means that anything can still happen at The Oval.
India will need to limit how much Australia can add to their score at the start of day four. They have already taken out the first innings centurions, so they will be sure that they can cause problems when play resumes on Saturday.
India will have to beat a record score to win this game, but they have done it before against Australia, and the memory of The Gabba in 2021 will give the Indian batting unit confidence.
The Oval’s field has some uneven bounce and will turn a little bit in the last couple of days, but it’s a good place to bat and the forecast doesn’t look like it will be too cloudy this weekend in south London.
It could be set up so that the last two days are extra special.
Australia’s leader gets rid of some dust
Pat Cummins, the captain of Australia, had a day full of ups and downs. He bowled well and finished with a great score of 3/83, but he also had more than a few frustrating times.
Cameron Green and David Warner both missed great chances early in the morning practice.
Cummins stepped out of bounds a total of six times during the game, and two of those times kept him from being out. The last of those no-balls made the captain so angry that he kicked the ball at the stumps as one way to show how upset he was.
But Cummins had been out of the game for a few months, so it wasn’t surprising that he was rusty. Still, the high points trumped the frustration for Australia’s captain, and he’ll be eager to get back out there on Saturday and finish this game.
Ajinkya, you’re back!
Ajinkya Rahane hasn’t played a Test match for India in more than a year. However, Shreyas Iyer’s illness and Suryakumar Yadav’s lack of Test experience made room for him to come back, which he did.
Rahane went on the attack in the morning practice. He did this because he had a great Indian Premier League season with the Chennai Super Kings.
If not for Rahane’s efforts, this game could have been literally or figuratively over, and his excellent knock may have just stretched his Test career for a little while longer.
Concerns about a broken hand were unfounded, and the 35-year-old has stated that he is healthy enough to bat again in the second innings, which is good news for all Indian fans.
Worrisome signs for Australia’s first game
Before their tour of England, both David Warner and Usman Khawaja were very worried about how they had done in English weather in the past.
And neither of them will have been cheered by how they were sent off at The Oval on Friday.
Warner was tricked into playing a shot that KS Bharat caught with his hands. This is the ninth time in his last 12 at-bats in England that he has been out for less than 10 runs.
Khawaja was also out quickly because of a bad shot, and his average in England fell to a very poor 17.78.
