India vs Australia, Third Test: After openers create history, onus on middle-order to pull off unlikely heist

CHENNAI: When Rishabh Pant and Ravindra Jadeja were left indisposed during day three, the match was seemingly headed Australia's way. But India reserved some of their best cricket with the bat to raise hopes of an unlikely survival bid — or even a win— on the fifth day of what has been a remarkable third Test.

It certainly did look like curtains the moment Tim Paine declared with one full session to go. A sloppy Indian fielding effort — two more catches were dropped including one off the second ball of the day — and a relatively quick 84 by Cameron Green helped Australia to 312/6 off 87 overs, for an overall lead of 406.

However, thanks to the slowish nature of the surface and the way they batted in the last session, the visitors will back themselves to deny the hosts a win.

Australia need eight wickets while India either have to play out three sessions or score 309 more to take the lead with one Test remaining in the series.

Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill, playing their first ever match as a pair, showed further evidence of their ability to make this position their own. They didn't unnecessarily poke at deliveries outside the off stump but made sure to put the bad balls away in style. In the process, they became the first Indian pair to stitch back-to-back 50-run partnerships in the same Test in Australia in more than 50 years. While both of them departed just as the shadows started lengthening across the playing area, Chesteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane have shown that they have the ability to bat time.

The one good thing from an Indian perspective is that the strip is still pretty decent. "The balls that we saw misbehave yesterday (Saturday) has also kind of come down because of the slow nature of the pitch. I also think the roller is playing a role," R Ashwin said after the day's play.

Will they try and chase down the target? Ashwin said they will assess the situation but did not rule out the prospect of trying to chase it down. The main thing, though, is to play out the first session. "It is important that we play a good first session tomorrow," he said. "A good first session would be to not lose a wicket. These two gentlemen out in the middle have proven through their careers how good they are playing this format of the game. We are all hopeful that they will put in a good performance."

Nobody will argue that this has been a difficult moment for the team: they have suffered multiple injuries, their players have been at the receiving end of alleged racial slurs and there is the continuing confusion over quarantine protocols for the fourth Test. So it's a challenge to focus only on the task at end. But Ashwin said the dressing room hasn't spoken about how things haven't gone their way. "We haven't really spoken about how things are not going our way. I personally feel with whatever has been thrown at us, we have responded in a very warrior-like fashion. We would like to continue and take the fight on
tomorrow (Sunday) also."

If they do, they might just pull off a heist for the ages.