INDORE: At the end of a tumultuous day two of play in the third Test at the Holkar Stadium on Thursday, premier off-spinner Nathan Lyon took his second eight-wicket haul in Test cricket to bowl out India for 169 and put Australia on the edge of a triumph.
Cheteshwar Pujara, a top-order batsman for India, stood tall with a heroic 59 off 142 balls in the second innings thanks to his deft footwork and wise shot choice on a challenging pitch. Lyon concluded with 8/64 and set Australia a target of 76 to win the series 2-1 on day three, but the other batters, with the exception of Shreyas Iyer and Ravichandran Ashwin, couldn't step up.
Umesh Yadav and Ravichandran Ashwin took 3/12 and 3/44 in the first session, respectively, to bowl out the visitors for 197, giving Australia an early lead of 88 runs.
As Ashwin was able to extract turn and exploit it with flight to cause an Australian batting meltdown, they lost their final six wickets for just 11 runs in 28 balls in a stunning batting meltdown. But Umesh was effective with his show of reverse swing and reached 100 Test wickets at home.
Australia dominated the first hour of the morning session as India struggled to get runs in their first 16 overs. Ravindra Jadeja picked up where he left off in innings 156 and 4, but it wasn't nearly enough to pose a danger to Peter Handscomb and Cameron Green.
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