Hyderabad: Virat Kohli led India to a day of consolidation, as K L Rahul slammed his maiden Test ton to take India to 342/5, trailing Australia by 230 runs with 5 wickets in hand. Kohli smashed his third successive ton as a captain.
India resumed Day 3 at 71/1, with Rahul and Rohit Sharma taking guard against the Australian attack. The first 15 overs were rather meek, with the Indians tottering to 90/1 in 40 overs. From the Indian point of view, this would have been more of a seeing away the first few overs tactics and it certainly did pay off because the Indians managed to keep their remaining wickets intact.
It seemed like Rohit Sharma didn’t learn from the mistakes he made on Day 2, falling to the same sweep shot that out in him trouble once, taken by Lyon for 53. This brought Virat Kohli in and the duo played very cautiously, with an occasional boundary that didn’t bother the Aussies much. At lunch, the Indians were at 122/2, with Rahul on 50, his first one and Virat Kohli playing the assisting role on 16.
The Indians continued using the same strategy post lunch as well, but then suddenly, there was a sudden burst of aggression from the 66th over where Kohli and Rahul began a flurry of boundaries. Rahul brought up his maiden ton. By the 80th over, the Indians were at 203/2. In the meantime, Kohli was dropped and at tea, the Indian scoreboard read 234/2.
Soon after tea, the Australian struck and removed Rahul for 110, caught and bowled by Starc, bringing in Ajinkya Rahane. Kohli freed his arms scoring three fours in a row in the 88th over, racing to his third century on the trot as a captain. Rahane fell in the 100th over taken by Watson for 13, bringing Raina in, who played a blink and miss innings, falling for a duck in the same over.
From 289/3, the Indians were suddenly staring at a collapse at 292/5. Saha walked into the middle and together with a dangerous looking Kohli, steered the team to 332/5 in 110 overs.
The Indians wrapped up Day 3 at 342/5.