TUESDAY, DECEMBER 30, 2014 SPORTS MELBOURNE: Australia’s Chris Rogers (center) watches his shot fall short of India’s MS Dhoni (right) off the bowling of Mohammed Shami (left) on the fourth day of their cricket Test match. —AP Marsh sets India near record task to win Test MELBOURNE: An unbeaten half-century by we’ll assess it after we’re all out,” he said. Shami. But replays showed the ball hitting the Shaun Marsh put Australia in a strong position “It’s still a very good batting wicket. The key is ground in Dhoni’s glove and Rogers was given a SCOREBOARD yesterday, setting India a near-record task if they going to be to get that ball going a little bit and reprieve. India celebrated the important pyscho- are to win the third Test in Melbourne. dry up the runs and take 10 wickets.” logical wicket of Smith in one of their rare suc- Marsh produced one of his finest knocks for It was Marsh’s fighting innings which tilted cesses against the prolific Aussie skipper in the MELBOURNE: Scoreboard at the close on the fourth day of the third Test between Australia his country with 62 to steer Australia to 261 for the Test Australia’s way after India reduced the series. Smith was caught at leg-slip by Ajinkya and India at the Melbourne Cricket Ground yesterday: seven, giving the hosts an overall lead of 326 home side to 176 for five, claiming the key wick- Rahane off Umesh Yadav after playing a similar Australia 1st innings 530 (S. Smith 192, R. 70-4 (1w), Hazlewood 25-6-75-0, Watson 16- runs heading into today’s final day. ets of Steve Smith and Chris Rogers in the shot for a boundary a few overs before. Shane Harris 74; M. Shami 4-138) 3-65-1, Lyon 29-3-108-2, Smith 2-0-11-0 The Indians will have to defy history at the process. The tourists kept the clamps on the Watson again failed to nail a big score when he famous Melbourne Cricket Ground, where they Australian batting in a tense final session, before was caught behind off Ishant Sharma for 17. India 1st innings (overnight 462 for 8) Australia 2nd innings have not won for 33 years, to keep the Border- Marsh clawed back the advantage. “Any score on Debutant Joe Burns was out to a poor shot M. Vijay c Marsh b Watson 68 D. Warner lbw b Ashwin 40 Gavaskar Trophy series alive to next week’s the final day is going to be tricky,” Indian spinner and was caught behind off Sharma for nine, S. Dhawan c Smith b Harris 28 C. Rogers b Ashwin 69 fourth and final Test in Sydney. The highest suc- Ravi Ashwin said. “It’s going to be hard work, but while Brad Haddin (13) and Mitchell Johnson C. Pujara c Haddin b Harris 25 S. Watson c Dhoni b I. Sharma 17 cessful run chase in the fourth innings at the we’re up for it. We’re here to win games of crick- (15) were also caught behind. V. Kohli c Haddin b Johnson 169 S. Smith c Rahane b Yadav 14 MCG remains 332 for seven by England against et, so we’ll be positive and try and see where we Australia lost the explosive Warner before A. Rahane lbw b Lyon 147 S. Marsh not out 62 Australia in 1928. Teams have struggled to score can go.” The tourists removed Smith for just 14 lunch after he was looking threatening. He L. Rahul c Hazlewood b Lyon 3 J. Burns c Dhoni b I. Sharma 9 more than 250 in the fourth innings on the drop- after the Aussie skipper scored 192 in the first played forward but was struck on the back pad M. Dhoni c Haddin b Harris 11 B. Haddin c Dhoni b Yadav 13 in pitch in recent years, with India all out for 169 innings in his third century of the series. and was given out leg before wicket for 40 off 42 R. Ashwin c and b Harris 0 M. Johnson c Rahane b Shami 15 (2011) and 161 (2007) in their last two Tests at Veteran opener Rogers reached his fourth balls with six fours. Australia quickly mopped up M. Shami c Smith b Johnson 12 R. Harris not out 8 the ground, both defeats. consecutive half-century of the series but again India’s first innings for 465 to lead by 65 with U. Yadav c Haddin b Johnson 0 Extras (lb8, w1, nb5) 14 Australia has to decide whether to declare failed to go on with it and was bowled by Johnson snaring both wickets of Yadav and I. Sharma not out 0 Total (7 wickets; 75 overs) 261 overnight or bat on with a total of 96 overs to be Ashwin for 69 nearing tea. Shami for the addition of just three runs to the Extras (lb1, w1) 2 Fall of wickets: 1-57 (Warner), 2-98 bowled on the fifth day, but opener David Rogers was dropped on 33 in the slips by overnight score. Warner believes more runs are needed. Shikhar Dhawan on the second ball after a India lost their last seven wickets for 56 after Total (all out; 128.5 overs) 465 (Watson), 3-131 (Smith), 4-164 (Rogers), 5- “I think we need a few more runs than we’ve lengthy rain delay and had another big moment Virat Kohli (169) and Rahane’s (147) ground Fall of wickets: 1-55 (Dhawan), 2-108 176 (Burns), 6-202 (Haddin), 7-234 got at the moment. Shaun Marsh is batting fan- on 56 before his dismissal. record 262-run partnership for the fourth wicket. (Pujara), 3-147 (Vijay), 4-409 (Rahane), 5-415 (Johnson) tastic and we saw what Ryan Harris did in the Umpire Richard Kettleborough called for the It was yet again another lower order collapse to (Rahul), 6-430 (Dhoni), 7-434 (Ashwin), 8- Bowling: Yadav 14-1-73-2 (1w), Shami 20-2- first innings (74), so hopefully he can produce video umpire to check if the ball had carried in a highlight one of the main differences between 462 (Kohli), 9-462 (Yadav), 10-465 (Shami) 75-1, I. Sharma 19-4-49-2 (5nb), Ashwin 22- something similar to that tomorrow and I think claimed catch by MS Dhoni off Mohammed the two sides. —AFP Bowling: Johnson 30.5-6-135-3, Harris 26-7- 2-56-2. SCOREBOARD NZ cruise past Sri Lanka CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand: Scoreboard CHRISTCHURCH: New Zealand wrapped up of the session when Dhammika Prasad career-high 45. Hamish Rutherford for 10. New Zealand had at the close on the fourth day of the first Test a win against Sri Lanka by eight wickets yes- nicked to Taylor at first slip. Southee finished with four for 91 and previously won four Tests in a year five between New Zealand and Sri Lanka in terday to cap their most successful year in Southee featured in the remaining two Boult, who removed the top order on times, most recently in 2008. They are in an Christchurch yesterday: Test cricket. Set a meagre 105-run target on dismissals, catching Jayawardene (23) off Sunday, returned figures of four for 100. unbeatable position in the series with the New Zealand 1st innings 441 (B. McCullum the fourth day of the first Test in Craig and Lakmal (16) from the bowling of New Zealand lost both openers in their brief second and final Test starting in Wellington 195, J. Neesham 85, K. Williamson Christchurch, they took 30.4 overs to com- Trent Boult leaving Eranga undefeated on a run chase with Tom Latham out for 17 and on Saturday. — AFP 54; A. Mathews 3-39, S. Lakmal 3-90) Sri Lanka 1st innings 138 (A. Mathews 50; T. plete the victory with Ross Taylor not out 39 Boult 3-25, N. Wagner 3-60) and Kane Williamson on 31. It means New Sri Lanka 2nd innings (overnight 293-5) Zealand have won five Tests in a calendar D. Karunaratne b Boult 152 year for the first time after enjoying 2014 K. Silva c Watling b Southee 33 series wins at home against India (1-0) and K. Sangakkara c Watling b Boult 1 away in the West Indies (2-1). They also L. Thirimanne c Watling b Neesham 25 drew a series with Pakistan (1-1) in the UAE A Mathews c Watling b Southee 66 earlier this month. N. Dickwella c Neesham b Boult 4 Although Williamson and Taylor steered T. Kaushal c Craig b Southee 12 New Zealand home, the victory was built on P. Jayawardene c Southee b Craig 23 Brendon McCullum’s swashbuckling 195 D. Prasad c Taylor b Southee 4 first innings knock and the lethal swing and S. Eranga not out 45 seam bowling of Trent Boult and Tim S. Lakmal c Southee b Boult 16 Southee. After Sri Lanka were forced to fol- Extras (b4, lb20, w1, nb1) 26 low on 303 runs in arrears of New Zealand’s Total (all out, 154 overs) 407 441, they ground out a gritty 407 but the Fall of wickets: 1-85 (Silva), 2-94 (Sangakkara), size of the first innings deficit meant New 3-181 (Thirimanne), 4-277 (Karunaratne), 5- Zealand were never under any serious 287 (Dickwella), 6-307 (Kaushal), 7-320 threat. Sri Lanka resumed their second (Mathews), 8-325 (Prasad), 9-348 innings on Monday at 293 for five and cau- (Jayawardene), 10-407 (Lakmal) tiously picked off the 10 runs they need to Bowling: Boult 39-8-100-4 (1w), Southee 37- make New Zealand bat again before 8-91-4, Wagner 30-6-76-0 (1nb), Craig 38-10- Southee struck in a high-class spell with an 83-1, Neesham 8-2-29-1, McCullum 1-0-3-0, ageing ball that produced three wickets for Williamson 1-0-1-0 19.