Key events
154th over: India 457-5 (Kohli 132, Patel 35) Kuhnemann is easily milked, he lacks the control that Murphy and Lyon have and India are able to keep the score ticking over quite easily.
153rd over: India 457-5 (Kohli 129, Patel 33) Travis Head is coming on to try his liquorice allsorts… he starts well enough, finding a bit of turn and hitting a length. Two more runs peeled off for India and the deficit is cut to just 23 runs.
152nd over: India 455-5 (Kohli 128, Patel 32) Axar hags back in his crease and flays a Kuhnemann half-tracker through mid-wicket for four! Eight runs off the over and the 450 up for India.
151st over: India 447-5 (Kohli 127, Patel 25) Just a couple of singles off the over, grey and cloudy in Ahmedabad. From where I’m sat it could be Blackpool in February.
150th over: India 445-5 (Kohli 126, Patel 24) A flick from deep in his crease, Kohli ambles down for a single. Patel is watchful and pats back the rest of the over. Let’s do some predicting… If India bat all day they should have a lead of 150ish – Australia are then forced to face the always tricky third innings on a fifth day pitch after having spent two days in the field. There’s also the chance Khawaja is unable to bat due to that injury sustained on the boundary edge a few overs ago. Whichever way you look at it, it isn’t stacking up well for the visitors.
149th over: India 444-5 (Kohli 125, Patel 24) Todd Murphy twirls a maiden and it looks as if Lyon is being granted a breather after 58 overs of toil. Matt Kuhnemann is limbering up for a spell.
can’t help feel Australia, needing to win, could have batted quicker, opened up the back end of the game etc. NB this opinion may be a product of covering Bazball for 10 months
— Ali Martin (@Cricket_Ali) March 11, 2023
148th over: India 444-5 (Kohli 125, Patel 24) Poor Usman Khawaja has to limp up the hundred or so concrete steps to the changing rooms, we’ll bring you news on his injury as soon as it comes through. The fifty partnership comes up between Axar and Kohli, India trail by just 36 runs.
147th over: India 441-5 (Kohli 125, Patel 21) Right then, I’ve started my shift at a fun time as it seems India are intent to rack up the runs quickly. Axar uses his long levers to loft Murphy down the ground for SIX! Usman Khawaja couldn’t haul the ball in and he tumbles into the advertising hoardings in the process, he limps off the field gingerly. More pain for the Aussies. Let’s hope he’s ok. A single brings Kohli onto strike and he plunders tenth boundary by whipping Murphy through mid-wicket.
Thanks Angus and g’morning/evening all. This game is unspooling in interesting ways, Australia have to make all the running to try and force a result but at the moment they are being met with the full force of a Virat Kohli masterclass (about time too eh*).
Todd Murphy sends down the over post drinks and is flicked square by Kohli for another imperious boundary. Nathan Lyon, into his 56th(!) over is also starting to look a bit ragged, understandably. A full toss is clobbered down the ground by Virat for four more. Hold on, maybe India are putting the foot down here?
146th over: India 430-5 (Kohli 121, Patel 14)
(*Kidding. Sort of)
Time for a change in OBO energy. I’ve done my whack for the day and it’ll be James Wallace coming in off the long run-up from the London end. Thanks for your company and see you on the morrow for Fifth Day fireworks!
145th over: India 419-5 (Kohli 110, Patel 14) The heat is rising in the furnace that is Narenda Modi stadium, with the cloud of the morning burnt away and the temperature currently at 37 and rising. Lyon steps across the coals of conflict again to get the first ball of his 56th over to snarl out of the rough and pop up off the pad but it lands safe. Axar Patel is the one batter Lyon has failed to dismiss in this series but one senses he’s closing in for the kill here. A maiden unfurls and we’ll have Drinks.
144th over: India 419-5 (Kohli 110, Patel 14) Starc starts his 20th over but it’s with familiar results as he strays down leg and Axar Patel glances him away for FOUR. Starc has his speed up around 135kph but there’s no reverse swing on show and he’s been loathe to throw in yorkers for some reason. Patel takes him for another three with the boundary only saved by some athletic work by Todd Murphy.
143rd over: India 411-5 (Kohli 110, Patel 6) Nathan Lyon and Virat Kohli have long been adversaries and now they’re both centurions. Kohli has 110 and, with a single from that over, Lyon has 2-115 from his 55 overs. India trail by 68 runs.
142nd over: India 411-5 (Kohli 110, Patel 6) Axar Patel taps a single and Virat Kohli drives a FOUR. He sensed it was pitching short and stepped into the line to scorch it along the carpet to the boundary rope. And Kohli goes again. FOUR! This one is spanked behind square and a diving Matt Kuhnemann can’t stop it. Strewth, this is looking ominous for Australia.
141st over: India 402-5 (Kohli 102, Patel 5) The soft hands and steely nerves of Virat Kohli are steering India toward this total and he add two more to it from Lyon. But they’ve lost five good men along the way and are still 80 runs short. Can Kohli see them through – and into the ascendency?
140th over: India 400-5 (Kohli 100, Patel 5) What can Starc spark? A tumble of wickets or a clatter of boundaries? Neither eventuate when he sprays his first two balls down the leg side. India now trail by 80 runs. Can they get there this session? Bharat’s 21-run over gave them a good spurt but his dismissal may necessitate a period of caution. Hence the maiden.
139th over: India 400-5 (Kohli 100, Patel 5) The wait is over for Kohli and he can lean back and bask in his eighth century against Australia and watch on as Axar Patel cuts Lyon for FOUR to get off the mark. Interestingly, Kohli has only hit five fours in his hundred and taken 242 balls to get there.
CENTURY TO VIRAT KOHLI!
A simple dab behind square and it’s done. The wait is over and the drought has broken. Virat Kohli has his first century in 41 innings and his first triple-figure score in Tests for three years! He kisses the talisman around his neck and raises his bat to a crowd that is chanting his name and bowing at his altar. Not the flashiest of Kohli’s 28 Test centuries but perhaps his sweetest.
138th over: India 393-4 (Kohli 99, Patel 0) Kohli works a single to go to 99. Buckle up folks. This could be the century heard around the world.
137th over: India 392-4 (Kohli 98, Patel 0) Lyon was invited back into the panic room but he’s sown some panic of his own with that wicket. Axar Patel is the new batter and he joins Virat Kohli on 98.
WICKET! KS Bharat c. Handscomb b. Lyon 44 (India 393-5)
Caught! Peter Handscomb is bang in the danger zone, standing two feet from a batter who has just carted two sixes and a four and yet when Lyon gets one to grip and bounce, Bharat fends it his way and he snaffles a fantastic catch at short leg. Great bowling Nathan Lyon!
136th over: India 392-4 (Kohli 97, Bharat 44) Murphy has been called into the firing line despite that 21-run over steaming up his spectacles a little. He leaks a two and a single to Kohli but otherwise survives intact.
135th over: India 389-4 (Kohli 94, Bharat 44) That 21-run over was the most expensive of the series. And it’s defibrillated this game out of it’s torpor. Now that Kohli is into the nineties the crowd have taken their volume up 90-odd notches too. Expect every run to be cheered like a century hereafter, particularly if KS Bharat delivers them in fours and sixes as he did last over. And when a top edge lands safely they have even more reason to cheer.
134th over: India 386-4 (Kohli 92, Bharat 43) Kohli clips a single, leaving KS Bharat to ride the wave of applause for his partner and kick it up with… a SIX! Green put it on a length and Bharat spun around and slammed it over the square leg fence. What will he do on the next one? He’ll DO IT AGAIN. This SIX is even bigger. In fact, it’s so big Steve Smith rushes in with some counsel for his bowler. But whatever the advice was it hasn’t worked as Green delivers a no-ball outside off stump that Bharat cuts gloriously behind point for FOUR. Green delivers a second no-ball in succession and gets worked for another single. 21 runs from the over!
133rd over: India 365-4 (Kohli 90, Bharat 26) Nathan Lyon embarks on his 50th over of the innings – the most he’s ever bowled in India. Lyon needs one more wicket to become the all-time wicket-taker against India but I doubt it’s ever seemed so far away. Or maybe not? He gets his third ball to bounce a little more. Unfortunately Kohli is good enough to follow it with his hands and work it from that higher angle off his ribs and all the way to the rope. Fantastic innovation and adaptability by Kohli as a single from the fifth takes him into the nineties.
132nd over: India 362-4 (Kohli 88, Bharat 25) Here we go, folks! And successive bouncers from Cameron Green to KS Bharat speaks volumes for his restlessness. The stalemate continues as a maiden ensues.
LUNCH Day 4: India 362 for 4 (Kohli 88*, Bharat 25*). India trail by 118
India win that session. But is victory slipping away for both sides?
There hasn’t been the attacking intent from India’s batters everyone had hoped for. Instead Virat Kohli has gone steadily about his business in pursuit of his first century in 41 innings. India bled 73 runs from the session. Australia took one wicket – and that was gifted to them by Ravi Jadeja’s mad rush of blood to the head on 28. Australia’s spinners have bowled tightly, finding a few moments of threat on a soporific pitch. But it’s been nowhere near enough to put a genuine scare into India and victory now seems light years away. Slowly but surely India are batting Australia out of this Test.
Steve Smith can’t let this slow grind continue so we may seem some freaky deaky strategy in the session after lunch. Look for wildcards Travis Head and Marnus Labuschagne to get a couple of overs. Perhaps Steve Smith will blow the dust off his own spinning fingers to add to his tally of 19 Test wickets? At the least we’ll see Mitchell Starc given a spell to try and create some mayhem.
Time for a bite and a bit to drink. We’ll be back in a hot half-hour for the next session but make no mistake, folks, we are at a stalemate… in the doldrums… and on a long and winding road to nowhere.
131st over: India 362-4 (Kohli 88, Bharat 25) Lunch in sight now. Can Australia put a scare into India with a wicket? Or will India send their own message with a spree of hitting to bring the chase under three figures? For now they are content to whittle at the total rather than whack at it. Neither as three singles are run.
130th over: India 359-4 (Kohli 87, Bharat 23) Bouncer from Green! But the only one surprised is Alex Carey behind the stumps and he lets it beat him for four byes. Kohli takes two more runs to salt the wound and that brings the fifty partnership up for these two. Seventy runs from the 31 overs of this session.
129th over: India 348-4 (Kohli 85, Bharat 23) Dancing man Kohli skips down the pitch to flick two from Kuhnemann’s legside ball. That brings up the 350 for India. Great total but it’s still short of Australia’s 480. Bharat runs a leg bye from the next before another easy single to Kohli. The pace has quickened lately even if the pulse hasn’t. India are certainly scoring more freely with the ball coming harder onto the bat from Green and from the left-wing loop of Kuhnemann.
128th over: India 348-4 (Kohli 82, Bharat 21) Green is coming in over the wicket, angling at leg stump trying to find reverse swing. But nothing much so far and after Kohli swats him away off his toes for a single, he tries a 135kph yorker. Bharat keeps it out though as Green varies his length and pace, delivering his 13th over in the 129-140kph range. Two from the over. India trail by 132.
127th over: India 346-4 (Kohli 81, Bharat 21) After three dots and a single Kuhnemann tries to tempt Kohli with a full bunger but Kohli has his eyes on a bigger prize and he flicks it to midwicket for a single.
126th over: India 343-4 (Kohli 80, Bharat 19) That purr in the distance is the Green machine rolling in for a spell. That roar from the crowd is working a ball on leg side backward of square for a single to take his innings into the eighties. Mitchell Starc is warming up. Is Steve Smith about to throw caution to the wind and hard balls at hard bats with a barrage of pace from both ends before lunch? That electric fielding mentioned in the last over fizzes out a little as Travis Head fumbles and allows Bharat to pocket a run. The crowd is chanting ‘“Kohli! Kohli! Kohli”!” as the King moves within sight of his first century in over three years.
125th over: India 341-4 (Kohli 79, Bharat 18) More runs for Kohli as he glances Kuhnemann fine for two and then a safely driven single down the ground. Australia are trying desperately to spark something here. They have lifted a notch in the field and are diving, swivelling and hurling with attacking intent. But the Indian batters remain unperturbed and three come from the over.