Pink-ball Test: India seamers peg Australia back

INDIAN pace bowlers put Australia in a spot on Day 3 of their only Test match being played in Metricon Stadium in Queensland, Down Under, after the visitors put up a decent total of 377 for eight declared in the first innings.

At stumps, Meg Lanning’s team were 143 for 4 in 60 overs, needing 234 more runs to make India bat again. Ellyse Perry (27) and Ashley Gardner (13) were the two unbeaten batters for the hosts. To save follow-on, Australia need 85 more runs.

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Seamers Jhulan Goswami and Pooja Vastrakar excelled with the pink ball under the lights and shared the four wickets between them with two scalps each.

Earlier in the day, India resumed from their overnight score of 276 for 5 and added 101 more for the loss of two more wickets. Overnight batters Deepti Sharma and Taniya Bhatia scored 66 and 22, respectively. Mithali Raj declared the Indian innings shortly after the dinner break to allow her bowlers to have a go at Australia in the rain-hit game. A little over 100 overs’ play was possible in the first two days because of the downpour.

For the home team, Perry, Stella Campbell and Sophie Molineux took two wickets each after Australia made use of as many as eight bowlers to take the Indian wickets.

The first two days were dominated by Indian opener Smriti Mandhana who went on to slam her first Test ton to push India to a strong position.