India left reeling after late wickets put Australia in control of Boxing Day Test

Australia v India, Scorecard

By Jonathan Healy at the MCG

India's hopes in the Boxing Day Test are hanging by a thread after Australia picked up three late wickets - including the big scalps of Yashasvi Jaiswal and Virat Kohli - to remain in control of the crucial ICC World Test Championship contest after two days in Melbourne.

Jaiswal and Kohli put on a century partnership to give India hope in reply to Steve Smith's 34th Test century and Australia's big total of 474, but the pair fell in quick succession and Akash Deep departed on the stroke of stumps to leave the tourists reeling at 164/5 with three days remaining of the crucial fourth Test.

Smith inside top 10 for most Test centuries following MCG classic

After Smith scored yet another Test century earlier in the day and skipper Pat Cummins contributed an equally entertaining innings of 49, Australia removed Rohit Sharma (3) and KL Rahul (24) prior to tea to reduce the tourists to 51/2 as the home side continued to dominate.

Jaiswal (82) and Kohli (36) threatened to swing the momentum back India's way with their 102-run stand, but Jaiswal was left stranded when Kohli refused a quick single in the offing. Kohli fell the very next over to a peach from local legend Scott Boland (2/24) to give Australia the ascendancy once again.

Night-watcher Akash Deep (0) was also dismissed by Boland during the penultimate over of the day, with keeper Rishabh Pant (6) and all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja (4) at the crease and India still trailing by 310 runs and with plenty of work still to do if they are to salvage something from the match and the series.

Earlier, Smith was at his brilliant best for the bulk of his 197-ball stay that netted a score of 140, as he found the boundary when required and pushed singles and twos into the wide open spaces of the MCG.

He brought up his 34th Test century - and his 11th against India - with a gentle push through the covers that was timed beautifully and raced all the way to the boundary in front of the Shane Warne stand.

Smith was finally out bowled when he played on off the bowling of Deep (2/94) and departed the MCG to a standing ovation from the massive crowd in excess of 85,000 people.

The scalp of Cummins was the only wicket India could pick up during the opening session on Friday, but not before he contributed a handy innings of 49 and combined with Smith for a partnership of 112 that helped keep Australia in the ascendancy.

Both Smith and Cummins found scoring easy to come by as India's bowlers looked below their best with the usually reliable Jasprit Bumrah (4/99) conceding his most runs ever during a Test innings and Jadeja (3/78) arguably the pick of the visiting bowlers.

Jaiswal and Kohli matched the efforts of Australia's batting group to give India some hope, but the late wickets proved costly as Australia won the momentum back late in the day.

On top of bragging rights for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy with the series locked at 1-1, the two teams are also in the race for spots in the World Test Championship Final at Lord's in June 2025.

Australia sit in second (58.89% of possible points) and India in third (55.88% of possible points), with table-toppers South Africa (63.33%) currently taking on Pakistan in Centurion.

World Test Championship Standings

Australia: Usman Khawaja, Sam Konstas, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith, Travis Head, Mitch Marsh, Alex Carey (wk), Pat Cummins (c), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Scott Boland

India: Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma (c), Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep