Cheteshwar Pujara's batting masterclass finally ended on 193 but India have already taken complete control of the fourth and final Test match of the 2018-19 Border-Gavaskar Trophy series at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) on Friday.
Pujara, 30, scored his highest away score and raced past 500 runs in the series before had him caught and bowled by Nathan Lyon. At the fall of his wicket, India were 418/6 after 130 overs.
Then Rishabh Pant, the wicketkeeper-batsman, inched closer to a century as India reached a commanding 491/6 at Tea. He scored his first half-century of the series after Pujara was dismissed for a mammoth 193 runs, facing 373 balls and hitting 22 fours.
Advertisement
At the break, Pant was unbeaten on 88 runs, while Ravindra Jadeja was batting on 25 not out.
In the 27-over session before Lunch, India added another 86 runs losing the wicket of Hanuma Vihari. At the break, Pujara and Rishabh Pant have added 60 runs from 90 balls for the sixth wicket as India reached 389/5.
Starting from overnight 303/4, Pujara brought up his seventh 150 plus innings in Test cricket and took his fifth-wicket partnership with Hanuma Vihari (42) to 101 runs.
The duo came out with the intent to grind down the Australian bowling attack and looked content with batting for time.
Advertisement
It backfired as Vihari's hard work went to waste when he was caught at short leg off Nathan Lyon (2-116) in the 102nd over.
There was the faintest blip on Snickometer and the decision stayed in Australia's favour despite Vihari's quick DRS review.
Pant, on 8, had a loud shot for caught behind turned down in the 106th over as Tim Paine called for a DRS review.
But there was nothing and he batted on. From there onwards, the duo put on a chanceless partnership to dash Australian hopes further.
At the other end, Pujara batted solidly as ever and reached his 150 off 282 balls. His slow grinding partnership with Vihari meant that only 32 runs came off the first hour of play.
But he and Pant upped the ante in the second hour, adding another 54 runs later in the session.
Pujara crossed another few milestones during this morning session. Firstly, he went past 153, his previous highest overseas Test score, against both South Africa (Johannesburg, 2013) and Sri Lanka (Galle, 2017).
He also became only the third Indian batsman to score 500-plus runs in a Test series against Australia, after Rahul Dravid in 2003-04 and Virat Kohli in 2014-15.
In doing so, he also batted 1200-plus deliveries thus far in the four matches, the most for an Indian batsman against Australia in a Test series, ahead of Dravid's 1203 balls faced in 2003-04.
Advertisement
Pujara had finished day one on 130 not out, his 18th Test hundred and third century of this on-going series.
India have an unassailable 2-1 series' lead after winning the first Test in Adelaide by 31 runs and the third Test in Melbourne by 137 runs. Australia had won the second Test in Perth by 146 runs.
(With PTI inputs)
