Weather may play spoilsport on the final day of the ongoing fourth Test in Sydney, but India are well on course for their maiden series win in Australia.a

The visitors put themselves in a commanding position at the SCG.

India lead the four-match series 2-1.

It will be India’s first-ever Test series win in Australia since the bilateral contest began in 1948 when Lala Amarnath’s team clashed with Don Bradman’s mighty team Down Under.

In their previous 11 attempts, they have suffered eight series defeats, while managing to draw three in 71 years.

India’s batting mainstay in the longest-format of the game, Cheteshwar Pujara grafted his way to three centuries in the ongoing series to play a key role in the visitors’ dominance. Pujara led the top-scorers chart with 521 runs in seven innings at an average of 74.42, with the best of 193 in the ongoing Sydney Test.

Young wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant (350) and skipper Virat Kohli (282) are the next two top scorers in the chart, showing the dominance of Indian batsmen in the series.

Indian pace attack, led by Jasprit Bumrah, too played a big part in the successful campaign, with the rookie pacer taking 21 wickets in the series. While Mohd Shami and Ishant Sharma chipped in with 16 and 11 wickets respectively.

In the final Test in Sydney, bad weather on day four prevented India from closing in on a big win against Australia on Sunday, after forcing the hosts to follow-on at home for the first time since 1988. Bad light and intermittent rain led to substantial loss of play with only 25.2 overs bowled on the penultimate day.

Australia were placed at 6/0 in 4 overs when umpires took players off the field with eight minutes remaining in the belated afternoon session. Marcus Harris (2) and Usman Khawaja (4) were the unbeaten batsmen with Australia still trailing by 316 runs.

This was after Australia were bowled out for 300 runs (104.5 overs) in their first innings and were asked to follow on, surrendering a lead of 322 runs. Kuldeep Yadav took 5-99, making instant impact in his first game of the series.

[Source: Times of India]