SYDNEY (AP) – India’s hopes of its first victory at the Sydney Cricket Ground in 41 years were marred by the persistent rain that prevented them from playing until lunch on the last day of Monday’s fourth test.
With a breakthrough in the test series in Australia, now a mere formality, India is trying to underline its dominance by winning a 3-1 series victory with a first SCG victory since 1978.
After being forced to continue after being sent off for 300 to trail India for 322 runs, Australia had six without loss in their second innings, with Marcus Harris unbeaten in two and Usman Khawaja on four, when the bad light stopped playing the day four
Six hours of play were lost on Sunday due to bad weather, but Kuldeep Yadav still had time to make his second five-kick shot in the tests when India went through the lower order of the host with only a 42-race run by Mitchell Starc and Josh. . Hazlewood takes Australia over 300 for the second time in this series.
Kohli then seemed to have little doubt in enforcing the follow-up, hoping to give his team as many overs as possible to get the 10 wickets he needs for victory.
The last time Australia was required to follow-on at home was in 1988 against England at the SCG, a match that ended in a draw. The hosts will expect the same result here to escape another defeat in a series in which they have been widely outplayed with the bat and the ball.
India, which only needed to avoid a defeat in the final test to win the series, ended this match as a contest by scoring 622-7 declared in almost two full days after Kohli won the draw and batted. Cheteshwar Pujara (193) scored his third century of the series and Rishabh Pant made 159 not out.
India leads the series of four test 2-1 after the victories in the first test in Adelaide for 31 runs and the Boxing Day test last week in Melbourne for 137 runs to retain the Border-Gavaskar trophy.
Australia won the second test in Perth for 146 runs.
