4th Test: Labuschagne Hits Fifty as Bumrah's Spell Puts Aussies in a Bind

Melbourne, Dec 29 (NationPress) Top-order batsman Marnus Labuschagne proved to be a key player for Australia by notching an unbeaten 65 runs following a stunning spell from Jasprit Bumrah that left the hosts bewildered on day four of the Boxing Day Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

As the players headed for tea, Australia found themselves at 135/6 in 49 overs, maintaining a lead of 240 runs over India. This session saw India make a significant comeback, highlighted by Bumrah's quick dismissals of Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh, and Alex Carey, making him the fastest Indian pacer to achieve 200 Test wickets.

With the scoreboard reading 91/6 after a promising start of 80/2, Australia was in a precarious position. However, Labuschagne and Pat Cummins (who remained not out on 21) managed to navigate through an impressive spell of bowling to forge an unbroken partnership of 44 runs, thus stabilizing Australia's innings as they aimed to set a challenging target for India. This effort was compounded by Yashasvi Jaiswal's mistakes in dropping catches of both established batsmen during the session.

During the second session, Labuschagne and Steve Smith focused on maintaining their wicket while taking a boundary each from Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj respectively. Just as it seemed they were set for a significant partnership, Siraj had Smith chasing a wide, full delivery, leading to an edge caught by Rishabh Pant.

The Bumrah exhibition commenced under the bright Melbourne sun when birthday boy Head, playing defensively, flicked a delivery straight to mid-wicket for a mere one run, marking Bumrah's 200th Test wicket.

Bumrah continued his assault, inducing Mitchell Marsh to edge a rising ball to Pant, leading to the all-rounder’s dismissal for a five-ball duck. Alex Carey soon followed, bowled for just two runs as Bumrah's delivery jagged in from outside off-stump and breached the defenses.

Akash Deep consistently troubled both Labuschagne and Cummins, managing to get Labuschagne to edge a straightforward catch to Jaiswal at gully, who unfortunately dropped it, much to the frustration of pacer Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli.

After Labuschagne reached his fifty in 105 balls, he and Cummins added three more boundaries collectively before Jaiswal dropped Cummins again, this time at silly point. Following this, both teams retreated for a tea break, with Australia in a precarious position, possibly setting India a target of fewer than 300 runs to chase in Melbourne.

Brief Scores: Australia 474 and 135/6 in 49 overs (Marnus Labuschagne 65 not out; Jasprit Bumrah 4-30, Mohammed Siraj 2-40) lead India 369 in 119.3 overs (Nitish Kumar Reddy 114, Yashasvi Jaiswal 82; Scott Boland 3-57, Pat Cummins 3-89) by 240 runs