ICC Test Championship 
Border Gavaskar Trophy 
Australia VS India Test Series 3rd Match 
Played at SCG Sydney From 7-11 January 2021 
Brief Scorecard at Stumps Day-3   
Australia 1st Innings: 388 in 105.4 Overs (Steve Smith 131, Marnus Labuschagne 91, William Jan Pucovski 62 , Mitchell Starc 24, Ravindra Jadeja 4/64, , Navdeep Saini 2/65, Jasprit Bumrah 2/66 ,Mohammad Siraj 1/ 67) 
Australia 2nd Innings 103/2 in 29 Overs (Marnus Labuchagne 47*, Steve Smith 29*) 
India 1st Innings 244 in 100.4 Overs (Shubman Gill 50, Cheteswar Pujara 50, Rishav Pant 36, Ravindra Jadeja 28* Rohit Sharma 26, Pat Cummins 4/29, Josh Hazelwood 2/2433) 
Australia is leading India by 197 runs with 8 second Innings Wickets at hand. 

Great bowling and smart fielding of followed up by positive batting by Labuschagne and Smith takes Austrailia to complete control of very important SCG test at stumps of day three. 

Wrapping up Indian first innings at 244 which is 94 runs short of Australian first innings Australia at stumps were 103/2. Labuschagne (47*) and Smith (29*) were looking good for batting India completely out of the game. Any target of 300 plus will be extremely difficult to chase for India in day four and five as wicket has developed some cracks and odd balls started misbehaving. 

Team India made several mistakes over the first three days. Pant letting off twice debutant Pucovski in the first innings led him and Labuschagne put a solid foundation for Australia in the 1st innings based on which Smith led Australia posting impressive 338. India looked too conservative while batting. At some stage they looked too panicked. Three run outs in a close contest means a lot. India was already looking shaky at stumps of day two at 96/2. Rookie Shubman Gill could not convert his great start to a big innings beyond 50. Australia struck early blow at day three removing Ajinka Rahane. Hanuma Bihari running himself out caused panic in the Indian batting. Pant looked positive while at the wicket. Pujara can only explain the way he batted. His 50 in 176 balls was neither a sheet anchors role nor it inspired his mates batting smartly around him. Cummins, Hazlewood bowled brilliantly yet again restricting India to 244. Australia earned vital 94 runs first innings lead. Cummins (4/ 29) and Hazelwood (2/43) were chief destroyers. Lyon did not get any wicket but kept things tight at one end. 

While Australia batted again Indian bowlers could dislodge opening partnership and got rid of both by the 10th over with 35 on board. But back into form again Labuschagne and Smith putting together unbeaten 68 in the 3rd wicket led Australia to complete control. Unless Indian bowlers can restrict lead below 300 on day four Australia will be favorite winning the test. 

Sad to see that Team India lost the gloss of their superlative performance of MCG test. 

First session of day three will dictate which direction the test will be heading. 

BDST: 1416 HRS, JAN 09, 2021
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