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Australia made a stunning comeback in the Border-Gavaskar series and are on verge of winning the third Test in Indore after losing the first two Tests badly. Australia need just 76 runs to beat India on the rank-turner pitch of Holkar Stadium.
Australia continued their Day 1 dominance on Day 2 as well. They first broke Indian batters' back on Day 1 on the rank-turner Indore pitch to bowl the hosts out for paltry 109. Then came back again to pester Indian batters for measly 163 in the second innings on Day 2 on Thursday (March 2) as they now need just 76 runs to win the third Test to mark a stunning comeback in the four-match series which now stands at 2-0.
Nathan Lyon ran riot with the ball as he followed up his first innings' three-fer with a sensational 8/64 in the second innings to steer his team within touching distance of a rare win in India.
While Rohit Sharma's brigade are on brink of a potential defeat, India's star pacer Umesh Yadav is still hopeful of a turnaround in the third Test as he thinks that the game is still anybody's game.
“In cricket anything can happen. We will try our best and bowl tight lines. It is not an easy wicket, whether it is our batters or theirs. It is not easy to step out and hit. The ball is keeping low as well, so you can't be sure about stepping out,” he said.
"The runs are less but we will stick to tight lines and push as much as we can," Umesh added, who snared three wickets to pester Australia on Thursday to bowl out visitors to 197.
Umesh snared Cameron Green, Mitchell Starc and Todd Murphy as he bowled fast and straight with a scrambled seam and let the surface do the rest.
"My plan on this surface was to bowl straight and push for a wicket or two. As a fast bowler, I have to hit the deck hard and bowl in the right areas. I have played most of my cricket in India, my mindset is always to get a wicket." On the scramble seam, he added, "There was seam movement that is why I tried the scrambled seam. If it was not swinging, it was seaming. Whatever length I bowled there was seam movement and skidding after pitching."
Umesh also said how difficult it was to bat on the wicket as he failed to add runs in the end and was removed by Lyon in an attempt to go for a big hit.
"We didn't get any message (to attack) when I went in to bat. My job was to score runs on this tough wicket. It is difficult to get runs here. I feel, rather than defending and getting out eventually, it is better to go for shots on a wicket like this. Even I would have scored 10-20 runs, that would have pushed the lead to 90. That is more important for me," he concluded.
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