Key posts
Appeal denied! Siraj survives!
A rare Pat Cummins full toss enables Siraj to get off strike again. He’s hanging in there nicely and letting Nitish shine… the strike rotates again, so Siraj is back… and now an appeal!
The Aussies are convinced they just got Siraj out, he nicked it to Steve Smith but there’s confusion as to whether it was a bump ball… Pat Cummins and his team are so confident they’re walking off the field, but the replay showed it went into the ground first off the bat, so they’ll have to come back! NOT OUT is the call. Scenes.
India 9-369, trail by 105 runs – Nitish Kumar Reddy 114*, Mohammed Siraj 4*
India takes eight runs off Lyon
Nathan Lyon is tasked with bowling the second over of the day – and Nitish skips down the pitch and lifts his first one to long-on. A single is taken, which exposes Siraj again… but he edges the next ball past the slips cordon to short third man, so he’s protected again!
Nitish adds two more… and then four more down the ground, stepping out of his line early and going whack! That makes it eight off the over, and continues their productive start, chipping into Australia’s lead.
India 9-367, trail by 107 runs – Nitish Kumar Reddy 113*, Mohammed Siraj 3*
First over of the day
Pat Cummins has the ball for the first over of day four. Facing him is Nitish Kumar Reddy, resuming on 105, with Mohammed Siraj (2*) at the other end.
Three dot balls and then a single to deep mid-off, which means Siraj is now on strike – just what the Aussies will want, the bowler facing the music.
He survives the next two. Job done.
India 9-358, trail by 115 runs – Nitish Kumar Reddy 106*, Mohammed Siraj 2*
A word from Brettig
Bizarre run-out debacle sinks Stars
In breaking news, the Melbourne Stars are still no good.
The Stars have zero wins from five matches in the BBL and a baffling incident during Saturday night’s loss to the Sydney Thunder summed up their situation.
Basically, Thunder batter Sam Billings should have been run out; the problem was no one appealed, with Stars captain Marc Stoinis seemingly looking in the other direction, venting his frustration that the ball had richoceted for overthrows.
Did someone say KFC? Sam Billings with his player of the match ‘trophy’.Credit: Getty Images
The full misery is here in AAP’s match report:
The Melbourne Stars’ finals hopes are all but over, after the BBL’s great disappointments paid the price for failing to appeal for a run out in their 18-run loss to Sydney Thunder.
Often maligned for finding new ways to shoot themselves in the foot through 14 years of the competition, the winless Stars slumped to a new level of bizarre on Saturday night in Canberra.
Chasing 183 for victory, Englishman Ben Duckett hit 67 from 49 balls, but no-one else could fire around him as the Stars finished 8-164 in reply.
In reality, though, they could have been chasing far less having let Sam Billings hit 72 after he should have been run out when on 16.
After Billings hit a ball to short third man with the Thunder 3-95 in the 13th over, Joel Paris threw down the bowler’s end stumps.
Replays later showed Billings was out of his crease when the ball hit the stumps, after not sliding his bat.
Melbourne captain Marcus Stoinis and bowler Peter Siddle both vented their frustration at Paris for giving away an overthrow, but did not appeal.
The umpire then asked the pair if they wanted to, only for Siddle to shake his head and Stoinis to feign a “how’s that” before telling the umpire “don’t worry” when asked if he wanted it checked.
“I said to the umpire you can’t keep asking if they don’t want to appeal,” Englishman Billings said.
“Pretty dopey moment to be honest from me, I didn’t know he’d thrown it. Quite bizarre. Sometimes you just need a bit of luck to go your way.”
Billings then smacked 56 from 23 deliveries after the missed chance, beginning with a big legside boundary off Siddle on the next ball as commentators told Glenn Maxwell of the situation.
“That seems about right … You’re kidding me,” Maxwell said on the Fox Sports commentary.
Making matters worse for the Stars, it wasn’t the only life offered up to Billings.
He was also put down by Brody Couch in the deep when on 25, before reverse-sweeping his next three balls from spinner Usama Mir to the boundary.
The 33-year-old also belted Beau Webster for a massive six over long-on later in the innings.
In reply, the Stars looked well in the chase at 3-96 after 10 overs, before the Thunder turned the screws in the field.
The next three overs went for 11 runs, with only Duckett able to offer Melbourne a hope.
But when he edged a short Daniel Sams ball through to wicketkeeper Billings with 54 still required from 28 balls, the game was effectively over.
Wes Agar (3-25) then cleaned up the lower order, taking three wickets in an over in his first game for the Thunder.
The only negative for the men in lime green was a suspected repeat of a bicep tear for legspinner Jason Sangha, hurt after high-fiving teammates after taking Maxwell’s wicket.
The result moves the Thunder back into the top four with a 2-1 record, while the Stars are 0-5 despite having one of the best rosters in the BBL.
It means their wait for a maiden title will almost certainly extend into a 15th season, with wins in their last five games no certainty to be enough to reach the finals.
Watch: Dan Brettig’s day three wrap
Reddy’s fighting century keeps India in Border-Gavaskar series
A gutsy century from Indian rising star Nitish Kumar Reddy in front of his emotional father in the stands helped haul the tourists off the canvas at the MCG, giving them a fighting chance of earning a draw in the fourth Test.
Australia’s hopes of taking a 2-1 lead in the Border-Gavaskar series with just one Test remaining were left bruised after a courageous 127-run eighth-wicket stand between Reddy and spinner Washington Sundar on day three of a gripping Test.
Nitish Kumar Reddy.Credit: AP
A day that began with Australia aiming to polish off the Indian tail and secure a big first-innings lead ended with the tourists still occupying the crease, with India at 9-358, trailing Australia by 116 runs, when players came off for bad light at 5.25pm.
India lost just four wickets across 70 overs of play on Saturday as Australia’s bowlers were made to toil away unsuccessfully with a second new ball.
Read the rest of Tom Decent’s stumps report here.
Poll: How’s this gonna go?
The forecast: good news for Australia, bad news for India?
Clear skies. Full hearts. Australia can’t lose?
Welcome
Good morning cricket fans.
I’m Vince Rugari and since it’s that weird period between Christmas and New Year’s, I genuinely don’t know what day it is.
But I do know that it’s day four of this cracking Test match at the MCG between Australia and India, and it is my solemn duty to man the blog for our live coverage.
Things are delicately poised. India are 9-358, trailing by 116 runs in their pursuit of Australia’s first innings score of 474.
One more wicket and Sam Konstas and Usman Khawaja will be back at the crease hoping to put this one out of reach of the visitors. But things need to happen quickly for Australia.
Play is due to start at 10am AEDT after yesterday’s early finish due to bad light.
Strap yourself in, grab yourself another massive chunk of ham off your Christmas leftovers (it’s still good! It’s still good!) and let’s get into it.
