Australia, down to two front-row pacers, saw more overs washed out of the match by rain and saw their victory thwarted by strong half-centuries from KL Rahul (85) and Ravindra Jadeja ( 77), as well as by an unconquerable obstinacy. 39 runs for the last wicket between Akash Deep and Jasprit Bumrah which helped India avoid the follow-up. India ended the day still on 193 from Australia’s 445, but Australia will now have a maximum of 98 overs, weather permitting, to close out India’s innings, take an early lead, and then give their bowling attack without Hazlewood enough time to push for victory.

In the absence of their fast bowling partner, Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc worked for 18.5 and 16 overs respectively on the fourth day and might even have opened the doors to victory with a bit of luck. Cummins was denied the very first ball of the day when Rahul, resuming on 33, edged a length ball only for Steve Smith to have a regulation chance at second slip.

Viewed in hindsight, it proved to be a pivotal moment of the day for India, whose batting difficulties during a heavily truncated third day of play meant they were already facing a difficult prospect of reaching 246 – the magic number that would force Australia to strike again and ensure they take more time off the match. India recovered from a score of almost 51 for 5 before finally being reduced to 74 for 5 in that first hour of play.

Captain Rohit Sharma, the other overnight batter, had to pay for his first error after being worked over by Cummins during his five-over burst. The Australian skipper played with the out-of-form Rohit’s weight shifts, delivering a short, sharp ball before a follow-up full delivery, which turned out to not be full enough for the drive. Sensing a rare opportunity to score, Rohit grabbed it and gave the keeper an edge with the ball still in 23 overs.

That’s when Rahul and Jadeja came together to form India’s best partnership of the innings. Both batters batted with great control, with Rahul in particular continuing to make good decisions after taking good positions with his technique. He only chose the truly full deliveries for his shots and favored the square version over the more expansive variant for extra cover. He would wait for the bowlers to bowl straighter towards him, then he would flick them, put them away or drive them.

As was the case throughout the series, batting became much easier once the ball was over 30 runs and Rahul and Jadeja added runs safely before the 67-run stand ended. against the run of play from Smith, who atoned for his earlier fall by anticipating and leaping to his right to latch onto Rahul’s attempt to clip Nathan Lyon.

Jadeja set out to put up another half-century stand with Nitish Reddy as Australia now faced a race against time with just 13.2 overs of play possible in the middle session during from which Jadeja, playing his first match of the series, reached his 22nd Test. corresponds to fifty. The seventh-wicket pair managed to avoid a spell from Starc after a 67-minute rain delay, but were not so lucky against Cummins, who produced a flick to Reddy who dislodged his bails via an edge interior. At this stage, India still needed 51 to avoid the over with only the three fast bowlers remaining to partner Jadeja.

India had Siraj batting at No.9 and Jadeja’s decision to let him face six deliveries from Starc proved to be a mistake as the left-armer quickly found the outside edge of the tailender for a clean catch behind the stumps. Jadeja tried to cultivate the strike with Bumrah and managed to add a six off Lyon followed by a fortuitous four off Cummins before a well-crafted short ball plan ended the all-rounder’s innings on 77, with Cummins grabbing his fourth ticket office.

At this stage India were still 33 runs away from having Australia beaten again, but Deep and Bumrah held firm against a two-man attack which was now visibly collapsing under the bowling charges it had undertaken. Bumrah entered the queue of a Cummins bouncer and pulled it for a six before starting to calmly push singles into the spaces. Deep added another crucial boundary by clipping Starc over the cord.

India were 14 points short of the follow-up mark when Cummins was forced to return to Lyon to replace Starc. The Australian captain struggled to continue bowling from the other end in search of the final wicket, which would have earned him another five-fer, and ended up conceding seven runs in his 20th over. In his 21st over, he crossed the cordon for a four by Deep, which took India to an important milestone. As if to celebrate the moment, which was marked with much enthusiasm in the Indian dressing room, Deep hit Cummins for a six at midwicket before the umpires sent the player off for bad light.

Brief scores: India 252/9 (KL Rahul 84, Ravindra Jadeja 77; Pat Cummins 4-80) behind Australia 445 (Travis Head 152, Steve Smith 101; Jasprit Bumrah 6-76) by 193 runs.