The fourth day of the ICC World Test Championship (WTC) final 2023 came to an end on Saturday with Australia on top as India chase a target of 444 runs at the Oval.
India were 164-3 at stumps in their second innings with Virat Kohli (44) and Ajinkaya Rahane (20) to resume the batting for the Blues on the fifth day.
The visitors need 280 runs with seven wickets in hand on the last day of the WTC final.
India lost their opener Shubman Gill when the score was 41. Gill could not score more than 18 runs as he lost his wicket to Scott Boland.
Indian skipper Rohit Sharma scored 43 off 60 balls before losing his wicket to Nathan Lyon in the 19th over.
Right after Sharma’s departure, Cheteshwar Pujara fell prey to Put Cummins in the 20th over.
Earlier, Australia declared their second innings at 270-8 and set a mammoth 444-run target for India.
Resuming at the overnight score of 123-4, Australia added 147 runs for the loss of four wickets on the fourth day.
Marnus Labuschagne (41) couldn't score a single run on the fourth day as he was removed quickly by Umesh Yadav.
Alex Carey (66*) and Mitchell Starc (41) stitched 93 runs for the seventh wicket to strengthen the lead of the Aussies.
For India, Ravindra Jadeja took three wickets while Yadav and Mohammad Shami bagged two wickets each.
Team India were all out for 296 runs in their first inning thanks to a valiant effort by Ajinkaya Rahane (89), Shardul Thakur (51) and Jadeja (48) on the third day of the WTC final.
Meanwhile, Australia posted 469 runs in their first innings before getting all out due to a solid comeback by the Indian bowlers.