A spectacular catch from Brad Haddin enhanced Australia’s standing in the Boxing Day Test, with India 3-224 at lunch.
Responding to Australia’s first-innings total of 530, Virat Kohli showed the fight his teammates were sorely lacking in the field at the MCG.
Kohli, who scored two centuries in the first Test at Adelaide Oval, unleashed a handful of sweetly-timed cover drives to be unbeaten on 60 at Sunday’s meal break.
But the tourists need a win in Melbourne to keep the four-Test series alive.
That became an even more fanciful prospect after Cheteshwar Pujara and Murali Vijay both fell to loose strokes.
India resumed at 1-108 on day three, with Ryan Harris taking two deliveries to snare the initial breakthrough.
The wicket of Pujara on 25 was undoubtedly earned by Haddin.
The 37-year-old flung himself to the right and was almost horizontal when the ball somehow stuck in the webbing of his outstretched right glove.
“You really don’t have much control when it’s in the webbing. He’s done well to protect the ball,” television commentator Ian Healy said of Haddin’s 250th Test dismissal.
It was all the sweeter for Haddin given he dropped a far more regulation edge on day two when Pujara was on 12.
Vijay and Kohli looked in terrific touch as they tried to reprise a third-wicket partnership in the final innings of the first Test, which spanned 50 overs and 185 runs.
Harris and Mitchell Johnson tested them out with a bouncer barrage.
Vijay weathered the worst of it, hardly flinching after Johnson struck the side of his helmet in the 45th over.
Vijay enhanced his reputation – no other Indian opener has ever passed 50 four times in a Test series on Australian soil.
But the right-hander was undone shortly before the morning drinks break, an attempted cut shot to Shane Watson ending with a regulation catch for Shaun Marsh at first slip.
Ajinkya Rahane has been a nervous starter for much of the series, but he settled in quickly and raced to 43 at lunch.
Rahane’s only anxious moment came driving on eight when offspinner Nathan Lyon found the edge of his bat.
But the ball zipped between Haddin and first slip Watson, racing to the rope.
MOST TEST DISMISSALS BY AUSTRALIAN WICKETKEEPERS
*416 – Adam Gilchrist
*395 – Ian Healy
*355 – Rod Marsh
*250 – Brad Haddin.
