Sloppy fielding continued to stymie Australia’s push for victory in the fourth Test, with India 7-407 at lunch on day four in Sydney.

The tourists resumed at 5-342 on Friday, Ryan Harris striking in the fifth over to dismiss Virat Kohli for 147.

Wriddhiman Saha was out edging a Josh Hazlewood bouncer, but India stopped their trend of late-innings collapses and reduced Australia’s lead to 165 runs at the meal break.

Chris Rogers, unable to field for most of day three at the SCG due to back spasms, snaffled a low catch at midwicket to remove Kohli.

Kohli added 88 runs after being dropped by Steve Smith at second slip on Thursday.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar is unlikely to hurt the hosts on the scoreboard quite as much, but his reprieve on zero stalled their hopes of slicing through the tail clinically.

Joe Burns, fielding at short leg, misread an edge that Kumar popped up tamely in his direction.

Burns took a step in, but had time to readjust and still managed to get two hands to the leather.

The 25-year-old was unable to hold onto the chance, which came when India were 7-390.

Ravichandran Ashwin was unbeaten on 33 at lunch, having exchanged terse words with Mitchell Starc and Harris in the second last over of the morning session.

Coach Darren Lehmann conceded Australia’s fielding was a concern after day three and his charges have now bungled 16 chances in the four-Test series.

KL Rahul, who scored 110 on day three in Sydney, was given let-offs on 41 and 46.

Kohli, who on Thursday added a fourth century to his mountain of runs this series, clipped an unthreatening ball straight to Rogers.

Saha was tested out by a short-pitched salvo from Hazlewood and Starc, eventually providing an edge to Smith in the slips.

Lehmann admitted his side would need to do all the running if they are to force a win and finish the four-Test series with a third victory.

“We probably have to be pretty aggressive to set something up … we needed to speed up the game today,” Lehmann said on Thursday.