Mitch Marsh takes a stunning grab, young India opener Yashasvi Jaiswal gets a bath from a legend of the game, and the Aussie bowlers wreak havoc in between rain delays.
- As it happened: Aussie bowlers strike between rain delays
- Scorecard: Check out all the live scores and stats
Here are the quick hits from the third day at the Gabba.
1. Jaiswal nails ball into Aussie huddle
Yashasvi Jaiswal was caught off the second ball he faced. (AAP Image: Jono Searle)
After India eventually wrapped up Australia’s batting innings, Yashasvi Jaiswal took some throwdowns in the outfield.
Throwdowns have been pretty risky in this Test, after India coach Nuwan Seneviratne was beamed on the side of the head before play on day two.
And it proved to be the case on day three too, as Jaiswal hammered a drive into where the Australian players were congregating, hitting a Cricket Australia videographer on the back of his left foot.
Perhaps Mitchell Starc took that personally.
Perhaps Jaiswal had it in the back of his mind.
Regardless, the Indian opener clipped a remarkably similar shot straight to Mitch Marsh at square leg to depart for just 4 off the second ball of the innings.
India great Sunil Gavaskar was deeply disappointed in commentary for ABC Sport.
“That is not the best of shots that you’d expect from your opening bat, particularly when your opposition has got 445,” he said.
“Your job for that one hour was just to stay at the crease. Jaiswal, very, very disappointing.
“It’s all very well to be positive, but you’ve also got to be practical. You can’t be looking to score 25 runs in the first over.”
2. Air Bison takes off
Mitchell Marsh and Mitchell Starc enjoyed their celebrations. (AAP Image: Jono Searle)
Mitchell Starc was on a tear with the new ball, hunting for the outside edge with ultimate precision, but his second wicket was from a ball that Shubman Gill did not need to play at.
Wide outside off, Gill took the bait and drove hard at it and edged to gully.
Gully extraordinaire Cameron Green is out of action this summer.
No matter.
Mitch Marsh took off, diving to his left to snare a hugely impressive grab, before taking off again in celebration, gurning his way towards Starc with his teammates in hot pursuit.
3. Hazlewood claims Kohli, with a Starc assist
Josh Hazlewood re-introduced himself to the Indian batters in the only way he knows, by bowling superbly right from the off.
He crushed KL Rahul in the wrist with his first ball of the match, a brute of a delivery that cannoned into bone just above the glove.
But he made his mark on the scorecard soon after by claiming the prized wicket of Virat Kohli, caught by Alex Carey behind the stumps.
Josh Hazlewood got the wicket of Virat Kohli, but Mitchell Starc got the most love from teammates. (Getty Images: Chris Hyde)
It won’t be mentioned on the scorecard, but Starc should be given an honorary assist for what happened the ball before.
KL Rahul had hooked Hazlewood powerfully down to fine leg for what looked for all money to be a four, only for Starc to fly around the boundary and make a remarkable diving stop to keep the Indian batters to one run.
Starc raced in when Kohli was dismissed, exulting in his role and embraced by his teammates.
As for Kohli, he would have been left fuming, with rain precipitating an early lunch before another ball was bowled.
4. A sunny lunch break
Organisers need to find a 40-minute period to have lunch during a day of Test cricket, but on a rainy day that can be perilous.
On day one it didn’t matter because the rain was so heavy as to make the notion of playing cricket a fantasy.
But on day three, with scattered squalls blowing in every few minutes, finding that window came with extra risk.
As Rishabh Pant wandered out to the middle, the rain started falling heavily, forcing the teams off for an early lunch. But five minutes later, the large cover over the wicket block was reflecting the bright sunlight around the Gabba.
The bright and dry conditions remained for the entirety of the lunch break, only for the heavy rain to return after just 11 balls of the second session, forcing the teams off once again.
5. Cummins strikes in the briefest window
Four overs and one more rain break later, the teams got back onto the park with the radar still looking ominous.
This time they were only on the field for eight minutes and seven balls, but in that time, Put Cummins managed to strike.
After being crushed for a boundary by KL Rahul off the first ball after the resumption, Cummins refocused and four deliveries later had a look at the explosive Rishabh Pant.
He bowled a more or less regulation length ball across the left-hander, who tried to defend but got a feather through to Alex Carey, sparking jubilant scenes in the Aussie huddle.
Two balls later, the rain was back and the players left again for the seventh rain delay of the day.
It turned into the biggest downpour of the day and, after a false start where the teams started to emerge from the sheds and the covers were removed, kept the players from getting back on the park until just 15 minutes before the originally scheduled stumps time.
But there was time for just 17 balls, five from Starc before Cummins was told he could only bowl his spinners. Nathan Lyon and Travis Head had one set each before the game was called.
The biggest Australia-India moments
Throughout the summer, we’ll look back at some of the best stories and share our own favourite moments from Australia and India’s cricket history.
Join us to continue the conversation on our live blogs and on the radio over the summer before the readers’ top 10 is revealed ahead of the fifth Test at the SCG from January 3.
Select five options to make sure your vote is counted.
Discussion about this post