'Tough' cricket on show

After reading the pitch studiously for eight hours and eight minutes of the Indian innings the Australian batters put up a better show in their second inningsOn Day Three on Saturday Australia faced an improbable task Trailing the first innings by 187 runs the most any team have inflicted on the Aussies the visitors were better with their feet movement to take the oneoff Test into the fourth and final day with 46 runs in frontEllyse PerryAfter India made 406 in their first innings in reply to Australiarsquos first innings 219 the visitors were 2335 in their second dig at the close While no team except England in 1984 against Australia going on to win after a 100plus first innings deficit Australia have to do something extraordinary hereOzrsquos attacking approachThe thirdwicket pair of the experienced Ellyse Perry 45 and vicecaptain Tahlia McGrath 73 showed gumption on a wearing pitch to stitch a strong partnership 84 in an hour and three quarters They danced down the pitch to negate the spin initially and also managed to take the spinners on the full to pick boundaries through the gaps especially on the offsideMcGrathrsquos solid defenceHowever Perry on the rare occasion of playing on the back foot perished to a nick down the leg side off Sneh Rana the offspinner Until then there was assuredness when she was at the crease Perry tapped McGrath on the shoulder on her way back to the dressing room with a ldquojust keep goingrdquo message to herShouldering responsibility the Australian vicecaptain McGrath was solid in her defence She reached her second fifty of the match becoming the first visiting player to score two halfcenturies in the same Test in India She quickly learnt from her first innings and was careful with her shotmaking However she was consumed by India captain Harmanpreet Kaur in her first over of the match nicking a forward defence onto her stumps ending her threeandahalf hour resistance and the crucial 66run stand with Healy 32 for the fourth wicketAlso ReadCautious approach but pure dominancePerry told reporters ldquoTahlia is having a pretty great Test match She obviously batted really well in the first innings as well Her approach is always attacking She is a great strokemaker Amongst some of the great drives she was solid in defence Allround she is a fabulous player She has been solid throughoutrdquoEarlier India extended their overnight 157run lead to 187 after lasting 36 minutes in the morning Mediumpacers Kim Garth and Annabel Sutherland wiped out the tail peppering them with short balls but not before the overnight pair Deepti Sharma and Pooja Vastrakar raised the second highest partnership for the eighth wicket by any team against any opposition in all womenrsquos Testsmdash122Indiarsquos highest score v AusWithin 13 minutes of seeing Vastrakar 47 pull Sutherland to square leg Garthrsquos hands the lefthanded Deepti attempted to work Garth on the onside only to miss the line and be bowled for 78 Indiarsquos total is their highestever against Australia going past 3778 declared in 2021Brief scoresAustralia 219 and 2335 T McGrath 73 E Perry 45 H Kaur 223 S Rana 254 v India 406 Deepti Sharma 78 Smriti Mandhana 74 J Rodrigues 73 R Ghosh 52 A Gardner 4100