Ruthless India force Australia follow-on before bad light ends play

Fickle weather on day four prevented India from closing in on a big win in the fourth Test but they were well on course for their maiden series victory in Australia after forcing the hosts to followon at home for the first time since 1988Bad light and intermitted rain led to substantial loss of play with only 252 overs bowled on day four Australia were placed at 60 in 4 overs after Kuldeep Yadavs fivewicket haul in his maiden Test Down Under helped India bowl the home team out for 300 in the first inningsUmpires took players off the field with eight minutes remaining in the belated afternoon session Marcus Harris 2 and Usman Khawaja 4 were the unbeaten batsmen with Australia still trailing by 316 runsBut play didnt resume at all once the scheduled tea break was over as bad light hampered proceedings once again The umpires waited for nearly an hour coming out for inspection in between before making a decision at 5 pm local timeThe match officials were ready to wait until 6 pm for light to improve but a slight drizzle put paid to the wait and the day was called off at 520 pm local time This was after Australia were bowled out for 300 runs 1045 overs in their first innings and were asked to follow on surrendering a lead of 322 runs Kuldeep Yadav took 599 making instant impact in his first game of the series After the morning session was washed out play resumed at 150 pm local time with 230 minutes lost to bad light and rain since day threeIndia took the second new ball immediately and made quick inroads Mohammed Shami 258 bowled Pat Cummins 25 with a ball that kept low on the sixth ball after resumption of playAt the other end Jasprit Bumrah 162 set up Peter Handscomb 37 who played on after a resilient innings facing 111 balls Yadav then trapped Nathan Lyon 0 lbw as Australia lost three wickets for 22 runs in the space of 44 ballsAnd he could have immediately completed his fivewicket haul but Hanuma Vihari put down a skier from Josh Hazlewood 21 at mid on In the process Vihari hurt his left shoulder whilst fielding and didnt take the field later on in the session with Hardik Pandya coming on as a substitute fielder Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc 29 not out then added 42 runs for the 10th wicket as Australia reached 300 despite another pitiful batting displayYadav got his reward thereafter with Hazlewood trapped lbw on a close umpires call and the decision stayed in the wristspinners favour despite DRS Australia were then forced to follow on for the first time in Test cricket since 2005 when England had enforced the same in Nottingham On their home soil this was the first instance of Australia following on since 1988 again in Sydney versus EnglandEarlier incessant rain and bad light prevented the start of play It couldnt commence at the scheduled early 10 am local time start due to bad light and wet conditions from overnight heavy rain The light improved in some time and the two umpires stipulated 11 am local time as the start of play but rain arrived to prevent that from happeningThe inclement weather didnt relent until lunchtime and the morning session was completely washed out Australia were reduced to 2366 at stumps on day three when bad light had stopped playOn days one and two Cheteshwar Pujara 193 and Rishabh Pant 159 not out helped India to a grand first innings total of 6227 declared India have an unassailable 21 series lead after winning the first Test in Adelaide by 31 runs and the third Test in Melbourne by 137 runs Australia had won the second Test in Perth by 146 runsCatch up on all the latest sports news and updates here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updatesThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever