India on the brisk despite middle-order resistance

India on the brink of victory in Perth

India continued to chip away with three wickets including that of Travis Head on 89 in the second session on Day 4 in Perth. Mitchell Marsh too scored 47 while Alex Carey remains the last recognised batter out in the middle on 30*, as teams headed to Tea with Australia on 227 for 8. India need two more wickets to seal a massive victory in Perth.

Head and Marsh came out to bat positively after the Lunch break, highlighted with the latter pulling Harshit Rana for six in the first over. It was a good passage of play for the hosts as they scored 31 runs off just four overs. With the partnership growing with each over, Jasprit Bumrah brought himself back into the attack and struck gold in his first over of the spell.

Bumrah bowled a bouncer which was given as five-wides, but it resulted in Head hanging back as the bowler followed it up with a length delivery that forced the batter into a loose shot and being caught behind. Nitish Reddy almost found the edge off Marsh with his very first ball as he got a bit of away movement immediately. The bowler struck in his second over though, as Marsh chopped a wide delivery back onto his stumps.

Carey, who has been Australia's in-form player with two centuries recently in the Sheffield Shield, looked at ease on a pitch with variable bounce with two pulls to the fence. Mitchell Starc was taking big strides forward to comfortably play out Washington Sundar and smother any turn on offer. The 45-run stand between Carey and Starc began to frustrate the Indians but the latter was caught off a one-handed stunner by Dhruv Jurel at short-leg at the stroke of Tea to seal the session in India's favour.

Earlier, through Mohammed Siraj, India picked up two wickets in the first session with Usman Khawaja top-edging a pull to Rishabh Pant who took a slightly tricky catch running back. Australia tried to resurrect their innings from 17 for 4 as Steve Smith, with a slight change in technique, started to look back to his fluent best. But Siraj had the final say as he got one to hold its line and found the outside edge of Smith for 17.