WTC Final: India on back foot as they lose three wickets chasing 444-run target

Australia set India a record 444run target on a tricky pitch after Alex Carey propped up their second innings total to 270 for eight before declaring midway into the afternoon sessionIndia kept things tight in the morning but Carey 66 not off 105 and Mitchell Starc 51 off 47 showed aggressive intent to share a 93run stand off 120 balls for the seventh wicketThey collected 69 valuable runs off 87 balls before Pat Cummins declared the innings after his own dismissalThe time of the declaration was questionable considering the 263 is the highest fourth innings chase at The Oval and 418 in overall Test historySkipper Rohit Sharma 43 and Shubman Gill 18 looked comfortable against Cummins and Scott BolandHowever at the stroke of tea Boland got one to bounce little extra from the length and it flew from ball the shoulder of Gillrsquos bat only to be lapped up by a diving Cameron Green at gully It was the second time in the game that Green took a screamer though replay suggested it was a close call with the ball very close to the ground At the time of going to press India were 1503 in the posttea session needing another 294 for victory Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane were batting on 39 and 18 respectivelyRohit began with a pull shot off Cummins before hitting him past the midon fielder in the following over A crowd full of Indians really got going when Rohit pulled Mitchell Starcrsquos second ball of the opening for a six over fine legIn the first session India picked up a couple of wickets but Australia chugged away to take extend their overall lead to 374 runs after reaching 201 for 6 at lunch on day four of the World Test Championship final hereAustralia had to battle hard to get 78 runs in 26 overs from the morning session On the hottest morning of the game the pitch continued to play plenty of tricks with both seamers and spinners being in businessAustralia who resumed the day at 123 for four lost Marnus Labuschagne 41 off 126 in the third over of the day Mohammed Siraj who has troubled the Aussie batters the most in the game got one to kick off from the spot and hit Greenrsquos right shoulder Ravindra Jadeja 345 in 18 overs was brought into the attack after eight overs and his tactics were pretty clear get the ball to turn sharply from outside the leg stump The ploy worked as Green offered a big stride in order to play a forward defensive stroke but the ball bounced a tad more and hit the glove before bouncing on to hit the stumpsAlso Read WTC final Pitch was under prepared going into day one claims Shardul ThakurThis 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