After being asked to bat in the third Test of the five-match series, at Brisbane, Australia rode on Steve Smith’s 101 and Travis Head’s 152 to amass 445 as Jasprit Bumrah returned 6-76.

India then batted through several rain breaks for a day and a half. Reduced to 74-5 at one point by Mitchell Starc (3-83) and Pat Cummins (4-74), they fought back through KL Rahul (84) and Ravindra Jadeja (77). Despite that, they needed another 33 when Jadeja became the ninth batter to be dismissed.

No.10 Jasprit Bumrah and No.11 Akash Deep then pushed India past the follow-on mark. When Akash jabbed Cummins to the deep-third fence to bring up 246 for India, former captain Virat Kohli high-fived with head coach Gautam Gambhir and captain Rohit Sharma in the dressing-room.

India, 252-9 at stumps, were bowled out for 260 after four overs of cricket on the fifth day. Streaks of lightning prevented the Australian innings from resuming. Heavy rains followed, and early lunch was called.

Read: Nathan Lyon: Australia ‘extremely hungry’ after ten years of ‘unfinished business’

Lyon had sent down 23 overs in the Indian innings, conceding 55 for the wicket of Rahul. During the break, he spoke to Fox Cricket, expressing his team’s surprise at the reaction in the Indian camp: “Yeah, there’s a few of us … surprised about their reaction. We have played well and driven the game to where we are. Frustrating but we are still sitting in the changing room 185 in front.

“I still feel if we bat well, we can push for an Australian win. We can’t control the weather. What we can control is our process, especially against Jasprit Bumrah: he’s been excellent this series.

“Looked like their top order did not want to bat if we enforced the follow-on. Pushing to enforce the follow-on was pretty challenging with Josh [Hazlewood] out. Mitch and Pat, they’ve been brilliant for Australia for a number of years and I’m very privileged to be part of this Australian bowling attack. Their work ethic is excellent. We pride ourselves on our fielding. And we did that watching the Australian guys before us.”

Among contemporary cricketers, only R Ashwin (537) has more Test wickets than Lyon (533). Lyon spoke about his great rival: “Nothing but respect. Just the way Ash has conducted himself on and off the field for a number of years now, and his skillset is incredible. We’ve got different opinions on different things, there’s no right or wrong, but to have those conversations with a bowler like Ashwin is amazing.

“From different variations to different tactics, understanding what he’s trying to do. We are both very different. So our conversation this morning was brilliant and I hope we have more through the series and in the future as well.”

India used Washington Sundar for the first Test, at Perth; Ashwin for the second, at Adelaide; and Ravindra Jadeja, for the third, at Brisbane. Lyon spoke on this unusual rotational policy of finger-spin-bowling all-rounders: “It’s an interesting question. You have someone sitting on the bench with 538 wickets and I was scratching my head. But then you also have someone like Jadeja, so it’s a good headache to have.”

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