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3rd Test: Australia wins Sydney Test (scorecard), South Africa won Test Series 2-1.. T20 & ODI series follows.
Current Cricket Series : South Africa vs Australia, West Indies vs New Zealand. Coming Up : India in NZ 2009.

Filed under Ind v Aus 3rd test Perth

To rewrite record of Invincibility (17th win), Australia now must also rewrite the record of chasing big 4th inn targets of a test match. record stands at 418 by Windies, then 406 by India.

Australia need 413 here at Perth.

Day 3 started with 8 consecutive overs from Brett Lee - almost 1+1/2 hours spell broken into two drinks breaks - and took the wickets of Dravid (3) and Tendulkar (13). Stuart Clark had his tail up as captain Ponting brought him on before Mitchell Johnson - having dismissed Jaffer (caught at gully) previous evening, Clark clean bowled Virendra Sehwag who was scoring freely. Sourav Ganguly, looking lost, edged to Adam Gilchrist behind the wickets off Johnson & India were reduced to 125 for 5.

Understandably, Aussies bowled slowly, on 22 overs in 1st session, and got 4 top order wickets. Indians made 106 runs in the process.

Surprising (and immensely pleasing) fact was Irfan Pathan, who was overnight batsman since he played the role of Night Watch the evening before - gusted it out while Indian batting stalwarts were coming and going. VVS Laxman stood up, partnership worthed 35. Pathan missed his half century but made sure India leads by more than 300 runs. Then, wicket keeper Dhoni's resilient 38 (strike rate of 43.67) sent his team's lead past 350..

India started to breath freely.

But show was not over as yet - Captain Ponting was not confident of his fastest bowler Shaun Tait, giving him only 8 overs in the day. Rudra Pratap made a partnership of 51 with well set Laxman and lead blew past 400.

While starting Australian chase of 413, Aussie openers (Phil Jaques & debutant Chris Rogers) came out playing their shots. They knew they can't defend the swing Indian left arm new ball bowlers were extracting off this Waca pitch, and looked for sharp singles. sadly, they both edged Irfan Pathan's Banana swing to the slip cordons & Ponting had to call Michael Hussey to see the day off.

India vs Australia : 3rd test match, Perth : end of Day 3 scores
India 1st Inn : 330 all out in 98.2 overs	Aus 1st Inn : 212 all out in 50 overs
Jaffer 16, Sehwag 29, Ganguly 9,	Rogers 4, Jaques 8, Ponting 20
Dravid 93(183), Tendulkar 71(128)	Hussey 0, Clarke 23, Symonds 66(70),
Laxman 27, Dhoni 19, Pathan 28	Gilchrist 55. Rudra 4/68, Pathan 2/63
India 2nd Inn : 294 all out in 80.4 overs	Aus 2nd Inn : 65 for 2 in 15 overs
Jaffer 11, Sehwag 43(61), Dravid 3	Rogers 15(18) c Dhoni b Pathan
Pathan 46(64), Sachin 13, Sourav 0	Jaques 16(30) c Jaffer b Pathan
Laxman 79(156), Dhoni 38(87b, 2x6)	Ponting 24*(27) & Hussey 5*
Anil 0, Rudra 30, Clark 4/61, Lee 3/54	Need 348 runs more & 8 wickets remain
India (2-0 behind in4 test series) need 8 wickets to win, 2 days to play

Few Day 3 notes
-Who has played most cricket test matches for his country without missing a single game. Well, this record of most consecutive matches now belongs to Adam Gilchrist who is playing his 95 test match since his debut.. previously, Rahul Dravid held the record with 94 matches.
-Not once, not twice but 5 times Umpire Billy Bowden of New Zealand miss counted the number of balls in the over - calling end off just 5 deliveries on 3 occasions in this match whereas twice he made the bowlers bowl 7 balls in the over.
-Shaun Tait, according to Australian press prior to this Ind v Aus third test at Perth, was expected to bowl around 160kmph or even 170kmpg. Well, the fastest bowl bowled in this test match is only 147.7kmph, that too by Brett Lee. Tait has reached 147.6 whereas India's Ishant Sharma bowled his fastest delivery at 147.3.
-17141 spectators were watching this match at the stadium, which was the highest crowd so far. Looking at the stage where this match stands right now - Western australian cricket fans are expected to achieve the highest gathering of this test so far..
-Sachin Tendulkar was dismissed leg before wicket, in both the innings.. this is only the second time Mumbai batsman have got his leg in front of wicket in same test match.
-VVS Laxman now has over 1000 runs against Australia in Australia, averaging almost 65 per innings.

India XI vs ACT XI : Practice match

Good little match building at Manuka Oval

Home team bat out Day 2 tour match

Why is WACA (Perth) cricket pitch so famous

Preview : 3rd test (Perth) to test both teams

Day 1 : no one ahead, none behind

Day 2 : Pratap & Pathan swing surprise search'of 17th

Day 3 : 348 runs to make, 8 wickets to take, 2 days to go

India deny Aussies their 17th, again & how