Fast bowler Pat Cummins yesterday gave Australia the advantage after three days of the third Test against India at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG).
Cummins removed Cheteshwar Pujara for the fourth time in three Tests this summer, taking 4-29 to have India all out for 244.
At stumps, Marnus Labuschagne was 47 not out and Steve Smith 29 not out for a lead of 197 runs.
.Photo: AP
The pair put on a crucial 68 for the third wicket after openers Will Pucovski (10) and David Warner (13) fell early.
Earlier, Cummins and Josh Hazlewood starred with the ball to help Australia take the upper hand after India resumed yesterday at 96-2.
Three India batsmen were run out, including Hanuma Vihari to a sensational effort from Josh Hazlewood that helped turn the match.
Hazlewood had Vihari out of his ground with a direct hit on the stumps.
With the weather finally cooperating at the SCG after two days of play-restricting showers, Hazlewood’s throw while diving to his right and falling to the ground from mid-off hit the stumps side-on, leaving Vihari (4), well out of his ground.
“It was good to get that kind of breakthrough,” Hazlewood said while walking off the ground at lunch.
Australia captain and wicketkeeper Tim Paine unleashed an expletive-filled rant at umpire Paul Wilson over Test cricket’s umpire review system, asking for some “consistency.”
Paine was angered after Pujara survived a bat-pad review on 13, with no evidence that he had edged the ball.
With Nathan Lyon searching for his first wicket of the Sydney Test, Paine immediately sent the not-out call to the third umpire after Matthew Wade’s catch was turned down.
Leg-side hotspot replays were blocked by Wade’s body, while the “snicko,” which uses sound to indicate whether the ball hit the bat, showed very small movement.
Third umpire Bruce Oxenford looked at the offside hotspot and did not see a mark as the inside edge of the bat turned, before sticking with the not-out call, prompting a verbal barrage from Paine.
Taiwanese world No. 1 women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei on Saturday overcame a first-set loss to win her opening match at the Madrid Open. Top seeds Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium, with whom she last month won her fourth Indian Wells women’s doubles title, bounced back from a rocky first set to beat Asia Muhammad of the US and Aldila Sutjiadi of Indonesia 2-6, 6-4, 10-2. Hsieh and Mertens were next to face Heather Watson of the UK and Xu Yifan of China in the round of 16. Thirty-eight-year-old Hsieh last month reclaimed her world No. 1 spot after her Indian
EYES ON THE PRIZE: Armed with three solid men’s singles shuttlers and doubles Olympic champions, Taiwan aim to make their first Thomas Cup semi-final, Chou Tien-chen said Taiwanese badminton star Tai Tzu-ying yesterday quickly dispatched Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei in straight sets, while her male counterpart Chou Tien-chen beat Germany’s Kai Schaefer, as Taiwan’s women’s and men’s teams won their Group B opening rounds of the TotalEnergies BWF Thomas and Uber Cup Finals in Chengdu, China. World No. 5 Tai beat Goh 21-19, 22-20 in a speedy 33 minutes, her fourth straight victory over the world No. 24 shuttler since they first faced each other in the quarter-finals of the 2018 Malaysia Open, where Tai went on to win the women’s singles title. Malaysia followed up Tai’s opening victory
Chen Yi-tung (陳奕通) secured a historic Olympic berth on Sunday by winning the senior men’s foil event at the 2024 Asia Oceania Zonal Olympic Fencing Qualifiers in United Arab Emirates. Chen defeated Samuel Elijah of Singapore 15-4 in the final in Dubai to secure the only wild card in the event, making him the first male Olympian fencer from Taiwan in 36 years and only the sixth Taiwanese fencer to ever qualify for the quadrennial event. The last appearance by a Taiwanese male fencer at the Olympics was in 1988, when Wang San-tsai (王三財) and Cheng Ming-hsiang (鄭明祥) competed in Seoul. The
Rafael Nadal on Tuesday lost in straight sets to 31st-ranked Jiri Lehecka in the fourth round at the Madrid Open, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced to the semi-finals in the women’s doubles. Nadal said that he was feeling good about his progress following his latest injury layoff. Nadal called it a “positive week” in every way and said his body held up well. “I was able to play four matches, a couple of tough matches,” Nadal said. “So very positive, winning three matches, playing four matches at the high level of tennis. I enjoyed a lot playing at home. I leave here with