3rd Test, Day 2: Nathan Lyon takes eight-fer as India bowled out for 163, set Australia target of 76

Premier off-spinner Nathan Lyon took his second eight-wicket haul in Test cricket to bowl out India for 169 in their second innings at the close of day two’s play in third Test at the Holkar Stadium on Thursday.

For India, top-order batter Cheteshwar Pujara stood tall with a valiant 59 off 142 balls, through his precise footwork on a difficult pitch to bat. But rest of the batters, barring Shreyas Iyer and Ravichandran Ashwin to some extent, couldn’t step up, giving a target of 76 for Australia to make the series scoreline 2-1, as Lyon finished with 8/64.

The final session began with Pujara and Iyer taking a four and six off an erring Matthew Kuhnemann. Iyer, who lowered his stance, got back-to-back fours off Nathan Lyon through lucky outside edges.

Iyer’s aggression paid off when he pulled off Kuhnemann for four and six respectively. But his knock ended at 26 when Usman Khawaja took a one-handed stunning catch at mid-wicket off Mitchell Starc.

Lyon had further success when KS Bharat played the wrong line and was trapped lbw. After Pujara reached his fifty, he was dropped by Marnus Labuschagne and found some support from Ashwin.

But that was short-lived as Lyon trapped Ashwin lbw with a quicker delivery. Pujara marched forward and showed aggression by whacking Lyon over mid-wicket for six. His knock though was cut short by a stunner from Steve Smith, who dived to his right to take a one-handed screamer at leg-slip off Lyon.

Two balls later, Lyon had another wicket as Umesh Yadav slog-swept straight to deep mid-wicket. Four overs later, Lyon finished off the Indian innings by getting Mohammed Siraj stumped out.

Brief Scores: Australia 197 in 76.3 overs (Usman Khawaja 60, Marnus Labuschagne 21; Ravindra Jadeja 4/78, Umesh Yadav 3/12) trail India 109 in 33.3 overs and 163 in 60.3 overs (Cheteshwar Pujara 59, Shreyas Iyer 26; Nathan Lyon 8/64) by 76 runs.