Ahmedabad: Shubman Gill cracked an unbeaten half-century as India reached 129/1 at lunch on Day 3 of the fourth Test of Border-Gavaskar Trophy at Narendra Modi Stadium here on Saturday.
Mitchell Starc resorted to short-ball stuff to both the Indian openers, but was taken to the cleaners and Captain Steve Smith had to take him off.
Gill and Captain Rohit Sharma added 74 runs before being separated. Sharma got out of his own mistake as he casually chipped Matthew Kuhnemann to short cover into the hands of Marnus Labuchagne after making 35 off 58 balls.
Post that, there were hardly any chances created as Gill compiled an unbeaten 65 and Cheteshwar Pujara danced down the track against spinners and made an elegant 22 runs off 46 balls.
The closest Australia came to picking a wicket in the second hour was when right-arm off-spinner Todd Murphy bowled a ripper, beating Gill’s inside edge and bounced over the stumps. Gill also survived a review for LBW after coming down the track to Lyon.
In the post-lunch session, Gill and Pujara would look to send Australia for leather hunting as the track is still very good for batting and ball softening.
Brief Scores: Australia 480 (Usman Khawaja 180, Cameron Green 114; R Ashwin 6-91) lead India 129/1 (Shubman Gill 65*) by 351 runs
