Australia were left needing to conjure up a world record-breaking performance to give skipper Steve Waugh a winning send-off against India after the fourth day in the final cricket Test here on Monday.
India set Australia a mammoth victory target of 443 after skipper Sourav Ganguly called a halt to his team’s second innings at 211 for two, denying Rahul Dravid his 16th Test century with four overs left of the day’s play.
The tourists now look odds on to gain at least a draw from the series-decider, with Australia needing to surpass the existing world record run chase of 418 set by the West Indies against them in Antigua last May.
Another factor mitigating against Australia is that no team has scored more than 276 in the fourth innings to win a Test match at the Sydney Cricket Ground since Australia’s six-wicket victory over England in 1898.
At stumps on the fourth day, Australia had survived four tense overs to be 10 without loss with Justin Langer on four and Matthew Hayden on one.
That left the home side with the Herculean task of scoring 433 to win off a minimum of 90 overs on Tuesday’s final day.
”We’ll need a big effort, we’ll need someone to bowl well, it’s still a good wicket but hopefully on the last day it might play a few tricks and if we can get a few wickets then we can put them under pressure,” Dravid said.
”The chances of them batting through the day are pretty good, but the first session tomorrow is going to be critical. The key to their batting in this series has been their top three batsmen and if we can get them early then we can put pressure on them.
”It’s not easy to score 400-plus runs on the last day in any Test match, esepcially when there’s a bit of rough outside the leg-stump.”
India held a massive 231-run innings lead after dismissing Australia for 474 earlier in the day with Simon Katich scoring a maiden Test century and leg-spinner Anil Kumble bagging eight wickets.
Ganguly elected not to enforce the follow-on after the Australians were dismissed 32 runs short of the target and instead sought the added security of further second innings runs before a declaration after India posted a record 705 for seven in the first innings.
The Indians have never won a Test series in seven previous visits to Australia but will retain the Border Gavaskar Trophy with at least a draw on Tuesday’s final day.
Dravid was stranded on 91 and first-innings double centurion Sachin Tendulkar was on 60 when the declaration was called at 5:57pm (0657 GMT).
Adding to the mix is that this is Steve Waugh’s 168th and last Test match and Australia are desperate to send out their skipper a winner.
The match was in a holding pattern late in the day waiting for Ganguly’s declaration with Waugh setting defensive fields to limit the damage from the onslaught of Dravid and Tendulkar’s unbroken 138-run partnership.
India lost both openers with Akash Chopra out for two in the fourth over and Ricky Ponting dropping Virender Sehwag (9) in a routine slips catch off Brett Lee’s bowling for Australia’s 15th dropped catch of the series.
Sehwag, who had been caught by wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist off a no-ball earlier in the Lee over, went on to make 47 before he was caught in the deep by Jason Gillespie off leg-spinner Stuart MacGill.
Kumble became only the third man to take eight wickets in an innings at a SCG Test with 8-141. It is almost 104 years since Englishman Thomas Richardson took 8-94 in an innings here in 1898. Kumble, who is one of only two bowlers in Test cricket to have taken 10 wickets in an innings, has now taken 378 wickets at 28.23 and ranks second only to Kapil Dev (434 wickets) as India’s all-time leading Test wicket-taker.
Katich scored his maiden Test century in his sixth Test off 116 balls in Australia’s first innings.
Left-handed Katich put on a record 117 runs with Gillespie for the eighth wicket after losing overnight batting partner Lee in the fourth over of the day.
That bettered Ponting and Gillespie’s previous highest 83-run stand against India in the second Adelaide Test of this series.
Lee was out for a duck to a superb diving one-handed catch by Chopra at short leg off Kumble.
Katich hit 125 before he was out caught at long on by Sehwag off Kumble for 125, while Gillespie was later stumped off Kumble for 47. – Sapa-AFP