India once again find themselves in a precarious position in the ongoing fourth Test against Australia in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) after suffering a mini collapse in the final 30 minutes of Day 2 on Friday. In reply to Australia’s first innings total of 474, India ended the second day at 164/5 in 46 overs, still trailing by 310 runs.
Starting the day at 311/6, Australia added 163 runs for the last four wickets. In reply, India started on a disastrous note with captain Rohit Sharma departing for just three in the second over. Yashasvi Jaiswal and KL Rahul revived the Indian innings with a 43-run stand.
With Rahul departing before Tea, Virat Kohli joined Jaiswal and forged 102 runs for the third wicket before the duo got out in a mini-Indian collapse. With five batters already in the hut, India face an uphill task of avoiding the follow-on.
Jaiswal was caught in a horrible mix-up with Kohli, thereby losing his wicket just 18 runs shy of the southpaw’s second Test hundred on Australian soil. In the following over, Kohli was caught behind off Scott Boland. For India, Jasprit Bumrah (4/99) and Ravindra Jadeja (3/78) shared seven wickets while Akash Deep (2/94) had two scalps.
How many runs India need to avoid follow-on at MCG?
With the scoreboard pressure mounting high, India still need 111 runs to avoid the follow-on score of 275. In India fail to score 275 runs in the first innings, the visitors will have to bat again and post a target for Australia in the fourth innings.
If India manage to score past 275 in the first India, Australia will bat then and post a target for India in the fourth innings.
How a follow-on score is counted?
Follow-on rule is measured in Test cricket only. The follow-on rule comes into play for the team batting second in a Test match if they fail to post a total that is 200 runs less than the teams total batting first.
