Gill ton powers India’s reply but Australia still ahead

Shubman Gill’s sparkling century and an unbeaten 59 by Virat Kohli kept India strong in their first innings reply against a persistent Australian spin attack in the fourth Test yesterday. India were 289-3 at stumps and still trailing Australia’s 480 by 191 runs on day three at the world’s biggest cricket stadium in Ahmedabad.Gill stood out with his 128 – the opener’s second Test ton and first in India – as he built key partnerships including a 113-run stand for the second wicket with Cheteshwar Pujara, who made 42. "It feels great to be able to get a hundred in India,” Gill, 23, said."The pitch was pretty good to bat on. Anything that was happening off the pitch was off the rough area.”Spinners kept coming back with wickets as Nathan Lyon, Matthew Kuhnemann and Todd Murphy took one each on a pitch favouring the batsmen. Gill, who replaced a struggling KL Rahul in the third Test, hit 12 fours and one big six in a good show of batting to surpass his previous Test best of 110 despite cramping towards the end of his knock.He finally fell lbw to Lyon’s off-spin in the third session before Kohli took charge along with the left-handed Ravindra Jadeja, on 16, to see out the day’s play. "The way Shubman played was exceptional to be honest,” Lyon said. "That one I got him on was probably a little bit flatter, a little bit faster than what he was expecting,” he added. "A decent ball on my behalf, but I thought the way he went about it was pretty special... He’s definitely a special player.”Kohli reached his first Test half-century since January 2022 after a jittery start to his innings when he got off the mark on the 12th ball. Australia delayed taking the second new ball, available to the fielding side after the 80th over, by 14 overs.Earlier Gill overcame a tough spell of run-making in the second session to raise his ton with a fine sweep off Murphy, taking a bow as the raucous weekend crowd applauded, but lost his partner Pujara four balls later.Off-spinner Murphy trapped Pujara lbw, ending a stand which prospered after skipper Rohit Sharma fell to Kuhnemann’s left-arm spin for 35 in the morning session."It’s a big moment for the two young spinners and I think they bowled exceptionally well,” Lyon said of Murphy and Kuhnemann. "I think it’s pretty even. We know games in this part of the world can speed up quickly.”Australia’s stand-in-skipper Steve Smith rotated his bowlers, who remained disciplined in their line and length to test the batsmen’s patience for much of the hot afternoon.Gill broke the shackles with two successive boundaries off Cameron Green to bring the crowd alive with delightful cover drives.India started the day on 36-0 and kept attacking. Mitchell Starc bowled to plan with his short balls and a heavy leg-side field, but Rohit took on the challenge as he smashed the left-arm quick for a four and a six at long leg.The pitch has been vastly different from the viciously spinning tracks in the previous three Tests and Usman Khawaja brought Australia the early advantage with his 180.India lead the four-match series 2-1 after Australia won the third Test.The hosts need a win to clinch the series and secure a berth in the World Test Championship final in June.

Scoreboard

Australia I innings 480 all out India I innings (overnight 36-0, Rohit 17, Gill 18)R. Sharma c Labuschagne b Kuhnemann 35S. Gill lbw b Lyon 128C. Pujara lbw b Murphy 42V. Kohli not out 59R. Jadeja not out 16Extras (b4, lb3, nb2) 9Total (3 wickets, 99 overs) 289Still to bat: S. Iyer, S. Bharat, A. Patel, R. Ashwin, U. Yadav, M. ShamiFall of wickets: 1-74 (Rohit), 2-187 (Pujara), 3-245 (Gill)Bowling: Starc 17-2-74-0, Green 10-0-45-0 (nb1), Lyon 37-4-75-1, Kuhnemann 13-0-43-1 (nb1), Murphy 22-6-45-1