Rain hampers India's progress, lead by 15
Adelaide, Dec 8 : Rain hampered play on day three of the opening Test before India took a 15-run lead in the first innings by bowling out Australia for 235 runs here on Saturday.
The visitors had scored 250 runs in their first innings.
Inclement weather first delayed play by 45 minutes in the morning session, and then there were two more delays in the first session before lunch was taken at 1.12 pm local time.
During the first 20 minutes of play, starting from overnight 191 for seven, Australia crossed 200 in the 91st over but India managed to sneak in a breakthrough before rain came again. Mitchell Starc (15) was caught behind off Jasprit Bumrah (3-47) as covers came on.
Play was held up for 55 minutes thereafter, and the number of overs for the day were reduced to 79. On resumption, the remaining one-hour session was cut short again after 40 minutes but this time India made good used of the overs.
Both Bumrah and Ishant Sharma (2-47) were guilty of bowling shorter to the tail-enders, and it didn't change this morning either. Nathan Lyon (24 not out) made good use of this, hitting two fours and a six, as he put on 31 runs for the ninth wicket with Travis Head (72).
Head's immaculate knock came to an end when he edged Mohammed Shami (2-58) behind, and the very next ball, the pacer finished things off with Josh Hazlewood out caught similarly for a first-ball duck.
Wicket-keeper Rishabh Pant finished with six catches, while Head faced 167 deliveries in all, inclusive of six fours.
Australia were happier of the two sides having added 44 runs in just 10.4 overs of play. In their bid to get the lower order out quickly, India were guilty of leaking easy runs.
An early lunch was taken at the last rain interval.
On day one, Cheteshwar Pujara's 16th Test century saved India the blushes. On day two, the Indian bowling attack worked hard to restrict the Australian batsmen with Head the only one to cross the 50-mark.
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Confident we are going to win Kerala: Shashi Tharoor
New Delhi (PTI): Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Thursday expressed confidence in the victory of the United Democratic Front (UDF) in Kerala, saying the Congress-led alliance will win more than 75 seats out of the total 140 in the state.
Tharoor, who hails from Kerala, said he was not surprised to see the results of the exit polls, most of which predicted a victory for the UDF that has been out of power for 10 years in the state.
"We have been on the ground. I have campaigned in 59 constituencies across 12 districts out of 14. I was very confident we are going to win.
"Everything that I have picked up from not just my party colleagues and workers but also from other observers, media and others have always convinced me that we were going to score a comfortable win of above 75 seats. And all the (exit) polls have confirmed the same thing," he told reporters here.
The Thiruvananthapuram MP said he was not surprised to see the results of the exit polls but in general he was not a big fan of exit polls in India.
"Because ours is not purely a homogenous society. We have to take into account gender issue, caste issue, class issue, regional disparities. You never get a convincingly large enough sample to give an accurate poll and now there is the additional complication that we have heard about in West Bengal this year that many people are unwilling to answer the questions of the pollsters," he said.
The Congress leader said normally, it used to be below 10 per cent that people said that they would not answer.
"Even if you are a reputable exit pollster, in Bengal, one polling company has said 60 per cent of people refused to answer. So, what is the worth of a poll where 60 per cent of your respondents have not answered," he said.
Several exit polls on Wednesday predicted a comeback by the Congress-led UDF in Kerala after 10 years, dethroning the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF).
Polling for the 140-member Kerala assembly was held on April 9. Results of assembly elections in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Assam, Puducherry, besides Kerala, will be announced on May 4.
