Australia eye victory after strong Second Day vs India | MCG Test

Australia are now heavy favourites to beat India in the fourth Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, with cricket betting odds shortening to $1.40 after a dominant second day in Melbourne.

India trail by 310 runs heading into day three and are at long odds of $8 across most top bookmakers to pull off an unlikely comeback.

The commanding position comes off the back of Australia making 474 in their first innings, then reducing India to 5/164 by stumps on Friday.

The hosts total was largely due to an impressive 140 by Steve Smith, his second in two Tests.

“You’ve got to have faith,” said Smith, who before his century in Brisbane had not reach triple figures since June 2023.

“You’ve got to have a bit of trust in what you’re trying to do.

“I’ve played the game for long enough now to know that you can have your ups and downs.

“Sometimes you can be hitting the ball really nicely.

“I think I said when I wasn’t scoring the runs, I actually felt like I was batting pretty well.

“There’s a difference, I think, between being out of form and out of runs.

“I think you need a lot of luck on these wickets to get big runs as well.”

After Sam Konstas (60), Usman Khawaja (57) and Marnus Labuschagne (72) impressed on day one of the Test, it was captain Pat Cummins (49) who largely kept Smith company on Friday.

In response to Australia’s 474, India again struggled to build meaningful partnerships.

Yashavi Jaiswal (82) and Virat Kohli (36) formed the only significant stand for the visitors after Rohit Sharma (3) and KL Rahul (24) fell, but a mix up led to Jaiswal getting run out.

This triggered a mini collapse, with Kohli and Akash Deep (0) following soon after.

Rishabh Pant (6) and Ravindra Jadeja (4) then stabilised and took India through to stumps, but a lot of work is to be done if they are to level the scores on day three, let alone move ahead.

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