BGT | Indian top-order crumbles on gloomy rain-interrupted Day 3 to make it a two-result affair

Brief score: IND 51/4 (Rahul 33*, Pant 9; Starc 8-1-25-2) trail AUS 445 (Carey 70, Starc 20; Bumrah 28-9-76-6) by 394 runs

Resuming their overnight stand of 16, Alex Carey and Mitchell Starc added 22 more runs after a slightly delayed start due to brief showers with the former bringing up his half-century in the process. Jasprit Bumrah earned the first scalp of the morning by nicking behind Starc for his sixth wicket in the innings before Siraj ended Nathan Lyon's 30-ball vigil on either side of a rain interruption and Akash Deep had Carey hole out for 70 to close the Aussie effort at 445.

In response, the Men in Blue faced just 7.2 overs before rain forced early Lunch once again but it was enough for the new-ball pairing of Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood to wreak havoc. Starc, fresh off his Adelaide match-winning heroics, was driven through the cover on his first ball by Yashasvi Jaiswal but struck back the very next ball to have the youngster caught at short midwicket. In his ensuing over, an outswinger outside off-stump took a thick edge off Shubman Gill's willow and Marsh once again got involved as he flew to his left gully to complete a mesmerising take. Hazlewood added the cherry on top by nicking behind Virat Kohli with a channel delivery yet again as the players took off before Rishabh Pant could walk in to take guard.

Once play resumed, two more rain interruptions followed, with just two and four overs bowled in the brief windows respectively, before one final seven ball session ahead of Tea. Rishabh Pant, who had been showing promising signs, succumbed in that timeframe itself courtesy of a feather edge against a Cummins delivery angling away from the Stumps, to leave the visitors reeling at 44/4. KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma thereafter walked out for one final three over gasp with only spinners allowed to bowl given bad lights, and the former added to his growing confidence to end up unbeaten on 33 with India still trailing by nearly 400 runs.

Sadness looms

Classic cummins

Gave up

Believe in Jassi bhai

Day called off

Long way to go

Tough

Levels

Cannot repeat it

Called off