After dominant performances in the first two days at the World Test Championship final (WTC), Australia had to concede a balanced game against India on Day 3 at The Oval on Friday, June 9. Resilient fifties from Ajinkya Rahane and Shardul Thakur helped India avoid a follow-on as they managed to score 296 runs in reply to Australia's first innings score of 469.
However, India picked four wickets on Day 3 but Australia managed to stretch their lead to 296 runs with Marnus Labuschagne and Cameron Green batting in the middle and Alex Carey to come next. The highest successful run chase in the fourth innings at The Oval is 263 runs, so it will be Australia's game to lose in the last two days.
But according to star Australian pacer Mitchell Starc, Australia are further looking to stretch their lead on Day 4 and are not thinking to declare their innings soon.
"I haven't spoken to Pat (captain Pat Cummins) yet, so I don't know and it's not my decision, but I think we will keep batting for now," Starc said to ICC after Day 3's play. "We have still got two days to play. The weather's been good and I think it's warmer tomorrow. Hopefully, the pitch starts playing a few more tricks but as far as I know it, we are still going to be batting tomorrow."
The Oval pitch is expected to further favor pacers on Day 4 and Day 5 but Starc added that the surface has been inconsistent in the WTC final and it will play a few tricks.
"It's certainly showing more signs of inconsistency as we go on," Starc said. "It seems to be a good toss to lose. But yeah, I think obviously with the weather that we've had and the weather that's coming up, it might play some more tricks. I think it's supposed to be 29 (degrees) tomorrow and a bit of sunshine over the weekend, so it might just play a few more tricks as the game goes on."
