We let them off the hook a little bit: Hazlewood

Brisbane, Jan 17 (SocialNews.XYZ) Australia allowed Washington Sundar and Shardul Thakur to settle in on the third day of the fourth Test against India, said fast bowler Josh Hazlewood.

Debutant Sundar and Thakur, who were brought in as replacements to injured regulars in India's bowling lineup, ended up scoring half-centuries and their 123-run partnership for the seventh wicket helped India reduce Australia's lead to just 33 runs.

India were 186 for 6 when Sundar was joined by Thakur in the middle and India were eventually all out for 336.

"There is a bit of frustration obviously, when you think (they are) six down and you are well on your way to knocking them over but as I said in this day and age, teams bat all the way down," Hazlewood told reporters after the day's play.

"Credit to them, we missed our mark a little bit I think in that little period, probably a touch fuller or touch shorter, a bit of width here and there. So we just let them off the hook a little bit there and probably didn't pressure the way we wanted to. We created a few little half chances. On any other day hopefully we take those. Credit to those two guys, they batted beautifully," he continued.

Australia batted six overs at the end of the day and scored 21 runs, mostly thanks to David Warner's quickfire 20 off 22 balls. With rain being the forecast for the next two days, Australia now have the tricky task of wrapping a win as soon as possible so as to avoid letting India retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

"If Davey bats a long time, things happen pretty quickly as we know. But I think it'll be pretty similar to maybe Sydney, (bat) three and a half sessions maybe four sessions. It all depends probably on the weather as well, a bit of rain forecast in the afternoon on both days. So that could come into calculations. But we'll just bat normal for the first two sessions tomorrow and see where we're at," said Hazlewood.

Source: IANS