Australia continued to dominate in batting friendly conditions at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, as the visitors piled up 480 in their first innings with Usman Khawaja and Cameron Green scoring hundreds.
Resuming at 255/4, Khawaja (180) and Green (114) extended their partnership to 208 runs for the fifth wicket before Ravichandran Ashwin's triple-strike helped India to make a comeback of sorts.
Australia were 409/8 when their off-spinners Nathan Lyon (34) and Todd Murphy (41) got together to add a vital 71-run partnership for the ninth wicket to frustate the tired Indian bowlers. Ashwin finally ended the innings with the wickets of both to finish with 6/91 in 47.2 overs, his 32nd five-wicket haul in Test cricket.
Indian openers Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill had the tricky task to survive for 10 overs, which they did and scored 36 runs at a healthy run-rate of 3.60 to end the day on a happier note after toiling for almost two days in the field.
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On a pitch that offered very little help and almost no turn, Ashwin once again stood out with his remarkable figures and single-handedly prevented Australia from crossing the 500-run mark.
Indian cricket fraternity lauded the champion spinner, who also broke Anil Kumble's record to become the highest wicket-taker for India against Australia in Test cricket.
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