In more than 100 years, no team has chased this many runs to win a Test at the MCG. Can India do it?

India’s batters need to pull off the highest run chase in more than a century of action at the MCG to seal a famous win and retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy after an impressive rearguard batting performance from Australia’s lower order on Sunday.

Marnus Labuschagne is confident Australia can take 10 wickets on Monday for a morale-boosting win that would put them in touching distance of a Test series win over India for the first time in a decade.

Scott Boland and Nathan Lyon at stumps.Credit: Getty Images

Labuschagne chipped in with a crucial 70 in Australia’s second innings, while Nathan Lyon (41 from 54 balls) and Scott Boland (10 from 65 balls) batted for 17.5 overs without being dismissed to propel their side to 9-228 and a lead of 333 runs. At one stage Australia were in major trouble at 6-91.

The tourists will need to make history on the final day of the fourth Test to take a 2-1 lead in the series, but it is Australia eyeing victory in an absorbing match that has ebbed and flowed in front of almost 300,000 supporters over the past four days.

“We had the perfect outcome for us, that probably looked like having a bowl tonight and putting them under pressure,” Labuschagne said after stumps. “The way the wicket played and the way India bowled and put us under pressure in the first 40 to 50 overs, that wasn’t an option for us. It became let’s get as many runs as we can.

“That’s obviously creeping into a nice total now.”

Jasprit Bumrah after bowling Sam Konstas.Credit: Getty Images

Jasprit Bumrah once again showed why he is arguably the best fast bowler of his generation with a lethal spell before Australia regained the ascendancy.

The 31-year-old has been inspirational for the tourists, with consistently accurate spells and countless deliveries that have deviated off the pitch and beaten the outside edges of flummoxed batsmen.

Bumrah went to tea with figures of 4-30 from 14 overs before ending the day with 4-56 after putting in a huge shift across nine different spells.

His series tally of 29 wickets at 13.24 puts him 14th on the list of highest wicket-takers by an overseas bowler in a Test series in Australia.

With one game remaining in Sydney, Bumrah will need a 10-wicket haul in the match to overtake England’s Maurice Tate’s series record of 38 wickets exactly 100 years ago.

Excluding Australia’s second innings in Adelaide, where Bumrah bowled just six balls, the Indian’s worst bowling figures in an innings this series is 3-42.

“He just bowls a relentless length,” Labuschagne said.

The highest successful run chase at the MCG came in 1928 when England reached 7-332 in the fourth innings of a Test against Australia.

Marnus Labuschagne top scored for Australia on Sunday.Credit: Getty Images

No team has scored more than 261 in the fourth innings of a match in Melbourne since the MCG renovated its drop-in pitches in 2018.

Bumrah became the first man in Test history to take 200 wickets at an average of under 20 as Australia collapsed on the fourth day of the fourth Test, putting a dent in their hopes of a series win.

Moving along steadily at 2-80 and with a 185-run lead midway through the day, Australia then lost 3-4 in 10 balls.

India had started the day at $7.50 with bookmakers but rocketed into favouritism at one stage.

Sam Konstas, fresh off an entertaining 60 in the first innings, made just eight.

From the outset, India put men back at third man and fine leg to nullify the risk of Konstas playing ramp shots. The NSW opener was then on the receiving end of a beautiful ball from Bumrah that seamed back in and cannoned into his middle stump.

Usman Khawaja was then bowled for 21 before Steve Smith (13) edged a wider ball outside the off stump.

Head, the leading run-scorer in this series who made a duck on day one, was out for one in the second innings.

Mitch Marsh’s horror run also continued with a sixth single-digit score from seven visits to the crease this series. Before the third Test in Brisbane, Marsh was the only member of Australia’s top seven who hadn’t been dismissed by Bumrah. He joked at a press conference that his time was coming.

It certainly was, with Bumrah now having dismissed Marsh in three of his last four innings.

Bumrah picked up his third wicket in 11 balls by bowling Alex Carey before Pat Cummins (41) brought stability to the lower order.

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