Australia continued to push for victory on the fourth morning of the Brisbane Test despite substantial time having been taken away from the game due to inclement weather. At Lunch on Day 4, they had India six down for 167, the visitors still 79 shy of forcing the hosts to bat again, which India will hope can eat some more time from this contest they desperately want to save.

The biggest obstacle in the hosts’ march, KL Rahul, was dismissed for an excellent 84 a little before the interval courtesy a superb diving catch at slip by Steve Smith, who incidentally put down a more regulation offering off the first ball of the day’s play from Pat Cummins.

The day began under relatively bright skies but the gloom for India could have set in as early as the first ball when Rahul allowed his hands to get away from his body to a wide, length delivery from Cummins. But India’s opener was allowed to add to his overnight score of 33 by a rare show of fielding benevolence from Smith. It was also a rare indiscretion from a batter who continued to make good decisions after getting into very good positions in yet another innings on the tour.

Rohit Sharma, on the other hand, was worked over by his opposite number as Cummins produced a probing five-over spell in the first hour where he kept landing the ball on an imaginary small square on a good length outside off delivery after delivery. The Australia captain eventually played with Rohit’s weight transfers by bowling a sharp, short ball before a follow-up full delivery, which as it turned out wasn’t full enough for the drive. Sensing a rare scoring opportunity, Rohit reached for it and feathered an edge to the ‘keeper.

There were no such mistakes from Rahul, who continued to pick only the really full deliveries for his shots as well as favouring the square drive to the more expansive variant towards extra cover. He waited for the bowlers to bowl straighter to him, which he then flicked, tucked away or on-drove. As has been the case in Australia this summer, the batting pair of Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja found the going easier once the Kookaburra ball was more than 30-overs-old. With an assured Jadeja for company, Rahul passed 50 and moved serenely towards a three-figure score before an attempted cut shot off Lyon found the flying Smith to end a promising 67-run association.

Despite their dominant position in the game, the hosts endured their own setback when Josh Hazlewood left the field after sending down a solitary over in the session with an injury. That meant there was a lot of bowling for Nathan Lyon as well as Cummins, the latter’s 11-over effort in the session helped out somewhat by a brief 24-minute stoppage of play due to rain.