Australia's Ryan Harris celebrates the wicket of Alviro Petersen (not in picture) during the fourth day of the third cricket test match at Newlands Stadium in Cape Town, March 4, 2014.
Australia's Ryan Harris celebrates the wicket of Alviro Petersen (not in picture) during the fourth day of the third cricket test match at Newlands Stadium in Cape Town, March 4, 2014. REUTERS/Shaun Roy

The colossal Melbourne Cricket Ground, affectionately called by the locals as the G is the venue for the third Test Match of the ongoing four Test Match Borger Gavaskar cricket series between the Australian and Indian cricket teams. Incidentally Australia have already taken an unassailable two nil lead by winning the first two matches at Adelaide and Brisbane. They are on their way to making it three in a row in this match. The fourth match will be played at the Sydney Cricket Ground from Jan. 6, 2015.

Australia won the toss and opted to bat first on a pitch assisting the batsmen. They made a mammoth 530 runs primarily thanks to a 192 from the captain Michael Smith. He was ably assisted by half centuries from Chris Rogers, Shane Watson, Brad Haddin and Ryan Harris. They were also helped by some listless bowling by the Indian bowlers who seemed all at sea against a commanding batting display from the hosts.

India on their part replied with two brilliant centuries by Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane. Murli Viyaj continued his good run with another half century in the tour. For Australia Ryan Harris continued his batting prowess with the ball in his hand. He picked by four wickets and was the most economical of all the Australian bowlers. Mitchel Johnson took three and Nathan Lyon took two wickets respectively.

Australia would like to take the second innings lead beyond the 300 run mark and put pressure on the Indian batting lineup to make unforced errors and eventually lose their wickets. The one sided results of the series do not reflect the actual matches as they were much closer than the final results suggests. Nonetheless a comprehensive series victory should be good for the morale of the Australian side ahead of the show piece World Cup early next year.