India, Australia, Pujara, Smith, 2nd Test
The India vs Australia second Test match is perfectly poised moving into day fourReuters

For the first time in this series, India had a day they could look back on fondly. With the bowlers doing their bits in the opening session, the batsmen performed as well as they have done in the four innings of this series against Australia to at least give the home side a chance of making something of this second Test match in Bengaluru.

After three days of absorbing Test match action, India are 126 runs ahead, with six wickets in hand.

As the hosts have showed, their wickets can tumble in a hurry if they lose just one, so, really, all the pressure remains on Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane to continue their partnership out in the middle.

Pujara and Rahane have already put on 93 runs together – the highest partnership of the series so far – and they need to add another 100 more runs, at least.

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With the wicket looking better to bat on day three, there will be a slight worry over what constitutes as a good target. So, the plan will be to get as many runs as they can, with India probably only feeling comfortable if they target goes well beyond the 250-mark, if not 300 – Australia have batted so well in this series that India will know they need a pretty solid target to make a real game of this.

Australia will know, if they can break this Rahane-Pujara partnership, they probably can scythe through the rest of the batting lineup.

The lower middle-order has been pretty poor so far in this series and while India still have one more pure batsman in Karun Nair, playing at his home ground, to come, the Aussies will be confident of getting India bowled out quickly, if they have a solid opening hour.

Nathan Lyon, while not getting quite the same purchase from the first innings, looked threatening, without taking any wicket, and with Steven O'Keefe an option as well, Australia do have the spinners to trouble India.

Mitchell Starc wasn't at his best, but he is a world-class bowler and will be back, while Josh Hazlewood is the one who has troubled India the most in this second innings so far, taking three of the four wickets that have fallen.

The fast bowler will want to complete a five-for and give his batsmen as low a target as possible.

Where to Watch Live

India vs Australia 2nd Test, Day 3 is scheduled for a 9.30am IST (4am GMT, 3pm AEDT) start.

India: TV: Star Sports 1, 3, HD1, HD3. Live Streaming: Hotstar.

USA and Canada: TV: Willow TV. Live Streaming: Willow TV Online.

UK: TV: Sky Sports 2. Live Streaming: Watch Sky Sports.

Australia: TV: Fox Sports. 3 Live Streaming: Foxtel.

New Zealand: TV: Sky Sport. Live Streaming: Sky Go NZ.

Middle East: TV: OSN Sports Cricket. Live Streaming: OSN Cricket Live.