IANS/New Delhi

India’s hopes of a 4-0 whitewash of Australia were dented by off-spinner Nathan Lyon’s third fiver and the last Test of the series will go into the third day today all square.
Lyon finished the day with five for 94 to leave India at 266 for eight and an inconsequential lead of four runs at stumps at the Ferozeshah Kotla yesterday. Bhuvneshwar Kumar was batting on 10 as play ended with the dismissal of Ravichandran Ashwin (12), Lyon’s fifth victim. Australia’s tail wagged a little more on resumption yesterday morning to take their first innings to a competitive 262.
India’s innings was a rerun of all their previous innings in the series — a rollicking 108-run start by openers and then the familiar collapse to lose eight wickets for a mere 158 runs.
On a bright sunny day, Lyon made the best use of the cracks on the Kotla track, triggering the collapse. It was the fourth consecutive time that India messed up a solid start.
The only difference was that in the last three Tests, the collapse came after some record stands. But here, the Indian batting stumbled after openers Cheteshwar Pujara (52) and Murali Vijay (57) gave them a dream start under the circumstances, going for lunch at 59. And at 180 for five, there were doubts whether they could even get a first-inning lead.
It was left to Ravindra Jadeja (43), who came into the side essentially as a batting all-rounder, and skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni (24) to pull them out of the rut.
A weekend turnout of some 20,000 spectators got an exciting day’s play, but not dominated by India. Instead, they had a wonderful exhibition of bowling by Lyon, who was surprisingly dropped from the second Test after taking four for 244 in Chennai.
Lyon not only got the ball to spin but also bounce. At the other end fast bowlers Peter Siddle, James Pattinson and Mitchell Johnson kept the batsmen guessing, varying the pace and length, and using the bouncer to good effect, mixing the slower short-pitched delivery.
The second spinner in the side, Glenn Maxwell, was missed at the bowling crease as he was off the field with the Delhi belly and when he came on to bowl late in the afternoon his delivery caused more concern for the batsmen in the second innings. The ball shot through to trap Ashwin leg-before.
Lyon began his demolition castling Pujara with a beauty and in his next over he had Virat Kohli (1) plumb in front.
Sachin Tendulkar (32) walked in next. He was lucky to survive a big shout by Lyon for leg-before and also some inspired stuff from Johnson to go for tea at 135 for two.
Immediately after the break, Tendulkar tried to break the shackles with two consecutive fours in the first over of Siddle. After hitting five fours, his innings was cut short by another lbw shout by Lyon.
Siddle got the key wicket of Vijay with a snorter that took the opener’s glove on its way to Matthew Wade behind.
Ajinkya Rahane’s debut ended in a soft dismissal. He only managed seven before gloving a Lyon off-break to Steve Smith at backward short-leg.
When Australia resumed their innings, Ashwin bagged his fourth fiver of the series. Resuming at overnight 231/8, the visitors added 31 runs with Siddle top-scoring with 51 before becoming Ashwin’s fifth victim (5/57).
Left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha reached 100 Test wickets, dismissing Pattinson (30) caught at first-slip.