Johnson's Spell Swings Match

India finished day 3 at 313 for the loss of 8 wickets. India trail the Aussies by 117 runs. Aussie speedster Mitchell Johnson scalped 4 wickets to destroy the Indian top order. At one stage India was staring down the barrel at 106/4 before Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly combined to ease the nerves. Dravid made a well compiled half century. After Dravid fell to Shane Watson, India lost Dhoni and Sourav in quick succession and Aussies were looking to secure a potentially match winning first innings lead. However Harbhajan Singh and Zaheer Khan batted freely to take the score to 312, when Harbhajan was finally dismissed by Watson. At the close of play, skipper Anil Kumble joined forces with Zaheer Khan.

Earlier in the day, the first two sessions elonged to Australians and especially Mitchell Johnson. He was the wrecker in chief. The day started well for Aussies with pace ace Brett Lee removing opener Gautam Gambhir in his very first over of the day. Then it was Johnson all the way. He removed the other destructive opener Virender Sehwag, and then followed it up with the prize scalp of Sachin Tedulkar. And for a good measure he also removed V.V.S.Laxman before unch to have India reeling at 106/4 with all the top batters back in the hut.

The bowling department which was considered to be Australia's weak link held up well, even though Stuart Clark was wicketless after bowling 17 overs. All rounders Shane Watson and Craig White bowled well while Michael Clarke accounted for vice captain M S Dhoni.

With only two days remaining in the test, the Aussies will lok to polish off the Indian tail tommorow and set a challenging total for the home side to chase. The fourth day's play may well decide the fate of the test match.