Sydney: Fickle weather on day four prevented India from closing in on a big win in the fourth Test but they were well on course for their maiden series victory in Australia after forcing the hosts to follow-on at home for the first time since 1988.Bad light and intermittent rain led to substantial loss of play with only 25.2 overs bowled on day four. Australia were placed at 6-0 in 4 overs after Kuldeep Yadav’s five-wicket haul in his maiden Test Down Under helped India bowl the home team out for 300 in the first innings.Umpires took players off the field with eight minutes remaining in the belated afternoon session. Marcus Harris (2) and Usman Khawaja (4) were the unbeaten batsmen with Australia still trailing by 316 runs.But play didn’t resume at all once the scheduled tea break was over, as bad light hampered proceedings once again. The umpires waited for nearly an hour, coming out for inspection in between, before making a decision at 5 pm local time.The match officials were ready to wait until 6 pm for light to improve, but a slight drizzle put paid to the wait and the day was called off at 5.20 pm local time. This was after Australia were bowled out for 300 runs (104.5 overs) in their first innings and were asked to follow on, surrendering a lead of 322 runs. Kuldeep Yadav took 5/99, making instant impact in his first game of the series.
