Third test delicately poised after strong Oz fightback

India trail Australia by 26 runs with nine wickets remaining at the end of third day of the second Test at Brisbane cricket ground, after rival made a strong fightback to give Australia a lead of 97 runs.

Australia staged a strong fightback to put up a respectable total of 505 in the first innings, thanks to stand-in-skipper Steve Smith's staggering knock of 133 and Mitchell Johnson's impressive 88.

In addition, Mitchell Starc contributed a blistering knock of 52 runs to give the team a lead of 97 runs before was bowled out by Ravichandran Ashwin.

Ishant Sharma and Umesh Yadav claimed three wickets each, with Ravi Ashwin and Varun Aaron taking two wickets each simultaneously.

At the draw of the stumps, India scored 71 runs in the second innings for the loss of one wicket of Murali Vijay, who scored 27 runs before he fell prey to a delivery from Starc. Shikhar Dhawan and Cheteshwar Pujara would resume batting for India on Saturday.