Mohali, Oct 18 : Openers Gautam Gambhir (46) and Virender Sehwag (53) continued their fabulous form and put up another 100 run partnership for India, giving a total lead of 301 runs at the end of third day's play of second Test match against Australia here.

The duo batted with caution and aggression to deny the Australians any breakthrough and at the same time put up runs at a good rate for the hosts to capitalise on the 201 run advantage over Australia that they got in the first innings.

Earlier, Amit Mishra took a well deserved five wicket haul on his debut and became only the sixth Indian to do so.

He had peter Siddle stumped by MS Dhoni for a duck. The Australian innings was thus bundled out for 268 runs, 201 runs short of the Indian first innings total of 469.

Watson and Hussey were the only batsmen who offered some resistance to the Indian bowlers but it was only a matter of time after Watson's departure and the Oz tail was cleanly wiped.

However, Indian captain decided not to enforce the follow-on on the Australian team even though they fell short by 201 runs and sent his openers Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag to the crease.

Harbhajan Singh had got the much needed breakthrough when he sent back Brett Lee after he offered stiff resistance to Indian bowlers to score 35 runs off 96 balls. Rahul Dravid caught Lee at first slip.

Earlier, Shane Watson had found a partner in Brett Lee and tried his best to bail his team out of deep trouble with a fighting half century, his first in Tests. In the process, Australia also crossed the 200 run mark. Brett Lee gave the all rounder ample support with some swashbuckling shots to the fence. The duo also brought up their 50 run partnership.

Harbhajan Singh was finally rewarded for his efforts in the match as Brad Haddin perished to the aggressive bowler.

ANI