'We still believe we can win this' – Nathan Lyon

Australia's batsmen haven't shown much fight in the two innings so far. Bar Travis Head, no one else really stood up as Australia crumbled to 235 all out in the first innings. Then in the second innings, Australia's top-order have again shown vulnerability with four batsmen already in the hut.

The exception on day four was Shaun Marsh, who knuckled down to grind out a painstaking 31 not out, and giving him company at stumps was Head, who also displayed resilience in his relatively shorter stay. For Australia to make something of the match, those two will have to play big roles, and Lyon is confident they can do it. Australia are invoking the template of the epic Dubai Test against Pakistan, when they batted 139.5 overs to save the game.

"We just spoke about Dubai just then," said Lyon, who took 6/122 in India's second innings. "We still believe we can win this, and that's the best thing. We still believe we're in this game, it's just about coming out tomorrow, winning the first ball, first over, first hour, just breaking it down, very simple.

"We need to not complicate things, enjoy ourselves, compete hard and fight our backsides off. It was actually Tim [Paine], just saying we've had that belief before when our backs have been against the wall, but we've got a massive sniff here, I believe anyway, in this Test match."

Marsh has been in poor form of late, coming into this innings with scores of 0, 7, 4, 3 and 2. Yet with his experience, he is vital to Australia's chances in this Test. Lyon feels that he is a sound player of spin and can keep off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin – who has created troubles aplenty – at bay.

"I think he's one of the best batters going around, definitely one of the best batters in Australia. I think Shaun will be pretty relaxed tonight. He'll hopefully have a good sleep and not overthink things.

"I was speaking to him before; he's got the belief he can come out and make a hero of him and Travis tomorrow. He spoke to me about playing off-spin and I said 'Shaun, you've just got to back yourself, you're one of the best batters in the world and you've played me enough in the nets, you know how to play off-spin', so I think Shaun's quite confident."

The target could have been out of reach had it not been for Lyon's incredible spell to trigger a collapse that saw India slip from 282/5 to 307. Lyon is a master of his craft and is capable of picking wickets everywhere, but he shares a more intimate bond with the Adelaide turf through his work on the ground staff here before becoming a player. Lyon fondly recalled his days in the former profession and lauded the pitch for the ongoing game for having something in it for all.

"My connection here on the ground staff before; I was lucky enough to play cricket on it. It's a great wicket Damian's produced, stuff in there if you're good enough with the bat, you can score runs as well so I think it's a great wicket.

"I think the pitch has quickened up a little bit and is doing a lot less for the seamers. It's definitely spinning and they've got a world-class spinner, so it's going to be a great challenge for our batters out there, with two left-handers, with Ravi spinning away. But the wicket's good enough for us to really knuckle down tomorrow and have the belief we can score these runs."