CHENNAI, Feb 25: India inched closer towards a comprehensive victory in the first Test on Monday against Australia but debutant Moises Henriques delayed the inevitable with a fighting undefeated 75 on a difficult track to take the match into the fifth and final day.

Henriques followed up his first innings half-century with another gutsy effort as he added 57 for the last wicket with Nathan Lyon (8) to prevent India from wrapping up the match with a day to spare at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium.

The duo consumed 18.1 overs to not only frustrate the hosts but also snatch a lead of 40 runs after Ravichandran Ashwin’s second five-wicket haul helped India decimate the Aussie top and middle-order.

Ashwin grabbed five for 90 and his current match haul of 12 wickets helped India reduce Australia to 175 for nine before Henriques and Lyon provided some rearguard action to ensure that the game went into Tuesday’s final day.

With pitch providing right kind of assistance for the spinners, Harbhajan Singh also put up a much improved performance in the second innings scalping the important wickets of David Warner and Matthew Wade.

The highlight of India’s performance was skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s magnificent 224, which enabled the home team to post a mammoth 572 in their first innings, thereby ensuring a lead of 192 runs after the overnight record ninth-wicket partnership between Dhoni and Bhuvneshwar Kumar (38) produced 140 runs.

The likes of Ed Cowan (32), Michael Clarke (31) and Warner (23) tried their best but it was a near-impossible task to play a game of survival on a pitch that was deteriorating with the passage of every over.

Batting more than five sessions to save the Test match was a Herculean task but Shane Watson and Cowan showed intent during the first session.

Ashwin struck with the last ball before lunch. He invited Watson to play forwarded but ball took off the surface to hit the shoulder of his bat as Sehwag took the catch. However the post-lunch session spelt doom for the visitors as they lost four top-order batsmen during the session.

Henriques faced 124 balls hitting six fours and two huge sixes — one each off Ashwin and Harbhajan. The Portuguese born all-rounder used his feet well against the spinner and also defended well when it mattered.

The final session also started on a bright note when Ashwin got one to turn sharply as Clarke was trapped on the backfoot with a ball keeping low.

With the departure of Australian captain, there were some premature celebrations in the stands.

While Henriques looked confident at one end, Peter Siddle was bowled by Jadeja to make it seven down. However James Pattinson (11) provided some resistance which also helped Henriques to score a few runs in the process.

Finally, left-hander Pattinson became Ashwin’s fourth victim in the second innings as he edged one to Sehwag at slip. The senior opener took a judged catch low onto his left.

Mitchell Starc hit a couple of boundaries but didn’t show intent to stay back for a long period as he tried to loft Ashwin to give an easy catch to Tendulkar in the long-on region.

Once Starc was gone, Australia still needed 17 runs to avoid the follow-on but Henriques and Lyon fought well to live for another day.

It was extremely frustrating final hour for the Indians as Dhoni in his bid to complete formalities finally brought Ishant Sharma in the 76th over of the innings but the paceman failed to break the partnership.—Agencies

Scoreboard AUSTRALIA (1st Innings) 380 (M.J. Clarke 130, M.C. Henriques 68, D.A. Warner 59; R. Ashwin 7-103). INDIA (1st Innings, overnight 515-8): M. Vijay b Pattinson    10 V. Sehwag b Pattinson    2 C.A. Pujara b Pattinson    44 S.R. Tendulkar b Lyon    81 V. Kohli c Starc b Lyon    107 M.S. Dhoni c Wade b Pattinson    224 R.A. Jadeja b Pattinson    16 R. Ashwin b Lyon    3 Harbhajan Singh b Henriques    11 B. Kumar c Clarke b Siddle    38 I. Sharma not out    4 EXTRAS (B-14, LB-14, W-4)    32 TOTAL (all out, 154.3 overs)    572 FALL OF WKTS: 1-11, 2-12, 3-105, 4-196, 5-324, 6-365, 7-372, 8-406, 9-546. BOWLING: Starc 25-3-75-0 (2w); Pattinson 30-6-96-5 (2w); Siddle 24.3-5-66-1; Lyon 47-1-215-3; Henriques 17-4-48-1; Clarke 8-2-25-0; Warner 3-0-19-0. AUSTRALIA (2nd Innings): E.J.M. Cowan lbw b Ashwin    32 S.R. Watson c Sehwag b Ashwin    17 D.A. Warner lbw b Harbhajan    23 P.J. Hughes c Sehwag b Jadeja    0 M.J. Clarke lbw b Ashwin    31 M.S. Wade b Harbhajan    8 M.C. Henriques not out    75 P.M. Siddle b Jadeja    2 J.L. Pattinson c Sehwag b Ashwin    11 M.A. Starc c Tendulkar b Ashwin    8 N.M. Lyon not out    12 EXTRAS (B-11, LB-2)    13 TOTAL (for nine wkts, 84 overs)    232 FALL OF WKTS: 1-34, 2-64, 3-65, 4-101, 5-121, 6-131, 7-137, 8-161, 9-175. BOWLING (to-date): Ashwin 28-4-90-5; Harbhajan Singh 27-6-59-2; Jadeja 26-5-68-2; Sharma 3-1-2-0.