India thump Australia by 8 wickets to clinch series 2-1

Photo: AP

New Delhi: India completed the formalities by knocking off the remaining 87 runs with utmost ease to register a thumping 8 wicket win over Australia in the fourth Test at Dharamsala and thereby regaining the Border-Gavaskar Trophy by virtue of a 2-1 series win.

KL Rahul remained unbeaten on 51 with Rahane playing a blazing innings of 38 off 27 balls to give a grand finish to the home season.

Overnight openers KL Rahul and Murali Vijay started on a positive note with the former taking on Steve O’Keefe for two boundaries in his second over of the day. Steve Smith replaced the left-arm spinner with the seam of Pat Cummins, who removed Vijay. 

Pujara was then involved in a horrible mix up with Rahul which left him stranded in the middle. India were 46 for 2 when stand-in captain Rahane joined Rahul. Rahane stamped his authority straight away with two boundaries – one off the front foot and one on the back.

The captain brought Dharamsala crowd to their feet by slapping two consecutive sixes off Cummins, one by backing away and flat batting it over cover-point in total T20 style.

Rahul was unperturbed at the other end. He was particularly severe on anything short while reaching to his sixth half-century of the series – the most by any India opener against Australia in a series.

This is India’s fourth straight series win over Australia at home and also the fourth consecutive series win on the prolonged home season.  Out of the 13 matches of this home season, India have won 10 of those with a solitary defeat against Australia in Pune.

The series, which was by far the most evenly contested one between the two sides in recent times, made a decisive turn towards India on Day 3 of the Dharamsala Test. Jadeja scored 63 runs and also picked up 3 crucial wickets to leave Australia on tenterhooks. 

The contribution of Kuldeep Yadav was significant in this Test match. As it was the debutant who orchestrated a collapse in the Australian batting line up in the first innings by picking up 4 wickets to restrict them to 300.