Australia finally got a breakthrough when Cummins managed to get a length ball outside the off-stump to hold its line and induced an edge off Vijay’s bat. The catch was duly taken by Matthew Wade and Vijay departed for 8, leaving India on 46/1.
The visitors got a double breakthrough in the same over as Cheteshwar Pujara did everything possible to get himself run out for a duck. Pujara dabbed one close to the fielder at point and ran for a single to get off the mark, mid-way on to the crease he stopped and then started again. That was window enough for Glenn Maxwell to break the stumps down with a direct hit and suddenly the hosts were down to 46/2.
Stand-in-captain Ajinkya Rahane came out and calmed the nerves in the dressing room by hitting Pat Cummins for two back to back boundaries. The first one, a copybook straight drive and the other a perfectly timed pull shot.
Rahane continued in his hard hitting fashion, tonking Pat Cummins to back to back sixes to make his intentions clear. KL Rahul hit the winning runs and in the process also brought uphis sixthhalf-century of the series.
Earlier, debutant Kuldeep Yadav’s four-wicket burst had helped the hosts restrict the visitors to 300 in the first innings despite Steven Smith (111) scoring his 20th Test century and his third in the series.
The hosts had most of their top order batsmen contributing but Nathan Lyon picked up a crucial five-wicket haul to restrict India to 332 in their first innings. The slender lead of 32-runs taken by India was possible because of Ravindra Jadeja’s cavalier knock of 63 down the order.
Australia collapsed in the second innings with Indian pacemen Umesh Yadav and Bhuvneshwar Kumar picking up crucial top order wickets and the spin duo of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja doing the damage down the order as the tourists were bowled out for 137.
This is Virat Kohli’s ninth consecutive series win across all formats, which is a record extending feat for the young captain, having already surpassed his predecessor MS Dhoni’s record of seven consecutive series victories.
