So what if the inevitable was delayed. Ultimately, the historic moment arrived. India beat Australia within four days — first day was washed out — and with it regained the Border-Gavaskar Trophy with a historic 3-0 lead over Australia with one match still to go. In their 81-year-old Test history, India have never beaten Australia more than twice in a series.
There were some nervous moments for India in the middle as they nearly botched up the easy looking chase, but in the end, everything fell in place. Chasing the second innings target of 133 runs, the hosts reached home with six wickets intact and 15 balls to spare in the third Test at the Punjab Cricket Association Stadium here on Monday.
Quite befittingly, India sealed the insurmountable 3-0 lead over Australia with three consecutive boundaries by skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who played all too important innings in the first Test in Chennai to set the tone for this historic win.
This was the first time that India won three Tests in a series since Mohammad Azharuddin's side blanked Sri lanka in 1993-94. Also, this is the first time that Australia lost the first three Tests of the series since 1988-89 when Allan Border led his emerging side to a 3-1 defeat at home against West Indies.
In the morning, it was a familiar site watching Australian batting crumble against Indian spinners. With three batsmen already back in the pavilion, the visitors' only hope to save the match was to bat out the whole day — a difficult task taking into account the fact that it was a fifth day (fourth day if you exclude the first day) pitch. The late-order resistance puts a question mark on the health of Australian middle-order. last three wickets added 97 runs for Australia. And just for the record, the last three wickets added 157 runs in the first innings as well.
In those hard moments, luck too seemed escaping the visitors with a couple of close calls going against them and Phillip Hughes (69), the top scorer of Australia's second innings, falling to a bad decision.