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.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar ran through the top-order on Sunday evening to tilt the match towards India and then spinners bowled well in tandem to dismiss the remaining seven batsmen on Monday. But not before the last Australian pair - Mitchell Starc and Xavier Doherty - added 44 runs to stretch their lead to 132 runs.
India needed 133 runs from a minimum of 27 overs. It was going to be an interesting chase as India went for a tame draw when they needed 86 from 15 over but didn’t try.
In the absence of their first innings hero Shikhar Dhawan, who suffered a finger injury while fielding on Sunday. Cheteshwar Pujara opened the innings with Murali Vijay and set the stage for the much deserved win with a 42-run opening stand. When these two were batting, the target looked easily gettable.
But a commendable effort by Australian bowlers and extra-cautious approach of Indian batsmen, especially Dhoni, combined to take it towards nerve-wrecking end. Vijay, Pujara, Virat Kohli and Sachin Tendulkar all made handy scores but didn’t stay long enough to see India through.
When Dhoni came in to bat, India needed 30 off 56 balls. Dhoni’s struggle was so pronounced that he could manage only 6 runs from 25 balls and worse he couldn’t rotate the strike either putting pressure on Tendulkar, who batted well to score almost run a ball before getting run out.
When Ravindra Jadeja came in to bat, India needed 17 off 23 balls. His two shots which brought two crucial boundaries, proved to be defining in the end.
It gave confidence to Dhoni as well, he smashed Mitchell Starc for three successive boundaries to finish off the match.
For Australia, the fight that they put up in the dying hours of the match, came a little too late. But they can definitely take solace in the fact that they came very close to draw the match. However, it wouldn’t have been enough to save the series for them.