New Delhi: India created history by beating Australia by six wickets at Feroz Shah Kotla ground as they won the series 4-0 here on Sunday. After the Indian spinners had restricted the visitors for 164, with an overall second innings lead of 154, Cheteshwar Pujara came up with an astonishing knock of 82 runs on a pitch that had vicious bounce and turn to hand over India a comprehensive win.
Kotla had always been a happy hunting ground for India and this time as well, it wasn't different. The third day of the final Test was completely dominated by Indian spinners. India outplayed the Australians in all the departments and this series victory will always be remembered for India's team efforts led by youngsters in the side.
India showed their sheer domination as they winded up the last match in less than three days . Some mind-boggling performances from Ravindra Jadeja, who picked up his first five wicket haul and did well to restrict Australia to a relatively low total of 154 runs on the board and Chetashwar Pujara, who played some fascinating strokes and displayed his high-quality of batting, were the highlights of Kotla match.
The final session of the day turned out to be the exciting as Australia picked up three wickets but that just wasn’t good enough to save them a white-wash. After Murali Vijay departed cheaply, Pujara and Virat Kohli made batting look easy on a tough wicket. Pujara batted brilliantly and reached his half-century in just 54 balls. But twist in the tale came in the 24th over when Nathan Lyon got Virat Kohli out who was looking very good at 41. However, Kohli had done his job as he added 104 runs for the second wicket with Pujara. Kohli's fall brought Sachin Tendulkar on to the crease but the Master fell to Lyon in his very next over. Ajinkya Rahane didn’t stay for the long either and got out to Glenn Maxwell for just one run.
However, Pujara kept his calm and started rebuilding the Indian innings with Indian skipper MS Dhoni, who came out to bat with just 26 runs needed to win the match. Pujara smashed couple of boundaries to ease off the pressure and it was Mahendra Singh Dhoni who finished off the match with his trademark boundary. It took India just 30.3 overs to chase down the target.
Earlier , Peter Siddle scored a brilliant half-century and took Australia to a fighting total of 154 on a wicket which was spinner's paradise. With his second half-century, he became the first number nine batsman to achieve this feat. Australia resumed their innings from 89/5 but Ravindra Jadeja bowled out Steve Smith and Mitchell Johnson with consecutive balls and put the Australian side under some serious pressure.
Peter Siddle came out to face Jadeja on the hat-trick ball and started on a positive note by picking up a couple of runs. Though Siddle was running out of partners at the other end, he kept his aggressive intent and kept the scoreboard ticking. Within no time, Australia passed the 150 mark and were looking good to touch the score of 175-180 but Ishant Sharma got James Pattinson bowled at the score of 11 runs. Very soon, star of the Australian innings, Peter Siddle also departed. Ravichandran picked up his wicket by bowling a wide delivery which Siddle missed and Dhoni did no mistake in taking the bails in a matter of seconds. Australia was all out for 164 in their second innings.
Earlier, India could add just six runs to the overnight score of 266/8. Nathan Lyon took the last two wickets and got Ishant Sharma and Pragyan Ojha bowled in consecutive deliveries.
However, Ravindra Jadeja came up with some brilliant bowling to dismiss the Australian opening pair of Glenn Maxwell and David Warner in the very start of second innings. Philip Hughes' struggle continued against the Ashwin as he trapped him in front of the leg-stump. Soon Ojha dismissed the Australian captain Shane Watson for just five runs and Australians were under some serious trouble. Ed Cowan was looking good and smashed five boundaries before he got out at 24. He was dismissed by Jadeja as the ball took the sharp turn and went on to hit the pads.