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Australia COLLAPSE to an embarrassing defeat against India after being knocked out on 90 minutes, with Ravindra Jadeja taking seven wickets as hosts retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy
- India won the second Test of the series in Delhi by six wickets on Sunday
- Australia resumed at 1-61 but collapsed to 113 in the morning session
- India retain Border-Gavaskar Trophy after taking a 2-0 series lead
Australia’s hopes of conquering the final frontier were dashed after they were crushed by ruthless sensational Indian spinoffs Ravi Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin for the second time in a week.
India will retain the Border-Gavaskar trophy for the fourth time in a row after winning the second Test in Delhi by six wickets to take an unbeatable 2-0 lead in the four-match series.
After losing in less than three days in the series opener in Nagpur, Australia suffered another collapse in their second innings to set India on course for a comfortable victory.
In a rapidly deteriorating third-day field at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, India had little trouble reaching the 115-run target as Cheteshwar Pujara (31 not) scored the winning runs in his 100th Test.
India remains unbeaten in the Tests in its stronghold in the nation’s capital since 1987.
Australia collapsed in a six wicket defeat against India in the second test in Delhi.
Ravindra Jadeja (centre) finished with a career best of 7-42 as India went on a rampage
Jadeja took three wickets in a devastating spell that saw Australia lose 4-0 in 11 balls
After flying to India full of confidence that they could claim the Border-Gavaskar trophy for the first time since 2004, Australia’s tour has imploded in less than six days of cricket.
Since a team led by Adam Gilchrist and Ricky Ponting greeted India 19 years ago, Australia have won just one, in Pune in 2017, of the 16 Tests they have contested in the country.
Despite being the No. 1 Test team in the world, Australia are still unsure of reaching the World Test Championship final in June if they lose this series 4-0 and other results go against them.
Australia’s hopes of securing the trophy caught fire during a chaotic 90 minutes of batting on Sunday when Jadeja, with a career-best 7-42 record, and Ashwin (3-59) went on a rampage.
After starting the third day in Delhi holding a 62-run lead with nine wickets in hand, Australia looked on their way to building a winning lead looking to level the series at 1-1.
But Jadeja and Ashwin quickly destroyed the Australian line-up, sparking a carnage similar to that seen in the first Test in Nagpur.
Australia went from 1-61 overnight to a total of 113 in less than one session, setting India a target of just 115 to win.
After appearing to be handling the difficult conditions at 2-85, the tourists lost 8-28 in one of the worst collapses by an Australian Test team.
Australia lost 4-0 in 11 balls to fall from 3-95 to 7-95 in a devastating spell before drinks on Sunday morning.
Steve Smith (centre) was out for nine as Australia lost nine wickets in the morning session
Ravi Ashwin (right) took three wickets as India edged past the Australians in just 90 minutes
Travis Head (right) resumed at 41 but could only add two runs before going out
The tourists lost three wickets in as many balls, one to Ashwin and two to Jadeja, as Matt Renshaw, Peter Handscomb and captain Pat Cummins were unable to contain India’s spinning brilliance.
Handscomb caught an unplayable pitch from Jadeja, but Cummins’ shot was a wild swing, like a Twenty20, to a ball that crashed into his stumps.
Given his first chance to start in Test cricket after David Warner was substituted with concussion on Saturday, Travis Head (43) added just four to his score of the night before Ashwin in the last ball of the first over .
Marnus Labuschagne (35) and Steve Smith looked strong in the crease for a brief spell, but once the latter went down, Australia collapsed on a rapidly deteriorating pitch.