India registered an emphatic victory on the Australians as the visitors were crushed under an astronomic 172-run defeat. Chasing 382 for victory, Australia were all out at 209. Matthew Hayden was their only ray of hope today which failed to spark into a victory. With this victory, India won the series by 2-0 and the Border-Gavaskar Trophy now rests with the Indian team after they lost it four years back on the same Nagpur ground.

Australia never looked in a mood to win the game. After India were down for 166-6 yesterday, completely baffled by Watson-Lee duo, Ponting introduced part-time spinners into attack who were mauled for runs, effectively letting go of the chance that came knocking to them. Today, Matthew Hayden played in full feel as he blasted a thunderous 77 off 93 balls but had no one to assist him in the uphill task of reaching 382. In a bid to score runs fast, Australia lost Katich (16), Ponting (8) and unwell Clarke (22) before they touched 100. The defeat became inevitable when Hayden was dismissed at a total of 154. Haddin followed Hayden and became Sachin Tendulkar’s 100th test catch. The revelry grew rife as Harbhajan dismissed Watson (11) as the last man.

This was Sourav Ganguly’s last test match and skipper MS Dhoni ceded captaincy to the outgoing Bengal Tiger in a gesture of respect and admiration.

India suffered several dropped catches and an ignored lbw appeal before they finally finished the tourists’ game. Australia lost 7 wickets in a space of 59 runs where Harbhajan led the pack with 4-64 with Amit Mishra’s 3-27 and Man of the Series Ishant Sharma’s 2-31.

This series victory is India’s first on Australia in the last 7 years and comes as a sweet revenge of the narrow 2-1 loss they faced in Australia earlier this year. At the same time, this is Australia’s first series defeat after they lost the Ashes in 2005 in Australia.

Jason Krejza was adjudged the Man of the Match as he clinched 12 wickets in his debut match.

Ricky Ponting has drawn tons of flak over his bowling tactics and has more than a lost series to lament upon.

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3.25 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."

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