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5 January 2025, 06:20 GMT
Border-Gavaskar Trophy: Fifth Test, day three, Sydney
India 185 (Pant 40; Boland 4-31, Starc 3-49) & 157 (Pant 61; Boland 6-45)
Australia 181: (Webster 57; Siraj 3-51, Krishna 3-42) & 162-4 (Head 34 not out, Webster 39 not out)
Australia win by six wickets
Australia raced to victory on day three of the Fifth Test in Sydney to beat India by six wickets and win the five-match series 3-1.
Fast bowler Scott Boland took 6-45 with India adding just 16 runs to their overnight score to be bowled out for 157.
India took three wickets before lunch despite captain Jasprit Bumrah being unable to bowl because of injury, but Travis Head and Beau Webster saw Australia to their target of 162 in just 27 overs to regain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
The result also sees Pat Cummins’ side qualify for the World Test Championship final at Lord’s in June, where they will face South Africa.
Virat Kohli, playing his last Test in Australia, led India in the field in Bumrah’s absence.
Opener Sam Konstas hit 22 off 17 deliveries as Australia made a fast start to their run chase, but his dismissal from a wild slog off Prasidh Krishna began an Australian wobble that saw the hosts also lose Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith to leave them on 58-3.
Smith’s dismissal for four left him one run short of 10,000 in Tests, but Head and Webster put on 58 to take Australia to their target, with debutant Webster hitting the winning runs off Washington Sundar.
Boland and Webster step up to see Australia home
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Boland had swung the Test in Australia’s favour with a superb spell on the second evening that was only slightly damaged by Rishabh Pant’s violent innings of 61.
The popular 35-year-old took the last wickets of India’s innings to give him 10 in the match, having Mohammed Siraj caught at slip and then bowling the struggling Bumrah when India’s captain missed a hoick.
Konstas gave Australia’s pursuit of 162 a predictably hectic start alongside Usman Khawaja until the impressive Krishna removed him, Labuschagne and Smith.
Khawaja calmed the nerves until he bottom-edged Siraj through to Pant, but Head and Webster smoothly ticked off the remaining runs.
All-rounder Webster capped a memorable debut, in which he scored 57 in the first innings and took a wicket as well as two catches, with a calm 39 not out.
Smith was left frustrated that his attempt to become the fourth Australian to pass 10,000 runs came up short, but with a Test series in Sri Lanka starting on 29 January, the former captain will not have to wait too long to join Allan Border, Ricky Ponting and Steve Waugh in passing the landmark.
Bumrah absence proves vital
India can only imagine what might have happened had Player of the Series Bumrah been fit to bowl on a wicket that was still tricky to bat on.
The 31-year-old was outstanding in claiming 32 wickets over the five Tests, and he would surely have had more had the Brisbane match not been affected by rain and had he not suffered a back spasm on the second day in Sydney.
Another what-might-have-been was the dismissal of Pant for 61 on day two, when another hour of the explosive left-hander would have set Australia a more testing target.
Siraj also impressed in taking 20 wickets in the series, but an expensive spell from the 30-year-old at the start of Australia’s run-chase gave the home side vital momentum against India’s depleted attack.
Kohli was fired up by the wickets of Labuschagne and Smith but he could do little to stop Australia’s victory push in his 18th and final Test appearance in the country.
