Jasprit Bumrah led the way with the ball as India registered their most dominant Test victory on Australian soil, winning the first Test by a massive 295 runs in Perth on Monday.
Bumrah claimed a match-haul of 8/72 as India bowled out Australia, who were in pursuit of a mammoth 534, for 238 in 58.4 overs on the fourth afternoon of the opening Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series.
Skipper Jasprit Bumrah (3/42) and Mohammed Siraj (3/51) did most of the damage while Washington Sundar (2/48), Nitish Reddy (1/22) and Harshit Rana (1/69) played the support act to perfection in the second innings.
India had set Australia a mammoth 534-run target on Day 3.
The victory propelled India back to the top of the World Test Championship standings with 61.11 percentage points.
India’s previous biggest winning margin in terms of runs was 222 during a 1978 game in Sydney when Australia played an under-strength side due to mass exodus for the Kerry Packer World Series.
India are now 1-0 up in the five-Test series with regular skipper Rohit Sharma ready to take over in the Day/Night game, starting December 6 in Adelaide.
The in-form Travis Head (89) put up stiff rsistance but he was dismissed by Bumrah with a delivery that was pitched on length and just kept on climbing as the batter went on a compulsive drive only to edge it behind stumps. Bumrah’s exalted celebration said it all.
Mitchell Marsh (47) was also batting well before Reddy capped a good Test match with a delivery that didn’t give the batter enough room to cut and the inside edge was dragged on to the stumps.
Australia’s most dependable batter in this WTC cycle Alex Carey (36) kept frustrating the visitors but Washington removed Mitchell Starc (12) at stroke of tea.
Earlier, Mohammed Siraj bowled a couple of incisive morning spells to dismiss the seasoned Usman Khawaja and out-of-form Steven Smith as Australia gasped to 104 for 5 at lunch.
Chasing a near-impossible target of 534, Australia, resuming on 12 for 3, were reduced to 17 for 4 when Khawaja’s mistimed pull off Mohammed Siraj (3/34 in 10 overs) was well taken by the IPL’s three million dollar man Rishabh Pant, running backwards.
India’s new nemesis Travis Head (63 batting, 72 balls) then started counter-punching in the company of Smith (17), who was trying his best to dig in with desperation and come out of his current rut.
However Siraj, who had poor series against New Zealand at home, was all over the Australian batters on a pitch that has ‘misbehaved’ considerably with variable bounce coming into play.
If Khawaja was out to a delivery that got big on the southpaw opener, Smith got one that was pitched on perfect length and deviated enough to kiss his outside edge and Pant completed the formalities, diving to his right and ending a 62-run stand.
Smith and Marnus Labuschagne’s dip in form during this World Test Championship cycle is a major cause for concerns for the hosts.
Smith, in fact, did away with his trigger movement towards the off-stump. knowing fully well that he could be a leg before candidate whenever the Indian bowlers attack the stumps on a pitch with variable bounce.
Head, who got a beauty from Harshit Rana in the first innings, knew that survival wasn’t an option on a deteriorating track and he did not let the loose balls go unpunished as anything pitched up was driven and the short ones were cut disdainfully.
His fifty, off only 63 balls, came with a perfect ramp shot over the keeper’s head.