Australia started the third day of the second test with high hopes, but in less than four hours it had instead suffered another embarrassing batting collapse before India chased down a meagre total to win by six wickets before tea on Sunday.
Australia was 61-1 at the start of the day and looked to continue its batting counterattack from the previous evening. But instead it was India’s spinners who ran amok as the visitors crumbled to 113 all out with Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin taking all ten wickets.
Left-arm spinner Jadeja took career-best figures of 7-42 in a devastating spell but was aided by some poor shot selection by a panicked Australia batting lineup.
It was Jadeja’s 12th five-wicket haul in tests, as he picked up a match-haul of 10 wickets for 110 runs. His previous innings best was 7-49 against England at Chennai in 2016.
Making Australia’s morning collapse count, In-dia chased down the 115 runs it needed to take a 2-0 lead in the four-match series with 100-test veteran Cheteshwar Pujara smashing a four off Todd Mur-phy to end the match.—APP
