Australia has won the Boxing Day Test by 184 runs in a thrilling and sometimes controversial end to day five.
India needed 339 runs to win in its second innings after they knocked over Nathan Lyon early in the first session on Monday.
There where whispers the tourists had the ability to pull off what would have been a record victory, given the time remaining in the game and firepower of youngsters Yashasvi Jaiswal and Rishabh Pant.
The pair were able to put on a dangerous partnership, but Australia’s might with the ball — and some help from the DRS review system — proved too strong.
Pat Cummins (3/28) was named man of the match while MCG hero Scott Boland picked up three key wickets for Australia.
Nathan Lyon also contributed, knocking over first innings centurion Nitish Kumar Reddy for just one run and then claimed Mohammed Siraj LBW for the 10th and final wicket to spark wild scenes of celebration.
The home side now takes a 2-1 series lead into the final Test in Sydney next month and in the box seat to reclaim the Border-Gavaskar trophy after a 10-year wait.
Yashasvi Jaiswal has lit up the umpires after being dismissed in a controversial DRS decision.
The Indian opener has played beautifully to 84 but fell when he tried pulling Pat Cummins to the fence. He missed it and the ball deviated a large amount, giving the impression he scraped it with this glove.
Snicko didn’t pick up any vibration, but the third umpire decided to send him on his way. Jaiswal stuck around to give them a piece of his mind, walking backwards and talking loudly as the umpires tried to calm the situation.
“The third umpire did make the correct decision in the end. With the technology protocols, we do have a hierarchy of redundancy and when the umpire sees a clear deflection off the bat there is no need to go any further and use any other form of technology to prove the case,” former umpire Simon Taufel said on Channel Seven.
“The clear deflection is conclusive evidence. In this particular case what we have seen from the third umpire, is they’ve used a secondary form of technology, which for whatever reason hasn’t shown the same conclusive evidence of audio to back up the clear deflection.
“In the end the third umpire did the right thing and went back to the clear deflection and overturned the umpire field. So, in my view correct decision made.”
Australia is in the box seat to win from here.
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