India won the Fourth Test Match against Australia by six wickets in Delhi. With this, India has completed the 4-0 series.
Australia scored 164 runs in which Ravindra Jadeja took five wickets, allowing Cheteshwar Pujara to score a marvellous 82 runs. On the other side, Indian squad scored a wonderful 272 runs. Spinner Nathan Lyon struggled to bring back Australia’s glory with a career-best 7-94. Peter Siddle’s 50 added to the difficulties as India achieved the 155-run target after losing four wickets. Lyon resumed where he left off on the 2nd day of the Test Match with the wickets of Virat Kohli and Sachin Tendulkar in the Indian second innings and took his total to nine for the Test.
Australian squad lost the Test match with a despondent series. The tourists expelled four of their players in the third Test. Among the expelled was the vice-captain Shane Watson for a breach of team discipline. This gave a serious blow to the Australian squad. It is also the first time that the Aussies have lost a 4-0 series since a defeat by South Africa in 1970. Michael Clarke, who suffered a back injury, was replaced with Watson who returned back to his team and represented his country for the first time. However the team selection process and the Test series result increased the intrigue regarding the Australian team’s travel to England to play the Ashes series in July.
The Indian squad, after scoring a mammoth run of 266, bowled out the Aussies for 262. The host squad had hardly settled before Lyon caught the last two wickets of Ishant Sharma and Pragyan Ojha with the first two balls of his first full over. The new ray of hope that Australian team got from a 10-run deficit, gradually faded away. Glenn Maxwell started batting instead of Ed Cowan but soon reached the pavilion in the fifth over for eight as Jadeja claimed his first wicket on an enthralling day. David Warner and Phil Hughes soon reached the pavilion before Watson was ousted by Pragyan Ojha for five and the Aussies collapsed to 94-7, with tail-end pace bowler Peter Siddle proving the sternest test. His 45-ball 50 then ended when he was stumped by Mahendra Singh Dhoni off Ashwin.
Australia tried to make the result more favourable when Lyon entrapped Tendulkar for one. On the other side, Pujara added instant runs as he guided Mahendra Singh Dhoni who hit the runs dramatically leading India to victory. Later, Dhoni received the Border-Gavaskar Trophy from both Sunil Gavaskar and Allan Border.
