Australia clinched a knife-edge fifth Test against India in Sydney by six wickets to seal a riveting series 3-1 Sunday and book their place in the World Test Championship final.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
India were dismissed 45 minutes into the morning session of day three for 157, adding just 16 to their overnight 141-6 with the irrepressible Scott Boland ending with 6-45 and 10 wickets for the match.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Set 162 to win, the hosts reached the target before tea against an attack missing injured strike bowler Jasprit Bumrah to regain the Border-Gavaskar trophy for the first time since 2014-15.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Australia lost three wickets before lunch to leave the Test finely-poised, including Steve Smith who agonisingly fell just one short of becoming only the 15th player and fourth Australian to reach 10,000 Test runs.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
But Usman Khawaja hit a composed 41 before Travis Head (34 not out) and debutant Beau Webster (39 not out) steered them home.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Victory was enough to ensure they will defend their World Test Championship title in the June final at Lord's against South Africa.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
It culminated a thrilling tour full of twists and turns that saw record crowds and some spectacular individual performances.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
The five-Test series witnessed the emergence of exciting young talent in the form of Australian opener Sam Konstas and Indian all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
At the same time, ageing veterans, notably Rohit Sharma, showed that the clock is ticking on their careers.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
India won the first match in Perth convincingly before Australia bounced back in the day-night affair at Adelaide.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
The rain-hit Brisbane clash ended in a draw before the hosts took all the momentum into Sydney with a pulsating day-five win in Melbourne.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Indian pace spearhead and skipper Bumrah, who has been dealing with a back issue, batted briefly when his team resumed after bowling just one over and leaving the field on Saturday.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
But in a huge setback the 31-year-old did not appear again, leaving Mohammed Siraj and Prasidh Krishna to lead the bowling attack, with Virat Kohli in charge.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
It appeared to be a difficult run chase on a deteriorating surface offering plenty for the bowlers, but Konstas and Khawaja had other ideas.<\/p>\r\n\r\n They raced to 35 off the first three overs, with teenager Konstas hitting out.<\/p>\r\n\r\n It proved his downfall, unnecessarily lashing at a good length ball from Prasidh only to sky it to Washington Sundar at mid-off, out for 22.<\/p>\r\n\r\n Prasidh then knocked over Marnus Labuschagne for six, caught by Yashasvi Jaiswal at slip, with the same pair removing Smith on four, fending off a rising ball.<\/p>\r\n\r\n Veteran Khawaja, who had a poor series, produced some cracking boundaries on his way to 41, but he mistimed a pull shot off Siraj with wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant collecting the edge.<\/p>\r\n\r\n It gave India a glimmer of hope before Head and Webster took the game away.<\/p>\r\n\r\n India resumed after a counter-attacking 61 from Pant helped build their second-innings lead.<\/p>\r\n\r\n Ravindra Jadeja began on eight and Sundar on six after they dismissed Australia for 181 in reply to their first-innings 185.<\/p>\r\n\r\n Jadeja crunched an early boundary off Pat Cummins, but he was out two balls later, getting a faint nick to wicketkeeper Alex Carey, adding just five to his overnight score.<\/p>\r\n\r\n The Australian skipper struck again to bowl Sundar for 12.<\/p>\r\n\r\n That brought Bumrah to the crease and he could only watch as Siraj edged Boland to Khawaja at slip to give the big Australian his fifth wicket.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
\r\n- Glimmer of hope -<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n