A resurgent Australia wrapped up an emphatic 4-0 series humiliation of India on Saturday after sealing a 298-run win in the fourth and final Test at the Adelaide Oval. The end of another one-sided contest was swift with the Australians snapping up the final four wickets in an hour to skittle India for 201 and inflict an eighth away Test defeat on the trot for the demoralised tourists.
Despite the series drubbing, which comes after they were similarly hammered 4-0 in England last year, India, once rated the best in the world, cling on to third place on the ICC Test rankings by a decimal point over the hosts. “I said at the start of the series our goal was to win every Test match we played,” said skipper Michael Clarke, whose promotion to the top job at the expense of Ricky Ponting has resulted in a significant improvement.
“A lot of hard work has gone in to get this result. It looks convincing, the end result winning 4-0, but I can guarantee there were certainly a lot of tough times throughout this Test series,” said man-of-the-series Clarke. “We’ve played some really good cricket, we’ve played some very consistent cricket, and that’s very satisfying.” Australia’s dominance over a hugely disappointing India comes just a year after the Ashes series humiliation at home to England. There would be no repeat of that fiasco, however, as the hosts won by 122 runs in Melbourne in the first Test, an innings and 68 runs in Sydney and an innings and 37 runs in Perth, before the Adelaide annihilation. Australia’s bowlers, led by pacemen Ben Hilfenhaus (27 wickets) and Peter Siddle (23), put a huge hole in the reputations of India’s decorated batting lineup. In the end it was the eight-Test youngster Virat Kohli who topped the beleaguered tourists’ batting averages with 37.50. He scored the only century of the series for his team as the feted top order failed miserably. “It’s difficult to explain what went wrong,” stand-in India captain Virender Sehwag said. “We didn’t bat well, we didn’t give a good start as openers, hopefully we will do well in coming series.
