Australia crush India by nine wickets, qualify for WTC final

There was no twist in the tale as Australia turned the tables on India with an emphatic ninewicket win in the third Test on a track that offered wicked turn and variable bounce confirming their place in the World Test Championship WTC final here FridayTravis Head 49 not out and Marnus Labuschagne 28 not out survived some anxious moments before getting Australia home in 185 overs as the match got over in little over two daysWins in India come rare for the visiting teams and it was no different for Australia who recorded their first victory on Indian soil in six yearsFor India it was only their third defeat in the last 10 years and they will need to rework their plans ahead of the final Test beginning in Ahmedabad from March 9The pitches in the series have also come under scathing criticism and it remains to be seen if Indias preference for spinfriendly tracks changes going ahead with the home team batters struggling badly to negotiate challenging conditionsIndia managed only 109 and 163 in their two inningsConsidering the way Australia had collapsed in second innings of Nagpur and Delhi anything was on the cards on Friday morningChasing a meagre 76 Australia were favourites but R Ashwin raised hopes of a miracle by getting Usman Khawaja caught behind in the second ball of the dayThe ball turned sharply and took a faint tickle on way to the wicketkeeper The wicket added to the nervousness in the Australian dressing roomLabuschagne eased some those nerves by square cutting Ravindra Jadeja for the first boundary of the dayAlso readFan Matthew Kuhnemann must wait till end of series to get tips from Ravindra JadejaBoth Labuschagne and Head who is known his attacking approach were looking to defend in the first 10 overs with Australia reaching 13 for oneHowever momentum changed decisively in favour of Australia after the ball change following the 10th overAshwin was not happy even after the change of ball and that reflected in his bowling Head smashed the star Indian spinner for a four and six over midon in the 11th over as the premier spinner was guilty of bowling too fullHead took the attack to Jadeja in the following over hitting one straight over the bowlers head and that also gave confidence to Labuschagne who went for the sweep in the same over to take the score 35 for one in 12 oversAfter that there was no looking back for the Australian duo who had gained enough confidence to go for their shotsLabuschagne hit the winning runs a four over midwicket to complete a memorable victoryThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever