India retain Border-Gavaskar Trophy after another three-day romp

NEW DELHI :India hammered Australia inside three days for the second time in a fortnight to retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy on Sunday and are on the verge of qualifying for the World Test Championship (WTC) final in June.

Ravindra Jadeja, who claimed a career-best 7-42, and Ravichandran Ashwin bowled unchanged in the morning session, engineering a spectacular batting collapse that left India needing 115 runs to go 2-0 up in the four-test series.

India's top order did wobble but the meagre target meant their victory, which came in the second session, was never in doubt.

Captain Rohit Sharma made 31 and Cheteshwar Pujara, playing his 100th test, contributed the same number of runs, including the boundary that sealed victory.

Rohit, with his assured footwork and sweet timing, showed how to play spin on such tracks with a 20-ball cameo before being run out after a big mix-up with Pujara.

"Fantastic result for us," Rohit said.

"Looking at how things were yesterday. How we came back and finished the job was a great effort, particularly from the bowlers."

There was no sign of the impending mayhem when Australia resumed on 61-1 and Travis Head (43) slapped the third ball of the day from Ashwin to the boundary to signal his intention.

AUSTRALIA IMPLODED

What followed was 90 minutes of madness in which Australia imploded and they were bowled out for 113 half an hour before lunch.

Only Head and Marnus Labuschagne (35) managed double digits as the Australian batters capitulated to the guile of India's spinners.

Some, like Steve Smith and Alex Carey, tried to sweep their way out of the trouble only to fall lbw or bowled.

Ashwin (3-59) wrecked Australia's top order before Jadeja ran through the bottom half for a match haul of 10 wickets to