Australia bowled out India inside the final hour of the fourth Test in Melbourne
to take a 2-1 lead in the dramatic series.
India required 340 to win at the start of the last day and looked on course to secure the draw when they reached tea time with only three wickets down.
But Rashibh Pant holed out to Mitchell Marsh on the boundary off Travis Head, the first of seven wickets to fall for 34 runs as they collapsed to 155 all out.
Pant (30) and opener Yashasvi Jaiswal, who was clearly unhappy when the third umpire adjudged he had gloved Pat Cummins to wicketkeeper Alex Carey for 84, provided the main resistance.
But no other Indian batter reached double figures as they subsided to a 184-run defeat.
Scott Boland struck twice before Nathan Lyon wrapped up the innings when he trapped Mohammed Siraj leg before as the last three wickets fell for five runs in three overs.
Australia will secure a place in the World Test Championship final to defend their title if they win the final Test
Lyon had been bowled by Jasprit Bumrah, who finished with 5-57, for 41 as Australia were dismissed for 234 at the start of the day.
The final match of the series for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy starts on Friday at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
Australia will secure a place in the World Test Championship final against South Africa to defend their title if they win the final Test.
Pat Cummins starred again and was named player of the Boxing Day Test
Cummins: One of best Tests I’ve been part of
Australia captain and player of the Test Pat Cummins:
“What an amazing Test match, I reckon one of the best I’ve been part of. All week the crowd has been ridiculous, and it’s been amazing to be part of.
“Winning the toss, it wasn’t easy on the first day, to get up to high 400s was terrific. We wanted to take an India victory out of the equation. We had plenty of runs to play with, and as many helmets around the bat as we could.
“Amazing innings from Steve (Smith) just showed how to bat on that wicket. He was brilliant, and some handy catches, sometimes that goes unnoticed in the slips.
“We put a lot of work into our lower-order batting, how best to bowl to the opposition batters, but also how we can contribute with the bat. We were a bit behind on over-rate, so thought, ‘Get Trav in there, it may help us out’. Very happy changing room, we’ll savour this before we get to Sydney.”
India captain Rohit Sharma:
“It is pretty disappointing. It’s not that we went in with the intent of giving up the fight. We wanted to fight till the end and unfortunately we couldn’t do it.
“It will be tough to assess just the last two sessions. If you look at the overall Test match, we had our chances, but we didn’t take them. We had Australia 90-6.
“We know things can get tough, but we want to play tough cricket from hard situations. I don’t want to look at one situation.
“We were not good enough. I went back to my room and thought about what else we could have done as a team, but we threw everything we had. But they fought hard, especially that last-wicket partnership, which probably cost us the game.
“We knew 340 wasn’t going to be easy. We tried to set a platform and keep wickets in hand for the last two sessions, but they bowled perfectly as well. We wanted to go for the target, but we didn’t set the platform from our side. There are ways to win games and we fell short in finding ways to win games.”