Australia 181: (Webster 57; Siraj 3-51, Krishna 3-42)
& 162-4 (Head 34 not out, Webster 39 not out)
Australia win by six wickets
Australia raced to victory on day three of the Fifth Test
in Sydney to beat India by six wickets and win the five-match series 3-1.
Fast bowler Scott Boland took 6-45 with India adding just 16
runs to their overnight score to be bowled out for 157.
India took three wickets before lunch despite captain
Jasprit Bumrah being unable to bowl because of injury, but Travis Head and Beau
Webster saw Australia to their target of 162 in just 27 overs to regain the
Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
The result also sees Pat Cummins' side qualify for the World
Test Championship final at Lord's in June, where they will face South Africa.
Virat Kohli, playing his last Test in Australia, led India
in the field in Bumrah's absence.
Opener Sam Konstas hit 22 off 17 deliveries as Australia
made a fast start to their run chase, but his dismissal from a wild slog off
Prasidh Krishna began an Australian wobble that saw the hosts also lose Marnus
Labuschagne and Steve Smith to leave them on 58-3.
Smith's dismissal for four left him one run short of 10,000
in Tests, but Head and Webster put on 58 to take Australia to their target,
with debutant Webster hitting the winning runs off Washington Sundar.
Boland and Webster step up to see Australia home
Boland had swung the Test in Australia's favour with a
superb spell on the second evening that was only slightly damaged by Rishabh
Pant's violent innings of 61.
The popular 35-year-old took the last wickets of India's
innings to give him 10 in the match, having Mohammed Siraj caught at slip and
then bowling the struggling Bumrah when India's captain missed a hoick.
Konstas gave Australia's pursuit of 162 a predictably hectic
start alongside Usman Khawaja until the impressive Krishna removed him,
Labuschagne and Smith.
Khawaja calmed the nerves until he bottom-edged Siraj
through to Pant, but Head and Webster smoothly ticked off the remaining runs.
All-rounder Webster capped a memorable debut, in which he
scored 57 in the first innings and took a wicket as well as two catches, with a
calm 39 not out.
Smith was left frustrated that his attempt to become the
fourth Australian to pass 10,000 runs came up short, but with a Test series in
Sri Lanka starting on 29 January, the former captain will not have to wait too
long to join Allan Border, Ricky Ponting and Steve Waugh in passing the
landmark.
Bumrah absence proves vital
India can only imagine what might have happened had Player
of the Series Bumrah been fit to bowl on a wicket that was still tricky to bat
on.
The 31-year-old was outstanding in claiming 32 wickets over
the five Tests, and he would surely have had more had the Brisbane match not
been affected by rain and had he not suffered a back spasm on the second day in
Sydney.
Another what-might-have-been was the dismissal of Pant for
61 on day two, when another hour of the explosive left-hander would have set
Australia a more testing target.
Siraj also impressed in taking 20 wickets in the series, but
an expensive spell from the 30-year-old at the start of Australia's run-chase
gave the home side vital momentum against India's depleted attack.
Kohli was fired up by the wickets of Labuschagne and Smith
but he could do little to stop Australia's victory push in his 18th and final
Test appearance in the country.
'Series lived up to the hype' - reaction
Australia captain Pat Cummins: "It has been
an amazing series, it has been in the calendar for a while, one you've had your
eye on it for a year or two. It has lived up to all the hype.
"I am immensely proud, we have spent a lot of time
together as a group over the years. We knew we were not at our best at Perth,
but it is never as bad as it seems. We doubled down on what makes us a good
side, and had a lot of fun along the way as well.
"We talk about needing a squad, especially in these
five match series, you rarely play the same 11. Three debutants came in and
contributed at different times, it feels like we are building something nice.
"There were some key moments from some of our mainstays
who really stood up, and you need that to beat a side like India and in those
key moments those guys put their hands up."
India captain Jasprit Bumrah: "There are
lots of ifs and buts. The whole series was well fought and today as well we
were in the game, so it was not like it was totally one-sided.
"This is how Test cricket goes in those moments when
whatever team holds their nerve for the longest time, sticks together and tries
to find a way out of that will win the series.
"It was a great series, congratulations to Australia,
they fought really well for a well-deserved win."
