(Cricket news) India were on a spot of bother after yesterday as they bid to defend 75 runs on the third day of the Indore Test. India started on the right note with R Ashwin getting Khawaja out off the second delivery of the day. After he got one to rip past Usman Khawaja’s outside edge in the first ball, he bowled an even better delivery which had him caught behind off the next ball. Khawaja took a  review which went in vain, but that subsequently proved to be India’s only moment of joy on the final day of the 3rd Test match.

But Travis Head and Marnus Labuschagne made sure that they kept a tight leash for over ten overs by Ravindra Jadeja and Ashwin. The duo began to get into their rhythm and started to find a good measure of the spinners after settling in. Travis Head began to take charge by taking on Ashwin which was backed up by Labuschagne as he took on Jadeja as well. The sudden run flow put the spinners off and also got the ball changed at the tenth over mark. But even as Ashwin operated from one end, Australia began to press the accelerator and finish the match quickly

Head then took on Umesh Yadav through the cover area for another boundary to get close to a fifty but before he couldn’t have a shot at it as Labuschagne finished the game off by lofting Ashwin over mid wicket. The win was extremely important for Australia, their first win of the series, which only condemned India to their third home defeat in six years, two of which have come against Australia under the captaincy of Steve Smith. Most importantly the victory sealed Australia’s position in the World Test Championship final at the Oval in June this year.

Brief Scores: India 109 (Virat Kohli 22; Matthew Kuhnemann 5-16, Nathan Lyon 3-35) and 163 (Cheteshwar Pujara 59; Nathan Lyon 8-64) lost to Australia 197 (Usman Khawaja 60, Marnus Labuschagne 31; Ravindra Jadeja 4-63, R Ashwin 3-44, Umesh Yadav 3-12) and 78/1 (Travis Head 49*) by 9 wickets

Also read: WTC: India need to win last game to qualify for WTC final