It turned out a gloomy start to the New Year for Indian cricket fans after a gritty Australia bounced back strongly from a comprehensive loss in the series opener in Perth to reclaim the Border-Gavaskar Trophy by a 3-1 margin after a decade, besides confirming their title defence of the World Test Championship against South Africa at the Lord’s in June.

India’s hopes of staying in contention for the WTC final were dashed on the third day of the fifth and final Test of the series with the Kangaroos putting up yet another clinical display at the Sydney Cricket Ground to wrap up the series with a six-wicket victory on Sunday.

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Australia’s passage to the WTC final was in a way aided by the absence of India’s pace ace Jasprit Bumrah on day three due to back spasm, as the hosts recovered from another top order wobble to successfully hunt down 162 on an SCG pitch that offered surprising bounce and movement until the end with the series’ highest run-getter Travis Head (34 not out) fittingly finishing things off in the company of debutant Beau Webster, who hit the winning boundary through mid-off to finish 39 not out in an unconquered 58-run fifth-wicket stand.

Bumrah, who had left the field on the second day for scans, did return to bat briefly on day three but wasn’t fit to bowl, and that feeling could haunt him for the rest of his international career or beyond, even though he was adjudged the Player of the Series for ending up with most wickets (32 at 13.06) by an Indian bowler on a tour of Australia.

In the absence of the 31-year-old, the Indian attack was left to fend on its own as Mohammed Siraj and Prasidh Krishna leaked as many as 12 extras in their first two overs of Australia’s chase, before Krishna tightened up and took three wickets, including that of Steven Smith, India desperately missed Bumrah’s accuracy in the middle.

Earlier in the day, the batters didn’t make it any easier for India’s depleted attack as India lost 4 for 16 in 7.5 overs on the third morning to fold for 157. Scott Boland, who rose from obscurity of a back-up pace option to a first choice quick following the injury to Josh Hazlewood, bagged his first 10-wicket haul in professional cricket to trigger India’s collapse. Having taken four wickets on the opening day at the SCG, Boland added six to his tally – his second five-for in Test cricket since his 6 for 7 on debut.

Australia skipper Pat Cummins led his troops from the front at the start of the day by dismissing the overnight pair of Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar, before Boland had Siraj caught at first slip and castled Bumrah in the 40th over to wrap up India’s innings.

In response, the Australia openers took full advantage of the wayward lines from India’s new-ball pair of Siraj and Krishna, running away to 39 for no loss by the fourth over before Prasidh raised hopes of a turnaround when he had Sam Konstas miscuing a slog to mid-off for 22 off 17 balls.

The 28-year-old jolted the hosts for a second time when he had Marnus Labuschagne steering a catch to Yashasvi Jaiswal at gully, before stretching Smith’s wait to scale 10,000 Test runs by one run, and reduce Australia to 58 for 3.

India had to wait until after lunch to get rid of opener Usman Khawaja, who misjudged Siraj’s length, bottom-edging a pull to Rishabh Pant for 41 off 45 balls. With the hosts still needing 58 runs, Khawaja’s wicket triggered a brief celebration from the Indians with stand-in skipper Virat Kohli animatedly pumping his fist.

However, the joy soon evaporated with the arrival of Head and Webster as the duo successfully navigated the challenge to snatch the Border-Gavaskar Trophy from India’s cabinet.

Brief Scores: Australia 181 (Webster 57, Prasidh 3-42, Siraj 3-51) and 162 for 4 (Khawaja 41, Webster 39 not out, Head 34 not out, Prasidh 3-65) beat India 185 (Pant 40, Boland 4-31, Starc 3-49) and 157 (Pant 61, Boland 6-45, Cummins 3-44) by six wickets.