Our sledging got under Aussie skin: Saha

Wriddhiman Saha has claimed India's sledging in the acrimonious Border-Gavaskar series got under the Australians’ skin and lead to their trophy-clinching fourth Test victory.

Australia began their second innings of the deciding final Test in Dharamsala trailing India by 32 runs, but quickly slumped to 3-31 inside 10 overs, losing wickets to the aggressive short-pitched bowling tactics of Umesh Yadav and Bhuvneshwar Kumar.

India went on to win the final Test by eight wickets and claim a 2-1 result in the series that had been at times fiery, and wicketkeeper Saha said aggressive "banter" from the hosts behind the wicket was key.

"Sledging is a part of Australia’s game. We know that. We were prepared for that," Saha told the Indian Express newspaper.

"But it’s not that they had an exclusive right over sledging.

"We also got into a bit of a banter; not only this series, but also when we went Down Under. We did it in Sri Lanka as well.

"It upset them. I think our banters made Steve Smith over-attacking in the second innings at Dharamsala."

Smith was the leading run-scorer in the series with 499 runs at 71.28, with three centuries from the four Tests. In the second innings at Dharamsala he clipped his first ball to the boundary.

In the ninth over of the innings he pulled a short ball to the square boundary, and crashed another square on the on-side. The third ball of the over was again short and wide of the off-stump and Smith opted to pull again, but a bottom edge saw the ball cannon into and flatten his stumps, the Australia captain dismissed for 17.

Saha singled out captain Virat Kohli along with batsmen Ajinkya Rahane, Cheteshwar Pujara and KL Rahul as the leading sledgers in the India camp, but added "I don’t do it".

"I just offer encouragement to my teammates, and just a few words here and there," he said.

The wicketkeeper also shed light on India's practice for using the Decision Review System, which the country had only recently agreed to use in Test cricket.

"The brief was clear, I would offer my view along with the bowler and then the captain would take a call," Saha said.

"There were times, when I was 100 per cent convinced and so was the bowler, but Virat wasn’t too sure. Then, there were times when Virat was convinced but I, Rahane from the first slip and the bowler were less certain.

"I insisted on taking a referral against Moeen Ali in Vizag despite the fact that he was way down the track against Jayant Yadav. But eventually we went for a review and won the leg before appeal.

"In some cases I erred also. No team can have a 100 per cent grip on the DRS. There has to be a difference between real time action and slow motion replays.

"For Australia, their DRS success rate had been close to 80 per cent before the incident in Bangalore.

"I don't know if they had been getting any external (dressing room) help. No one noticed. After Bangalore, however, their (DRS) success rate dropped considerably."