Champions! Aussies beat India to earn first WTC crown

Given his emergence as a bowling trump card capable of claiming multiple wickets in quick succession at the start of Australia's push for a maiden World Test Championship title, it was entirely fitting it was another Scott Boland burst of brilliance that sealed their emphatic win.

Boland's double strike that removed India's most destructive batter Virat Kohli for 49 half-an-hour into the final day, then prolific allrounder Ravindra Jadeja for a duck two balls later provided the defining moment of his team's 209-run triumph.

India had begun the last day of a see-sawing WTC decider needing a further 280 runs with seven wickets in hand to reach their distant target of 444, but the loss of two crucial batters in the blink of an eye inside the first hour put paid to that unlikely dream.

They were bowled out six minutes after the scheduled time for lunch on day five for 234 when last man Mohammed Siraj fell to ungainly reverse sweep off Nathan Lyon, completing a collapse in which they lost 7-55 from 23.3 overs today.

It was a deserved triumph for Pat Cummins' team who had been a dominant force in Test cricket over the two-year qualification period for the final, and were in charge for much of the preceding four days except for the opening session when India's decision to bowl first seemed prudent.

In the end, it was the solidity of Australia's batting and their potency with the ball at crucial times that proved the difference, although India had begun the final day holding bold hopes a miracle would be delivered.

However, the course of the final day altered irrevocably due to Boland's fourth over.

It began against the backdrop of rousing 'Kohli, Kohli' chants as India's talisman charted a watchful path on resumption, collecting just five singles from the first 15 balls faced as the former captain portrayed a picture of studied solidity.

But signs the tempo might be changing emerged on the first ball of Boland's pivotal over, which nipped away from the right-hander's proffered bat just enough to beat the outside edge.

So close, in fact, that Marnus Labuschagne stationed in front of point was convinced it had grazed the blade and convinced his captain it was worth further explanation.

The grin on Kohli's face as Australia burned the first of their three available reviews made the outcome glaringly apparent before it had been dismissed by third umpire Richard Kettleborough.

The crowd, sent delirious by another act of Australian profligacy, cheered again when Kohli allowed the next ball of similar length and width to pass harmlessly by before the game turned on its head.

Perhaps believing fate was in his corner, or maybe sensing his rivals were already clutching at straws in their search for a breakthrough, Kohli threw his hands at a wider offering from Boland in pursuit of his first boundary of the morning and instead headed back to the sheds.

The outside edge flew at such pace to the right of second slip that Steve Smith instinctively flung himself at its path although, by the time the ball arrived, he was able to safely clasp it in two hands and cushion it as he returned to earth.

The only noise discernible across an eerily becalmed Oval was the whoops of euphoria from the Australia fielders who embraced Smith and Boland, in celebration of the largest single impediment to their two-year quest.

"It was a big moment, we know how good Virat is and particularly chasing a total," Smith said.

"It was a huge moment, fortunately it stuck but it thought it was a great lead in by 'Baz' (Boland), a great spell where he beat the bat a couple of times and looked threatening.

"It opened the game up for us those couple of wickets, (Kohli) and Jadeja (who's) been batting nicely."

But the crowd rose again as the replacement batter emerged, with a defiant chorus of 'oooh, Ravi Jadeja' greeting the allrounder who holds veneration second only to Kohli among India fans.

Jadeja has regularly proved a thorn for Australia with both bat and ball, and Boland immediately switched around the wicket in the hope of finding the outside edge that had proved the left-hander's undoing in the first innings.

Australia's attack weapon took one delivery to find his range, with Jadeja offering no stroke, but then dropped it on a length that forced his quarry to push forward with sufficient nip off the seam to present a gleeful Alex Carey with a far more straightforward catch.

Hush descended again, the song that had broken out moments earlier replaced by an alternative karaoke-lyrics on the giant scoreboard that flashed 'Ravi Jadeja – 0'.

It was only the extra pace and bounce seemingly fuelled by adrenaline that robbed Boland of a third wicket in the over when wicketkeeper KS Bharat fended meekly at a ball that flew towards his right shoulder and parried a top edge above David Warner leaping skywards at slip.

Bharat's unease against the short ball cost him a fearsome blow to his batting helmet shortly after when he ducked into a Cummins bouncer, but after a mandatory concussion test and replacement of his much-needed protective hat he and Rahane tried to arrest the slide.

The pair fashioned a sixth-wicket stand of 33 from 57 balls as Mitchell Starc replaced Boland from the pavilion end and Cameron Green came on for Cummins, but there was no reprieve for the besieged batters.

Rahane's hope of reprising his innings-high knock of 89 from day three, having been recalled for his first Test appearance in 18 months in this game, was ended by Starc, whose extra pace induced a false stroke from the usually circumspect right-hander.

Rahane tried to drive through the off-side with bat angled and managed only a thick edge that flew to Carey, thereby formally ending any hope India might have held of somehow forcing a draw and sharing the prize.

From there, the end came at pace.

The defiance seam bowler Shardul Thakur showed to score 51 in the first innings amid a flurry of body blows in the first innings understandably went missing in the doomed second and he was trapped lbw by Nathan Lyon for a duck.

Umesh Yadav seemed so happy to get away from Starc's intimidatory short bowling he almost jogged off after gloving a bouncer to Carey, and Bharat's 77-minute defiance ended in suitably submissive fashion when he slogged Lyon high into the cobalt blue sky and was caught and bowled.

Australia's victory was sealed on the stroke of lunch, as players milled around Lyon who finished the innings as his team's most successful bowler with 4-41.

India's pursuit of history had began on a breathless London summer day, with the temperature already pushing to 24C when play began at 10.30am.

If the batting team and their squadron of wildly enthusiastic fans who swarmed into the ground in the hour before the first ball were searching for portents the burst of stifling heat in summer's second week seemed as promising as any other indicator.

That's because India were going to have to defy precedent on several fronts if they were to lift their first WTC crown at a second attempt.

Not only would they have to post the highest successful fourth innings run chase seen at The Oval since 1880 – the previous best was 263 set by England 120 years ago – they needed the biggest fourth innings score ever mounted at the famous ground that has hosted more than 100 Tests.

Compounding that degree of difficulty was the knowledge only once in Test history – when inaugural WTC champions New Zealand managed it at Trent Bridge in 1973 – has a team recovered after losing their first three fourth-innings wickets for less than 100 to add a further 350 runs to their final total.

Having slumped to 3-93 on Saturday evening, India required 351 more from their remaining batters to chase down their distant target and the unbroken stand between Kohli and Rahane that resumed on day five would have to account for a bulk of them.

Within half an hour, with the baying crowd silenced by Boland's double strike, that hope had melted into the morning heat.

World Test Championship Final

June 7-11: Australia beat India by 209 runs

Australia squad: Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey (wk), Cameron Green, Marcus Harris, Travis Head, Josh Inglis (wk), Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Todd Murphy, Michael Neser, Steve Smith (vc), Mitchell Starc, David Warner

India squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, Ishan Kishan (wk), KS Bharat (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Mohammad Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat

Find out everything you need to know for the World Test Championship Final here