Decade first: Australia win Border-Gavaskar Trophy

Australia now holds every bilateral Test prize for which their men's team competes, and have earned a chance to defend the World Test Championship after their six-wicket win over India saw the Border-Gavaskar Trophy return to their grasp for the first time since 2017.

Set a challenging victory target of 162 on an SCG pitch that offered surprising bounce and movement until the end, Australia survived another top-order wobble to complete their 3-1 series win shortly before 2.30pm on day three.

Fittingly, series leading runs scorer Travis Head was unbeaten in the middle on 34 as allrounder Beau Webster completed a memorable Test debut by slapping the winning boundary through mid-off to finish 39no in an unconquered 58-run fifth-wicket stand.

Australia had set up their first series win against India since 2014-15 by ripping through the visitors this morning, with the angst presented by the seemingly gettable pursuit noticeably lessened by the absence of India's best bowler Jasprit Bumrah.

The precise nature of the injury that prevented Bumrah from bowling on days two and three remains unknown beyond 'back spasms' but without their strike weapon and talisman, India presented a significantly reduced threat under substitute skipper Virat Kohli.

In what seems certain to be his final Test tour to Australia, Kohli congratulated both not out Australia batters when victory was achieved and offered a handshake and cursory hug to teenage rival Sam Konstas at game's end.

Australia's victory, having come from 0-1 down after India landed a thumping win in the series opener at Perth, means they qualify for the WTC Final against South Africa at Lord's in June, where they defend the title they won against India in 2023.

And it was a win they were forced to achieve the hard way, on the toughest track of a compelling five-Test campaign played in front of record crowds including 46,263 today for a three-day match aggregate of 141,518.

The difficulties presented by an atypical SCG pitch were highlighted by the fact this match produced the lowest four-innings aggregate at the ground for a completed Test since the final game of the 1978-79 Ashes summer.

It was also the first Test played anywhere in Australia since the Ashes opener at the Gabba in 1990-91 in which no team has managed to reach 200.

But it will never be known if India might have been able to defend that fourth-innings target 162 on such a tricky surface if their stand-in skipper, and the bowler who had scythed through Australia's batting in every previous Test this summer, had been able to take the ball.

Certainly the evidence provided by Scott Boland – the relentlessly accurate right-armer who presented a similar threat to Bumrah throughout this game – suggested batting on day three would have been an altogether tougher assignment if India had a full complement of bowlers.

In cleaning up the final two India scalps from his 3.5 overs this morning, Boland completed not only his maiden 10-wicket haul in Test cricket but the first of his first-class career which stretches back to 2011.

The only time he's bettered the 6-45 he secured today was his famous debut outing at the MCG in 2021 when he grabbed 6-7 against England, and he now holds a notable place in Australia's bowling pantheon.

Of bowlers to have claimed 50 or more Test wickets, only legendary 19th Century quick Charles 'Terror' Turner (101 at 16.53) has done so at a lower average than Boland's current mark of 56 at 17.66.

Boland also completed the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series as Australia's second-highest wicket-taker with 21 at 13.19 despite playing just three of the five matches, behind Cummins who snared 25 (at 21.35) from five appearances.

Both those efforts were shaded by Bumrah's extraordinary 32 at 13.06, and the potency and presence he brought to India's bowlers could not have been better highlighted than the initial efforts of new-look new-ball pairing Mohammed Siraj and Prasidh Krishna.

Battling his own injury issues, Siraj's first over settled Australia's early nerves as he conceded five wides with a wayward delivery down leg side and struggled to find the probing off-stump line and length that had rewarded Australia's quicks.

Khawaja opened his scoring when he latched on to a short ball, albeit with a top-edged pull that ballooned over square leg, while his opening partner Sam Konstas maintained his kamikaze method despite the enemy it was designed to disrupt already being vanquished.

When Konstas danced down the pitch and lofted the final ball to the extra cover boundary, Siraj had conceded 13 and worse was to follow when Prasidh took up the cudgels.

As if copying Siraj's flawed template, he sent two balls spearing down the leg side giving keeper Rishabh Pant no chance of stopping them with the first bringing three wides and the next a costly four byes.

The 26 runs conceded – 14 off the bat and the balance in extras – was the most India have coughed up from the first two overs of an innings in their Test history.

But even though Kohli had been forced to spread the field given the paucity of runs at his disposal, thereby opening gaps Australia's openers might safely exploit, Konstas continued his death-or-glory method and ultimately perished for 22.

The extravagant heave he aimed at Prasidh as he stepped back towards leg flew from the top edge to mid-off where Washington Sundar completed the catch to provide India with belief against the run of play.

That grew exponentially four overs later when Marnus Labuschagne looked to steer a short, wide delivery from Prasidh towards third but unerringly picked out the gully fielder as if providing catching practice.

The stage was thus set for Smith to find the five runs that had eluded him in Australia's first innings, and thereby join Ricky Ponting, Allan Border and Steve Waugh in the exclusive 10,000 Test-runs club.

He pocketed two of those from the second ball he faced from Siraj that he tucked through the leg side in characteristic fashion as he shuffled across the stumps.

Smith remained three away from the coveted milestone when he was struck on the pads by Prasidh, prompting an India review after it was adjudged not out only for the ball tracking evidence to confirm it had struck him outside the line of off stump.

Two balls later, the former Australia skipper looked to have crested the hill when he glided Prasidh past point but opted not to risk a third run only to receive a rising delivery next up that he fended to gully where Yashasvi Jaiswal scooped up the chance diving forward.

Smith could not believe he had missed the moment to achieve such a rare achievement in front of a near-full house at his home ground, with the celebration delayed until Australia's next Test outing against Sri Lanka at Galle later in the month.

He also ensured he becomes a cricket trivia question for generations to follow as the only Test batter to be dismissed twice in the 9,990s and just the second – after Sri Lanka's Mahela Jayawardene – to lose his wicket when on 9,999 Test career runs.

At 3-58 and having lost three batters for the addition of 19 runs in barely six overs, the spectre of another top-order implosion suddenly loomed large even though Bumrah remained off the field and India's auxiliary bowlers were battling.

However, Khawaja and Head calmly negotiated a nervy 15 minutes before lunch and then picked up the scoring rate up resumption as Australia's 100 was posted in the 18th over.

Khawaja appeared increasingly comfortable as he followed a cracking cut shot with a sumptuous cover drive for boundaries but – in keeping with the theme of the series, and particularly this final Test – the bowlers struck back.

It was Siraj who secured the breakthrough, with the bottom-edge he induced from Khawaja's favoured pull shot landing the combative right-armer his 100th Test wicket in his 36th outing for India.

With a further 58 required and sufficient life in the SCG track to ensure no batter could relax, India eyed a last chance at another backs-to-the-wall triumph that would keep the Trophy in their gasp when debutant Webster arrived at the crease.

If the visitors could knock over the new boy and then keeper Alex Carey in quick succession, they would be into the bowlers with significant runs still required.

But Webster showed ice calm in just his second innings, surviving an lbw review amid clubbing six boundaries including the winning blow that saw both he and Head stand and roar mid-pitch with arms outstretched before embracing in triumph.

NRMA Insurance Men's Test Series v India

First Test: India won by 295 runs

Second Test: Australia won by 10 wickets

Third Test: Match drawn

Fourth Test: Australia won by 184 runs

Fifth Test: Australia won by six wickets

Australia squad: Pat Cummins (c), Sean Abbott, Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Travis Head (vc), Usman Khawaja, Sam Konstas, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Marsh, Jhye Richardson, Steve Smith (vc), Mitchell Starc, Beau Webster

India squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Jasprit Bumrah (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Devdutt Padikkal, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant, Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar. Reserves: Mukesh Kumar, Navdeep Saini, Khaleel Ahmed, Yash Dayal