Australia overcome India challenge to emerge as World Test champions

Not always does the glimmer of hope materialize into reality, neither does every sliver of belief manifest itself into a favourable outcome. That's the parallel that can be drawn to high-octane cricket at The Oval where Team India, seemingly in a position to gun for a famous Test win, crumbled under pressure and as a result, Australia were crowned as the World Test Champions. 

Starting the final day of the Test on 164/3, India were knocked over like nine pins against a raging fireball, as Australia bundled them out for 234.

The first one to depart on Day five in an agonizing procession of walking back to the pavilion with heads held low in the dungeon was Virat Kohli. Going for that drive away on the 10th stump outside the off stump against Scott Boland, Kohli produced a thick edge and Steven Smith pounced upon it like an apex predator in the slip cordon, snuffing out a major element in India's resistance.

If Kohli's wicket was a prelude to more disappointment, Jadeja's departure in that same over, proved India's fears of another debacle coming true. Trying to nudge at a delivery angling away from him, Jadeja was beaten by pace and that late wobble, holing out to Alex Carey.

Rahane kept on fighting alone but had to fall for a hard-fought 46 as Mitchell Starc infused a tad more bounce in a similar delivery that had been driven through the covers earlier in the day, while Alex Carey continued his sequence of pouching those sitters without breaking a sweat.

Once Rahane fell, it was just a mere formality as Australia quickly wrapped up the remainder of the Indian batting unit, snapping up the scalps of Shardul Thakur (0), Umesh Yadav (1), KS Bharat (23) and Mohammed Siraj (1) in no time.

India fell apart in the face of that Australian pace mafia who melded pace and swing in perfect proportions, leaving the Indians with another infamous ICC defeat as the latter lifted the Mace, becoming the champions of the World in Test cricket by a staggering 209 runs.