India beat Australia by 7 wickets to win series 2-0

Bangalore - India completed their first ever series whitewash of Australia as Sachin Tendulkar led them to a comprehensive seven-wicket victory over the visitors in the second and final cricket Test here today.

Tendulkar (53 not out) added a half century to his first innings double ton and capitalised on the foundation laid by debutant Cheteshwar Pujara (72) as India easily surpassed the target of 207 in the final session of the last day here.

Tendulkar hit the winning runs, a two, off Nathan Hauritz half-an-hour into the final session to trigger wild celebrations at the Indian camp and among the Chinnaswamy Stadium crowd.

Rahul Dravid remained unbeaten on 21 and shared 61 runs with Tendulkar from 16 overs for the unbroken fourth wicket.

With the back-to-back victories, having won the first Test at Mohali by a narrow one wicket, India took the two-match series 2-0 though the Border-Gavaskar Trophy had already been in their bag.

With the win in the exciting Test, India strengthened their position at the top of ICC Test rankings while Australia were pushed down to fifth.

For Australia, this was the first time after 1982 that they have been handed a series whitewash by the opposition.

They had lost 0-3 in their 1982 Test tour of Pakistan.

Ricky Ponting will also have to wait for Australia's first Test victory against India under his leadership.

Chasing 207 for a victory in a minimum of 77 overs on a deteriorating track, India lost opener Virender Sehwag (7) cheaply but debutant Pujara and first innings centurion Murali Vijay held the fort admirably by sharing 72 runs from 13 overs for second wicket to take India on victory path.

Later, the two senior most batsmen Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid combined for to take India to victory in the Test dominated by Tendulkar's sixth double hundred and stamp their superiority over Australia.

At tea break, India needed just 22 runs for a win.

Pujara, a prolific scorer in the domestic circuit, and first innings centurion Murali Vijay added 72 runs for the second wicket after early departure of dangerous Sehwag.

Pujara struck the ball fluently and made up for his cheap dismissal in the first innings by sharing a crucial stand of 57 with Tendulkar. Having been promoted to number three, Pujara batted with a bundle of confidence and every steer, pull and drive was immaculately executed.

He was stroking well except for an upish shot and was lucky as the ball fell short of Australian captain Ponting at short midwicket. Before being bowled by Nathan Hauritz, he hit seven boundaries in his 89-ball stay at the crease.

Vijay was solid and ran for singles to give more strike to his partner Pujara before he was trapped by Shane Watson.

Tendulkar, who walked in when India needed another 118 runs, played some delightful drives and pulls to speed up the run chase. He smashed Hauritz for two consecutive sixes towards tea break.

Tendulkar reached his 50 with a hard sweep shot dragging the ball from outside the off stump before scoring the winning runs as India surpassed the target in only 45 overs.

In the morning, the Indian bowlers continued their commendable job to bowl Australia out for 223 in 75.2 overs midway into the first session.

The Australians lost three wickets with Zaheer dismissing Mitchell Johnson and Peter George while Sreesanth scalped Hauritz.

Zaheer had a spell of 5.2-1-9-2 while Sreesanth had 5-1-8-1.

Zaheer was able to get the reverse swing quite often and succeeded in dismissing Johnson (11) in his fourth over of the first session. The ball jagged sharply off the pitch to take Johnson's off stump. The Australian added four more runs to his overnight score of seven.

In the very next over, Sreesanth, who was bowling menacingly, got success for his hard work. A totally dried up pitch was giving some movements and Sreesanth was able to beat the batsmen since morning time and again.

Sreesanth's full length delivery cut in after pitching on outside the off stump and the ball contacted Ben Hilfenhaus' pads before hitting the stumps.

Zaheer ended the Australian innings with a short ball that was gloved behind by Peter George (0), and Hauritz remained unbeaten on 21.

Australia 1st innings: 478

India 1st innings: 495

Australia 2nd innings:

Shane Watson lbw b Ojha 32

Simon Katich c Dhoni b Harbhajan Singh 24

Ricky Ponting lbw b Khan 72

Michael Clarke st Dhoni b Ojha 3

Michael Hussey lbw b Ojha 20

Marcus North b Harbhajan Singh 3

Tim Paine c Dhoni b Sreesanth 23

Mitchell Johnson b Khan 11

Nathan Hauritz not out 21

Ben Hilfenhaus b Sreesanth 0

Peter George c Dhoni b Khan 0

Extras (B 1, LB 5, W 3, NB 5) 14

Total (all out in 75.2 overs) 223

Fall of wickets: 1-58, 2-58, 3-65, 4-126, 5-131, 6-181, 7-185, 8-217, 9-218, 10-223.

Bowling: Zaheer Khan 11.2-1-41-3, S Sreesanth 14-2-48-2, Pragyan Ojha 25-5-57-3, Harbhajan Singh 21-2-63-2, Virender Sehwag 4-0-8-0.

India 2nd innings:

Murali Vijay lbw b Watson 37

Virender Sehwag c Paine b Hilfenhaus 7

Cheteshwar Pujara b Hauritz 72

Sachin Tendulkar not out 53

Rahul Dravid not out 21

Extras (B 8, LB 5, W 4) 17

Total (for three wickets in 45 overs) 207

Fall of wickets: 1-17, 2-89, 3-146

Bowling: Ben Hilfenhaus 7-0-27-1, Mitchell Johnson 14-4-42-0, Nathan Hauritz 12-0-76-1, Peter George 7-0-29-0, Shane Watson 5-0-20-1.


Photo : India's Cheteshwar Pujara, left, and Sachin Tendulkar during the last day of the second cricket test match against Australia, in Bangalore, India, Wednesday, Oct. 13, 2010.
PTI