India wrap up tail to take 2-1 series lead

It took more than two and a half hours of game time, though only 23 minutes of on-field action, for India to complete victory today and take an iron grip on history in the four-game Domain Test Series.

The 137-run win was claimed after a frustrating morning delay due to persistent rain, but then wrapped up within five overs of play resuming as Australia's last two wickets fell for the addition of just three runs.

The final dismissal saw India skipper Virat Kohli leap for joy as he embraced his euphoric teammates, his elation at securing a 2-1 series lead mollifying any angst he might have felt as rain threatened to forestall his team's victory march.

Every time the MCG ground staff prepared to haul back the protective covers, another rain squall would sweep the ground and players who had been warming up in preparation for the resumption returned to their respective dressing sheds.

Eventually, the skies brightened and play began two hours and 25 minutes after the scheduled start, with the inevitability of the outcome ensuring the crowd who had handed over their entry fee of a gold-coin charity donation was almost exclusively pro-India.

While the fans cheered almost every ball, the first real roar came 16 minutes into the final day when Australia's best-performed batter of this Test – fast bowler Pat Cummins – edged a catch to slip.

Cummins had already reached his highest Test score the previous evening, the same day as he recorded career-best bowling figures (6-27), and if anyone was somehow going to defy logic and India then it was surely Australia's new allrounder.

But like so many specialist batters before him, he was undone by Jasprit Bumrah who angled a delivery into the right-hander only to have it hold its line to catch the outside of Cummins' previously broad bat and fly ankle-height to Cheteshwar Pujara at first slip.

Still 137 runs adrift of India's total, Australia's only hope of escaping defeat was a return of unscheduled and prolonged rain.

However, that would also have been grossly unfair to an India team that has dominated this Test since their grinding innings over the first two days, and they claimed their deserved victory seven minutes later.

The final blow delivered by paceman Ishant Sharma, whose skidding bouncer brought a hook shot from Nathan Lyon, and a top edge that was claimed above head-height by diminutive keeper Rishabh Pant.

It was India's first Test win at the MCG in more than 20 years, and just their seventh on Australia's turf since their maiden tour against Don Bradman's team in 1947-48.

The victory ensures that the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, which Kohli's team secured by winning the four-Test series in India last year, remains in their possession regardless of the result of next week's final match in Sydney.

Of greater consequence, however, is the driving ambition of the world's top-ranked Test outfit to secure their inaugural Test series win in Australia after seven decades of fruitless attempts.

Over that time, the nearest India have come to overall triumph in a country oft-considered the most daunting destination for visiting Test teams was drawn campaigns in 1980-81 (1-1), 1985-86 (0-0) and 2003-04 (1-1).

Given the scale and the authority of their MCG victory, albeit frustratingly delayed for a full session today due to a bout of Melbourne weather, plus the motivation of making history it is difficult to foresee India squandering their advantage in Sydney.

Although, with such a keen appreciation of fortunes past, India's brains trust will be acutely aware that their past record at the SCG is even more inferior to that they had forged in Melbourne.

India's sole Test win at the Australian venue most often thought to favour their traditional strength of spin bowling came in the summer of 1977-78.

At a time when Australia's men's Test team underwent a more seismic overhaul than experienced over past months, due to the calamitous World Series Cricket split.

Australia XI: Aaron Finch, Marcus Harris, Usman Khawaja, Shaun Marsh, Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh, Tim Paine (c), Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood

India XI: Virat Kohli (c), Ajinkya Rahane, Mayank Agarwal, Hanuma Vihari, Cheteshwar Pujara, Rohit Sharma, Rishabh Pant, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah

Domain Test Series v India

Dec 6-10: India won by 31 runs

Dec 14-18: Australia won by 146 runs

Dec 26-30: India won by 137 runs

Jan 3-7: Fourth Test, SCG

Australia squad: Tim Paine (c, wk), Josh Hazlewood (vc), Mitch Marsh (vc), Pat Cummins, Aaron Finch, Peter Handscomb, Marcus Harris, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Nathan Lyon, Shaun Marsh, Peter Siddle, Mitchell Starc, Archie Schiller

India squad: Virat Kohli (c), Murali Vijay, KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Hardik Pandya, Hanuma Vihari, Rohit Sharma, Rishabh Pant (wk), Parthiv Patel (wk), Ravi Ashwin, Ravi Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar