In a Test of many subplots it was India that kept their heads, finding triumph at the Waca after a week of turmoil. Australia were left cursing their inability to pass their record of 16 straight victories. Let down by wickets at key moments throughout the day, Australia came close but not close enough to setting their sights on the mammoth target set by India, two key dismissals before tea from spinner Vinda Sehwag setting India up for a famous victory.
Australia started the day on 65-2, needing a further 348 runs for victory, with Ricky Ponting and Michael Hussey charged with mounting the victory push. Ponting was quickly into his groove thumping a boundary off RP Singh in the second over of the day before sending Anil Kumble to the ropes shortly afterwards. But the introduction of 19-year-old paceman Ishant Sharma turned the morning session. Almost immediately Hussey nicked one short of second slip before Sharma beat Ponting's outside edge with a late-swinger. The impressive right-armer then nipped one back into the Australia captain's pads but a lively appeal was turned down by umpire Billy Bowden. After Ponting had brought up the fifty partnership, Sharma finally, and deservedly, got his man. Ponting pushing forward and got an edge that Rahul Dravid gleefully held at first slip, departing for 45 and leaving Australia on 142 at lunch.
Hussey was then dismissed for lbw shortly after the break for 46 when RP Singh caught the left-hander on the crease with a delivery that drifted back in. Andrew Symonds joined Michael Clarke in the middle as Australia looked to rebuild - bizarrely getting a boundary by digging out a dangerous yorker from Singh.
Symonds' stay was cut short, however, given out lbw for 12 after a quicker, flatter delivery from Kumble hurried onto him. That left the hosts rocking on 177 for five, but Adam Gilchrist and Clarke took the score to beyond 200 before the former was bowled round the legs by Sehwag for 15. The same bowler then accounted for Brett Lee, who edged to VVS Laxman at silly point without troubling the scorers, leaving Michael Clarke as Australia's only hope, unbeaten on 73 at tea.
Clarke's gutsy innings showed all his usual aesthetic charm but he went to Anil Kumble for 81, skipping down the wicket in an attempt to accelerate the scoring. Kumble got around his legs and MS Dhoni took a simple stumping. With Clarke gone, and nothing left to lose, Mitchell Johnson and Stuart Clark opted for the blaze of glory approach to defeat. Johnson, in particular, found his timing, hoiking Sehwag for six over long-on before adding five more boundaries through the same region, including another maximum caught by Sehwag just over the rope.
Clark joined the party, hooking RP Singh for six as they took their ninth wicket partnership beyond fifty and the required runs below 100. For a while Australia seemed to have a chance of conjuring an unlikely victory but India finally got the breakthrough as their worries and the boundary count grew, Clarke edging Irfan Pathan through to Dhoni for 32 as he attempted to cut him through the covers. Johnson had time to reach his fifty before RP Singh bowled Shaun Tait to secure the victory.
It is Australia's first defeat since the fourth Test at Trent Bridge in 2005 and brings to an end a run of 16 victories. Perhaps it is right that Australia's class of 2007 didn't beat the record set by the 2001 vintage. While undeniably the world's best international side, blessed with the talents of Ponting, Hussey and Clarke in their middle-order, they are not a team without weakness. The fresh opening partnership of Phil Jacques and Chris Rogers failed twice in this match and, while no side can hope to replace talents like Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath, it is not the settled attack of previous years. As for India, after a tiring couple of weeks, they now head to Adelaide with hopes of levelling the series.
