Boxing Day Test: India taste 184-run loss, Australia emerges victorious

India faced a demotivating 184-run loss against Australia in the fourth Test on December 30. 

Even power duo Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli failed once again to score good hits in the Melbourne Test, signalling that their walk towards the exit door is not too far.

Chasing a near improbable target of 340, both Rohit (9 off 40 balls) and Kohli (5) failed to battle their technical frailties and mental cobwebs as India lost seven wickets for 34 runs in just 20.4 overs in the final session to be all out for 155 in 79.1 overs.

Australian captain Pat Cummins (3/28 in 18 overs) was superb as usual and Scott Boland was also magnificent (3/39 in 16 overs) in his every spell.

Nathan Lyon (2/37 in 20.1 overs) took advantage of variable bounce while Mitchell Starc (1/25 in 16 overs) got the prized scalp of Kohli.

This was after an 88-run fourth-wicket stand between Yashasvi Jasiwal and Rishabh Pant.

"Pretty disappointing. We wanted to fight but we could not do it," a dejected Rohit said in the post-match presentation.

"We tried everything but they fought hard. We did not grab our chances," he conceded.

Australia now lead the series 2-1 and unless India draw level in Sydney, a third successive World Test Championship final could become a distant dream. Even to retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, India would need to post a win.

"They batted well in the middle session. We knew that we had to get one breakthrough and anything can happen and that proved to be the case.

"We had plenty of runs to play with, we had plenty of fielders with the helmet around," a beaming Cummins, who was also adjudged player of the match for his haul of six wickets, said in the presentation ceremony.

The team is going through a tough transition and it is now time that their feisty head coach Gautam Gambhir shows some spark along with chairman of selectors Ajit Agarkar.