Kangaroos sealed the Boxing Day Test in their favour with clinical precision, drubbing India by a good margin of 123 runs to take a 1-0 lead in the four Test rubber. Aus pacers ran riots on the fourth day and made the star-studded Indian batting line up look ordinary. The Indians looked pretty spineless and clueless and the wickets tumbled one after another , they managed to score just 169.

Siddle struck thrice in the second outing, also getting the prized scalp of Sachin Tendulkar (32), sealing the fate of the first Test. James Pattinson was the most lethal of all, claiming 4 scalps.

India had started  the run-chase not in the manner they would have wanted, losing Virender Sehwag cheaply. Pattinson drew first blood as he saw Sehwag off at a score of 7 runs. From there on, it was a downward spiral with no respite for the Indians.

Gambhir looked pretty edgy and uncomfortable again on the turf, not up to the mark against the shortpitched ones and lobbed one to the second slip where Punter took a neat catch, he scored of 13 runs.  Laxman was claimed at a score of 1 run, sending the Australian dressing-room into celebratory mode as he always has been their nemesis in most of the recent  tight matches.

Indians dug a hole for themselves as the batsmen failed to click in a game where it was needed the most. The run machine for india , Kohli, was not effective either, falling for a duck.

Pattinson was on absolute fire , he rattled the stumps of the man with a water-tight defence , Rahul Dravid. Dravid played the wrong line and then there was a noise of timber.

Dhoni (23) and Ashwin (30) showed some resistance but they were sent back to the pavilion by Pattinson and Siddle respectively.  Australia could score 240 in their second innings which meant the Indians had to chase 292 to win the match.

 
Michael Hussey , the Australian no. 6 , stood tall before he was finally dismissed by Zaheer Khan at a score of 89 runs.The Australian lead that crossed the 280-run mark was a real cause of worry for  M.S. Dhoni ( till date no team has chased 240+ at the MCG since '62)

Dhoni actually  paid a heavy price for his wrong tactics and over-defensive field placements , he didnt try to create any pressure ,waited for things to happen and the runs kept flowing. Hilfenhaus (14)  was the last man to be dismissed ,Ishant Sharma took his wicket , that ended a partnership worth 43 runs which was quite a torture for the Indians.

One got to say  the visitors were outplayed in most of the departments by their Aussies, Dhoni and his men need to learn a thing or two from their neighbour , Srilanka , else a series defeat looks inevitable.