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Adelaide, Australia. Australia recorded a 4-0 series sweep of India in imperious fashion on Saturday, mopping up the tourists’ tail inside an hour to complete a 298-run win in the fourth test at the Adelaide Oval.

India resumed on 166-6 needing to bat out an unlikely draw, but Australia took just 58 minutes to take the final four wickets as the tourists were bowled out for 201.

Australia scored a match-controlling 604-7 declared and then dismissed India for 272. Then refusing to enfore the follow-on, Australia batted again and set India 500 runs for victory.

Local spinner Nathan Lyon took four wickets and fast bowler Ryan Harris claimed three to push India to its eighth straight defeat in overseas test.

Fast bowler Peter Siddle, who took five wickets in the first innings on a good batting pitch, was named man-of-the match, while skipper Michael Clarke with 626 runs in the series was named man-of-the series.

Australia had remorselessly gone about out-batting, out-bowling, out-fielding, and even out-thinking India throughout a series which most expected to be a hard-fought one but which turned into a whitewash.

While Australia took 80 Indian wickets in the series, India has managed 36 wickets over the four tests. Australia scored five centuries in the series including a triple hundred and two double hundreds while India managed just one in eight innings thanks to 116 by rookie Virat Kohli in the first innings here.

Coming off a similar 4-0 series loss in England, India’s test team plummeted to a deeper low. It began the series with a 122-run defeat in the first test in Melbourne, followed by an innings and 68-run loss in the second test in Sydney. In the third test, it was hammered by an innings and 23 runs inside 2/12 days.

The subcontinent-like pitch here represented India’s best opportunity to win a test and redeeem some of its reputation, but once again India’s much-vaunted batting order was unable to withstand Australia’s strong pace attack.

As disappointing as India had been, that had not obscured the rapid improvement in Australia’s play.

Coming into the series off a rare home defeat by New Zealand, and with many of the senior players under severe pressure to retain their places in the team, Australia produced a defiant performance.

Australia’s confidence has returned and it is beginning to play the brand of cricket that made it the No.1 side for most of the 1990s and 2000s. With captain Clarke having now earned his stripes as captain, and his predecessor Ricky Ponting experiencing a late-career renaissance, the Australians will be ready to push again for that No.1 ranking.

Associated Press