Australia Beat India in Second Test & leveled the series

Perth, December 18: Mighty Australia displayed a dominating performance to defeat India by 146 runs on Day 5 of the second Test and level series at 1-1. Resuming the day on Team India 113 for five, India lost Hanuma Vihari (28) to Mitchell Starc early. However, his fellow overnight batsman Rishabh Pant (30) continued to show some resistance and tackle the Australian bowlers before he was dismissed by Nathan Lyon. Later, Umesh Yadav (2), Ishant Sharma (0) and Jasprit Bumrah (0) fell without troubling the scoreboard much.

For hosts Australia, Nathan Lyon and Mitchell Starc picked three-wicket hauls as India lost their way to a defeat. The Boxing Day Test will get underway from December 26 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

"It s probably more relief at the moment," Paine said.

"The first win has taken a while. I m really proud of all our players."

The hosts captured the early ascendancy from the moment Paine won the toss and stayed on top of the world No 1 test team despite a couple of inspired fightbacks, the most notable of which was spearheaded by Virat Kohli s first century on tour.

"They were more relentless," Kohli said.

"Australia played much better than us, especially with the bat in the first innings ... they deserved to win."

India resumed at 112-5 on Tuesday, having been asked to complete what would have been a record-breaking chase of 287, and were quickly rolled for 140.