Melbourne: India faced a significant 184-run defeat against Australia in the Boxing Day Test held in Melbourne.

From the very first innings, Australia maintained dominance throughout the match.

Although Nitish Reddy’s century in the first innings helped India avoid a follow-on, the team could not recover in the second innings.

Almost, India’s top-order batsmen failed to deliver in the second innings, falling one after the other.

Opener Yashasvi Jaiswal was the sole fighter with a commendable 84 runs, Rishabh Pant contributed 30 runs.

However, none of the other batters managed to score double-digit runs, resulting in a substantial loss for India.

With this victory, Australia has taken a 2-1 lead in the series.

For India, the fate of the final Test remains uncertain and eagerly awaited.

This performance has made India’s qualification for the WTC Final nearly impossible.

However, South Africa has already secured a spot in the final, leaving India and Australia in contention.

Fans and cricket enthusiasts opine that India’s chances of making it to the final are extremely slim in current scenario.