Nagpur: India laid one hand on the Border-Gavaskar Trophy on Sunday after setting Australia an improbable target of 382 in their fourth innings to win the fourth and final cricket Test here.

On an eventful day at the Jamtha stadium, the Indians fought their way back after a middle-order collapse that gave the visitors hope of squaring the series with a come from behind victory in the match.

The architects of India’s recovery were captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni (55) and Harbhajan Singh (52 not out), who stitched together a 108-run partnership for the seventh wicket. The duo contributed substantially to lift India’s innings from a perilous 166 for six to the eventual total of 295.

The foundation, however, was laid by openers Virender Sehwag (92) and Murali Vijay Krishna (41) who put on 116 runs for the first wicket. At stumps on day four, Australia were 13 for no loss with Simon Katich and Matthew Hayden at the crease.

Only once before have the Aussies overhauled a fourth innings target bigger than what the Indians have set them — in 1948 at Leeds when they made 404 for three in the last innings to defeat England.

Barring the Dhoni-Harbhajan association, the Indians were also helped by the appalling over-rate of the Australians.

Ricky Ponting’s men were found six overs short at tea-break and that meant the captain was facing a possible ban of two Tests, as he had already been fined twice for the same offence earlier this year — also against India during the Perth and Sydney Tests.

Slow over rate qualifies under Level 2 in the ICC code of conduct but a repeat of the offence upgrades it to Level 3, which could result in a ban of two to four Tests or four to eight one-dayers.

And therefore, trying to save his own skin instead of pressing for a series-levelling win, Ponting started bowling his spinners — Michael Clarke and Cameron White. Dhoni and Harbhajan took advantage of the situation, collecting 44 runs from the eight overs bowled by Clarke and White.

The Aussies also suffered the ignominy of receiving a five-run penalty when wicketkeeper Brad Haddin stopped the ball by flicking his gloves at it.

Off-spinner Jason Krejza troubled the Indian batsmen a great deal in the second innings too. He bagged four for 143 on Sunday, which gave him a match haul of 12/358. Shane Watson (4/42) played a stellar role with the ball to share the work load while Brett Lee, who was listless in his opening spell, came back strongly after lunch to get rid of Sehwag.

Sehwag and Vijay were in complete command in the morning — the Australian body language showed signs of resignation during their partnership. Sehwag exploited the erring Lee, smashing him for two consecutive fours. Vijay too kept pace with his senior partner through some bold strokes off Krejza. The collapse came when the Indians seemed to bat the Aussies out of the match.

From 116 for no loss at one point, the Indians slipped to 166 for 6 as Vijay, Rahul Dravid, Sehwag, Laxman, Sourav Ganguly and Tendulkar fell one after the other in the space of 21 overs. If Laxman succumbed to a big off-break from Krejza, Tendulkar had only himself to blame, looking for a single that was not available.

Dravid’s dismissal should be a major concern for the team management.

The stalwart now averages 20.61 with 268 runs from seven matches since the tour of Sri Lanka.

SUCCESSFUL RUN CHASES

The following are the top five successful run chases in Test history:

• 418/7 — WI bt Aus (St John’s), 2003
• 406/4 — Ind bt WI (Port of Spain), 1976
• 404/3 — Aus bt Eng (Leeds), 1948
• 369/6 — Aus bt Pak (Hobart), 1999
• 362/7 — Aus bt WI (Georgetown), 1978