Australian batters committed harakiri in the second innings of Delhi Test to succumb to a six-wicket defeat at the hands of India inside three days.

At the close of play on Day 2, the Pat Cummins-led side was in the driver’s seat with a second-innings score of 61/1 and an overall lead of 62 runs. However, Ravindra Jadeja (7/42) spun a web around Australia with the ball in the first session on the third day, bundling out the visitors for a paltry 113.

The hosts then chased down the 115-run target to retain the Border Gavaskar Trophy for fourth straight time.

Two days after the defeat, Australian batting coach Michael Di Venuto acknowledged that the tourists committed a blunder by trying to push the scoring rate.

Di Venuto said Australia's batting plans were working well till a dramatic collapse saw them lose eight wickets for 28 runs

"Plans certainly weren't wrong. Our plans are good, but if people go away from their plans they're going to get in trouble, as we saw," Di Venuto said on Tuesday (February 21).

"We were almost ahead of the game, and the feeling just looking at it was 'geez, if we just get another 50 runs real quick' which you can't do in this country. We've spoken about that, so it's not like it's something new.

"But pressure does strange things and we saw a lot of people go out and try and sweep their way to a score. It's not all doom and gloom, but the 90 minutes of batting certainly wasn't anything special."

Sweep shot led to the downfall of many Australian batters in the second innings and Di Venuto admitted that the shot carried a high percentage of risk.

"It was pretty obvious where we went wrong. With batting, it's a pretty similar analogy - you've got to swim between the flags (play safe) in this country (India). If you go outside the flags in your game plan, you're going to get in trouble."

Di Venuto said these things sometimes happen when players press the panic button.

"When you're under pressure and you panic, and you're not trusting your defence, sometimes it is 'I've just got to get up the other end' and how do you do that? The sweep shot the other day seemed to be the way they were trying to do it, which is not the ideal way on a spinning wicket with variable bounce. It's common sense, but that's pressure.

"If you're coming over here, and you're not a sweeper but you're trying to sweep, that's not going to work and I think we had some good examples of that."

Steve Smith's dismissal to the sweep shot triggered the collapse as Australia lost nine wickets in the morning session on Day 3 in Delhi.

Describing Smith's dismissal as "unusual", Di Venuto said: "I haven't spoken to him yet about that, and where he's at. But he's excited about these conditions, he loves these conditions. It will be a frustrating thing for him at the moment that he hasn't had the impact he would have liked.

"He was certainly disappointed when he got out, and he made it known in the dressing room it was a poor shot.

"I think most people would have heard that, so they should have had a fair idea of what not to do," the batting coach said.

Having suffered defeats in Nagpur and Delhi, Australia have already conceded an unbeatable 2-0 lead to India in the four-match series.

Indore and Ahmedabad are scheduled to host the third and fourth Tests from March 1 and March 9, respectively.

(With PTI Inputs)