Sydney - Australia captain Ricky Ponting has attributed his team's crushing victory over India on Sunday to superior mental strength, saying they failed to raise their game when it mattered most.
He added that India's players had "run out of puff" during the best-of-three finals of the triangular limited-overs series, allowing the world champions to cruise to a 208-run win in the second match to secure the trophy 2-0.
"When the big games come around, the character of this side really stands up," he said.
"If you look back at the series, our batting was superior to India's. In the last two games, it was like chalk and cheese. India's batsmen just ran out of puff."
Ponting said the Indians had played above themselves during the drawn Test series, but had been unable to sustain their high standard during the limited-overs matches.
"It's been a very tough tour for them," he said.
"They played as well as they could, especially their batsmen in the Tests and at the start of the one-day series. But you just can't keep playing that well on a two-and-a-half-month tour.
"We didn't see too many weaknesses in their batting at all but, as the series went on, we made some adjustments that helped us," said Ponting.
After having won the first final in Melbourne on Friday by seven wickets, Australia piled on 359/5 in Sydney, equalling their highest-ever total, made against India in the 2003 World Cup final in South Africa.
The Australians then rolled the tourists for just 151 in 33.2 overs in what was, effectively, a non-contest.
"We probably played as well as we can in the finals," said the Australia captain. "I thought we'd get around 300 here, but I never thought we'd get to 359."
"But we timed our run to perfection. I think we had momentum going into the finals. Momentum is a big thing in cricket."
India captain Saurav Ganguly said his players were jaded after such a long tour, but could not use fatigue as an excuse.
"We've played well all tour, but we just didn't play well in the finals," he said.
"Australia lifted their game, while we just didn't perform. We are tired, but that's not an excuse. They played the same amount of cricket as us."