Magic MCG tops Cummins' list of best Test wins

Pat Cummins believes the final-hour win his team claimed to complete the most memorable Test match he's been involved in was set up by a flawless opening two hours today from his bowling group.

The 184-run triumph would have been notable in regular circumstances given the knife-edge state of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy Series and their historic difficulties against India on home turf.

But to close out the dominant performance in front of a record day five turnout of almost 75,000, which ensured the fourth NRMA Insurance Test drew the biggest match aggregate of any cricket game in Australia (373,691), sent it to the top of Cummins' hit list.

Until today, he had regarded Australia's first Test win over England at Edgbaston last year where he and fellow tailender Nathan Lyon got the team home with a defiant ninth-wicket partnership, as the benchmark.

But that has now been equalled, maybe bettered, by Boxing Day 2024.

"When you take all that into account, I think that was the best Test match I've been involved in, in terms of 80-odd thousand on the first three days and (74,000) today, it was huge," a beaming Cummins said post-game.

"It felt like it swung a lot as well, it never felt like we were so far ahead of the game that a win looked certain.

"Overall just one of those great wins.

"Just about everyone, as we were walking off, was trying to work out where it sits.

"I reckon that's right at the top – Edgbaston was pretty special, and I reckon that's pretty much on par.

"That was amazing."

Cummins conceded the team knew chiselling out 10 India wickets on a day-five MCG pitch that had exhibited flashes of variable bounce but few inherent demons would be tough work.

And even though his fast-bowling spearhead Mitchell Starc was carrying a back or rib injury that saw him visibly wince in pain as he began each new bowling spell, it was the way they set about their task when India's victory chase for 340 began shortly before 10.30am that paved the way.

India's skipper Rohit Sharma said tonight that while an assignment of around 3.7 runs per over on a worn pitch was always going to be a tough challenge, India began their pursuit with the belief it was a gettable (if unprecedented) target.

That optimism was effectively snuffed out in the first 20 overs when Starc, Cummins and Scott Boland operated with controlled aggression and impeccable control to not only stifle India's scoring options but snare three vital wickets.

Come the lunch break, the visitors were 3-33 from 26.1 overs and still more than 300 runs in arrears with Rohit (9), consistent number three K L Rahul (0) and the ever-dangerous Virat Kohli (5) back in the hutch.

"I reckon that first session today was close to perfection from a bowling point of view," Cummins reflected.

"I thought we were excellent.

"All the guys didn't really give any bad balls away.

"I don't know what their (India's) plan was going to be but honestly I don't think we really gave them a chance to fight back.

"One of the things I love about our group at the moment, there's so many people that want to be the matchwinner.

"Today you could have told yourself it's a pretty flat wicket and the sun's out, but Starcy, Lyno (Lyon), Boland and myself all got around together and we were pumped for the day ahead.

"We really wanted to give it a good crack, and the same with the batting group.

"We love playing at home, we love playing Test matches and this is one of the bigger ones you're going to play."

Australia's advantage across the preceding four days had been set up by invaluable batting contributions from Steve Smith (140), Marnus Labuschagne (72 and 70), teenage debutant Sam Konstas (60) and his opening partner Usman Khawaja (57).

But player-of-the-match Cummins also furthered his allrounder status with scores of 49 and 41 as well as three-wicket returns in each bowling innings, and the 61-run tenth-wicket union between Lyon and Boland on days four and five ultimately proved vital.

Some commentators had expressed concern at Cummins' decision to bat into this morning, even though Australia was 333 runs ahead at stumps on day four with India already needing a record fourth-innings run chase at the MCG to take a series lead.

"I thought the wicket was pretty good, you saw our tail bat pretty comfortably on it so I felt like we needed at least 300-odd," Cummins said when asked how he balanced the need for additional runs against sufficient time to capture 10 India wickets.

"It wasn't playing too many tricks.

'You saw today it didn't really spin heaps … (but) I thought there was still enough time.

"We got 90-odd overs, that gave us 11 or 12 overs with the second new ball potentially today, and also felt like the way it played out we had a good first session and it kind of took the win out of the equation for them.

"Then we could really go in for the attack with plenty of catchers and didn't have to worry about the runs as much."

That was memorably apparent in the final hours, after Rishabh Pant's brain fade saw India lose 3-9 from 32 balls and any faint notion of chasing the target was abandoned.

When batting mainstay Yashasvi Jaiswal was adjudged caught behind following a lengthy DRS process, and India was faced with more than 20 overs to survive and only fast-bowling tailenders to support allrounder Washington Sundar, Cummins closed in for the kill.

At one stage, the skipper himself donned a protective helmet to field at silly mid-off and Lyon operated with eight catchers around the bat as well as Boland stationed just in front of the non-striker.

With 190 runs up their sleeve and no need to worry about the cost of balls getting past the inner ring, Australia wrapped up their win by snaring those three tailender wickets from three overs at a cost of five runs.

When Mohammed Siraj was adjudged lbw to Lyon, a verdict then upheld following the batter's review, the Australia players embraced in celebratory circle the likes of which was last seen when the Ashes were retained in 2019 and the World Test Championship title secured last year.

Holding a 2-1 lead heading into the final Test at the SCG starting Friday, Australia need only a draw to regain the Border-Gavaskar they last won a decade ago.

And while that upcoming contest looms as another compelling contest in a gripping and record-breaking series, it will need to be something extra special to overtake Boxing Day 2024 on captain Cummins' list.

NRMA Insurance Men's Test Series v India

First Test: India won by 295 runs

Second Test: Australia won by 10 wickets

Third Test: Match drawn

Fourth Test: Australia won by 184 runs

Fifth Test: January 3-7: SCG, Sydney, 10.30am AEDT

Australia squad: Pat Cummins (c), Sean Abbott, Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Travis Head (vc), Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Sam Konstas, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Marsh, Jhye Richardson, Steve Smith (vc), Mitchell Starc, Beau Webster

India squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Jasprit Bumrah (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Devdutt Padikkal, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant, Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar. Reserves: Mukesh Kumar, Navdeep Saini, Khaleel Ahmed, Yash Dayal