Aussies triumph in “amazing” Melbourne Test Match
Australia v India — Day 5, Melbourne
AUSTRALIA 474 and 234
INDIA 369 and 155
Australia win by 184 runs
“What an amazing Test Match. I reckon it’s one of the best I’ve been part of. All week the crowd has been ridiculous, and it’s been amazing to be part of. Very happy changing room, we’ll savour this before we get to Sydney”.
A particularly jubilant Pat Cummins speaking immediately post-match.
“It is pretty disappointing. It’s not that we went in with the intent of giving up the fight. We wanted to fight till the end and unfortunately we couldn’t do it. We were not good enough. I went back to my room and thought about what else we could have done as a team, but we threw everything we had. But they fought hard, especially that last-wicket partnership, which probably cost us the game”.
Indian Captain Rohit Sharma searches his soul in defeat.
For well over four hours of play and two absorbing sessions of Test Match cricket no-one, not even a sleep deprived “Pom” on the other side of the world, could’ve imagined the above quotes coming to pass. As a loud and lively MCG crowd, encouraged by $10 tickets and free entry for children, grew from 20,000 to eventually over a reported 60,000, India, although not actively chasing their target of 340 runs for victory, had stabilised their Lunch score of 33–3 to 112–3 and with Yashasvi Jaiswal a brilliantly made half century (and counting) and Rishabh Pant approaching a sensible and secure 30 not out, a hard fought draw seemed an inevitability.
Then everything changed.
PANT caught Marsh bowled Head (30)
8 further runs and mere minutes into a spectacular final session, Rishabh Pant played a reckless and unnecessary shot from the part-time bowling of Travis Head he top edged to a running Mitchell Marsh on the boundary. Safely taken and a fourth Indian wicket to fall, Harsha Bhogle on FOX TV commentary described Pant as being “livid” at playing such a shot (but I rather believe he spoke for a nation rather than the player himself) whilst colleague Mark Howard excitedly stated Australia had “something” to build on.
They had rather more than a mere “something”.
JADEJA caught Carey bowled Boland (2)
3 overs, 2 balls and just 6 runs later Scott Boland, the keeper of my cricketing heart, delivers a “massive wicket” according to an ever increasingly excitable Mark Howard. It was exactly that, but boy what a delivery! Not a short pitched delivery by any means but it climbed on Jadeja who could do nothing but get a tiny edge through to Alex Carey and India were collapsing and Scott Boland, yet again at his home ground of the MCG, was about to take game changing and Test Match winning wickets.
REDDY caught Smith bowled Lyon (1)
Exactly 6 balls later, 1st Innings centurion Nitish Kumar Reddy departs to a sharp catch from Steve Smith at 1st Slip and in the space of 7 overs since the Tea Break India had collapsed from 112–3 to 130–6.
Australia were, to quote Mark Howard a final time, “steaming ahead”.
JAISWAL caught Carey bowled Cummins (84)
“This could be the game for Australia” intoned Harsha Bhogle and yet, controversy reigned, or certainly the fallibility of the supposed certain and definitive systems of VAR in football or here the DRS in cricket. Jaiswal clearly got a deviating edge from his bat through to Alex Carey behind the stumps as he tried to hook the Aussie skipper, but on field umpire Joel Wilson said no, as did the “Snicko” system. But thankfully sanity prevailed as the TV umpire could clearly see on replay what we all saw live (and in replay), the kid had to go and with him, India’s only faint hope of survival.
DEEP caught Head bowled Boland (7)
“Two noises says Khawaja” exclaimed Adam Gilchrist on TV commentary (and as so aptly demonstrated on the numerous TV replays) and two noises it was from Deep’s bat onto his pad and into the grateful hands of Travis Head fielding at the unsurprisingly titled close-in position of “Bat/Pad”.
Boland had two wickets. The unrequited love of my cricket life would be back for a third in just two overs time.
BUMRAH caught Smith bowled Boland (0)
Over to Adam Gilchrist: “They’re celebrating again! Through to Steve Smith at 1st Slip! Of course it’s Boland! He gets another, Australia their ninth, and they’re one wicket away from victory”
SIRAJ LBW bowled Lyon (0)
“Gilly” Gilchrist for a final time: “Big shout. The finger goes up! Lyon does the job for Australia!”. Mohammed Siraj reviewed the decision in desperation but the on-field decision stood, and then the celebrations could really begin.
All told, India collapsed from 121–3 to 155 all out, or 7 wickets for just 34 runs, in 21 overs of exhilarating Test Match cricket, and I went to bed just before 7am shaking my head in utter disbelief at what I’d just witnessed!
There are some who continually say that Test Match cricket is boring!
What are we going to do with these people?
As stated yesterday and seemingly throughout my cricket watching life of over four decades, the Aussies have a bloody minded and thoroughly admirable determination to never lose. Today they won, and India crumbled into dust before everyone’s eyes.
What an incredible Test Match and penultimate chapter to another winter odyssey of watching cricket through the night from the other side of the world. Roll on Sydney in 3 days!
Let’s finish where we started, and some closing words from the captains:
“Winning the toss, it wasn’t easy on the first day, to get up to high 400s was terrific. We wanted to take an India victory out of the equation. We had plenty of runs to play with, and as many helmets around the bat as we could. Amazing innings from Steve Smith just showed how to bat on that wicket. He was brilliant, and some handy catches, sometimes that goes unnoticed in the slips. We put a lot of work into our lower-order batting, how best to bowl to the opposition batters, but also how we can contribute with the bat”.
Pat Cummins
“It will be tough to assess just the last two sessions. If you look at the overall Test match, we had our chances, but we didn’t take them. We had Australia 90–6. We know things can get tough, but we want to play tough cricket from hard situations. I don’t want to look at one situation. We knew 340 wasn’t going to be easy. We tried to set a platform and keep wickets in hand for the last two sessions, but they bowled perfectly as well. We wanted to go for the target, but we didn’t set the platform from our side. There are ways to win games and we fell short in finding ways to win games”.
Rohit Sharma
Thanks for reading. Over the past boundary four cricket watching years I’ve turned my daily journals into a hat-trick of self-published books on the grand old game and should you be an Aussie or fan of the India cricket team reading this now, here are my second and third books which I hope will pique your interest in supporting an indie author:
"The Spirit of Cricket" - link to Amazon
"Tea and Biscuits in India" - link to Amazon
Whilst you’re here I may as well brag about the release of my two self-published books during December 2024. Both are free to read if you subscribe to Amazon Kindle “Unlimited” or reasonably priced in both paperback and hardback. Go on, treat yourself or a loved one and help out an Indie Author! Buy the books if you’re financially able to.
We HAVE to keep the spirit of reading books alive and well.
Thanks.
"My Ironbridge Summer" - link to Amazon
"still life, with gooseberry" - link to Amazon
Thanks for reading. I hope this message in a bottle in The Matrix finds you well, prospering, and the right way up in an upside down world.