Aussies claim remarkable win in Boxing Day Test for the ages

Australia is within touching distance of reclaiming the Border-Gavaskar Trophy that India have held since 2017 after a record-breaking and drama-laced final day of the fourth Test.

A Test that drew an unprecedented aggregate crowd ended in suitably compelling circumstances as Australia stormed home by grabbing 7-34 from 28.3 overs after tea to lead the five-match series 2-1 heading into the final game starting in Sydney on Friday.

Heroic deeds by the entire Australia attack including clearly injured spearhead Mitchell Starc deservedly delivered the 184-run win with almost 13 of the final hour’s 15 overs remaining, but they were also aided by shrewd deployment of third-umpire reviews.

The most crucial and potentially contentious of those was the caught behind verdict off skipper Pat Cummins that accounted for India’s top-scorer Yashashvi Jaiswal, paving the way for an all-out victory push that saw eight catchers crowded around the bat as floodlights blazed through the final overs.

Cummins was so convinced his well-directed bouncer had brushed glove or even bat handle as Jaiswal looked to hook it to fine leg in the 71st over that he did not bother to consult his keeper or other fielders before sending it for review.

The visual evidence provided by super-slow motion footage clearly revealed the ball deflecting as it passed the batter’s hands and Jaiswal even appeared to take several steps towards the pavilion once the third umpire’s intervention was sought.

But having examined the pictures, off-field official Sharfuddoula Saikat also enlisted ultra-edge technology which – upon revealing no discernible ‘spike’ in noise levels as ball passed bat – sent India fans into paroxysms when shown on the MCG’s big screen.

When the vision was adjudged sufficient to deliver a final verdict, Jaiswal attempted to argue his case with the on-field officials before being advised to depart the scene as Australia players and fans celebrated.

Jaiswal had benefited from the DRS protocols’ vagaries on 31 when he was hit on the back leg by a delivery from Mitchell Starc that speared past the left-hander’s inside edge but was deemed not out by umpire Joel Wilson.

Australia reviewed the decision and even though tracking technology showed a substantial portion of the ball hitting the top of Jaiswal’s leg stump it was adjudged to be not sufficiently flush to overturn the on-field ruling.

The Australians were clearly bemused by the call which would have landed them the crucial wicket if Wilson had adjudicated in the bowling team’s favour, and it would be a further 40 overs before they felt justice was delivered.

Jaiswal’s 84 followed his first-innings 82 that ended in similarly ignominious circumstances (run out in a calamitous mix-up), and ensured he would finish 2024 as Test cricket’s second-highest scorer behind England’s Joe Root.

However, his removal meant India had to rely on three fast-bowling tailenders – Akash Deep, Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj – to negotiate an increasingly frantic final 20 overs.

That complement was whittled to two when Akash fell to the first delivery of Scott Boland’s new spell, initially given not out on field as the ball squeezed to bat-pad before another emphatic Australia review confirmed an inside edge.

On this occasion, it was the ultra edge information that decided the case although the obvious red mark that appeared on the inside of Akash’s otherwise pristine bat at the moment the ball passed was perhaps more damning.

Nine deliveries into the final hour’s minimum 15 overs, Bumrah was snared by another smart slips catch with the Australians’ fielding skills proving a critical difference between the teams.

He departed the field a forlorn figure, but surely knowing it was his bowling brilliance that had taken his team into the final hour of a game that Australia had driven from day one.

The end then came quickly when Siraj was trapped in front by Lyon, sparking wild celebratory scenes of celebration when umpire Michael Gough’s finger was raised and again when the decision was upheld after Siraj’s almost apologetic review.

But the turning point had come early in the final session with keeper-batter Rishabh Pant’s self-destruction upon which India lost 3-9 in 32 balls, in keeping with the batting frailties that have dogged both teams at various times this series.

While most of those have been precipitated by the bowling brilliance of Bumrah or Australia’s trio of quicks, today’s dramatic turn was triggered by a part-time spinner with a growing reputation as a golden arm.

Cummins’ decision to continue with part-time tweaker Travis Head after tea might have been as much to pick up his team’s languid over rate as potentially buy a wicket, and it delivered on both counts.

Having scored at a rate below 29 per 100 balls faced – in stark contrast to his Test career strike rate of almost 75 – Pant pinned back his ears when Head dragged down a long hop but his skied miscue was held by Marsh running back towards the boundary at long-on.

Head greeted the unlikely breakthrough by reprising the quirky celebration first unleashed when he snared 4-10 against Sri Lanka in 2022 simulating the insertion of his ‘red hot’ spinning finger into an ice bath.

But it proved a pivotal moment that quickly transcended its comedic value.

The Jaiswal-Pant partnership had pushed India’s required run rate for victory to almost three an over, but by time tea was taken with India 3-112 they might have survived a session without surrendering rate by the equation had blown out to a run per ball.

However, as was the case yesterday when Steve Smith fell to an overly adventurous stroke, Pant’s second brain fade of the game gave Australia’s bowlers an unexpected look at India’s bottom six and they quickly liked what they saw.

Boland replaced Head and got his second delivery to lift off a length, catching the India allrounder by surprise and the shoulder of his fending blade as the ball flew through to keeper Alex Carey.

Next over, first innings century maker Nitish Kumar Reddy who had become a national hero in his debut series, recorded the first single-figure score of his nascent Test career thanks to a freakishly brilliant catch by Smith at slip.

Playing back to a ball from Lyon that held its line, Reddy’s edge flew quickly towards the ground and past the right hip of Carey who had partially obscured Smith’s view before the former skipper threw himself to his left and clutched the crucial chance just above the turf.

Just as Australia had imploded by losing 4-11 in the immediate wake of Smith’s wicket yesterday, so India’s middle-order vapourised leaving Jaiswal (then on 76) and allrounder Washington Sundar as the last recognised batters to negotiate the final 32 overs.

The final session proved worthy of the huge turn-out for the gripping series that can still see India retain the Trophy if they triumph in Sydney.

It was a record aggregate crowd for Test match in Australia with today’s 74,362 pushing it to 373,691 across five days eclipsing the previous benchmark which was 350,534 across six days of the 1937 Ashes Test against England.

Australia ultimately vindicated their decision to continue batting into today, albeit for an additional seven minutes that yielded six runs from nine deliveries, the last of which was sent down by the irrepressible Jasprit Bumrah and uprooted Lyon’s middle stump.

It prompted Bumrah to simply stare in abject mastery at his 30th victim of the series (at the extraordinary average of 12.83) having completed his third five-wicket haul in four matches.

With the final Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy campaign beginning at the SCG on Friday, Bumrah remains a chance to overtake the record for most wickets in a series by a visiting bowler which remains the 38 claimed by England’s Maurice Tate in 1924-25.

But Bumrah’s 13th five-for in 44 Tests (he is yet to claim a 10-wicket bag in a match) also ensured Lyon remains his place in cricket history as the player to have scored most Test runs without reaching a half-century.

Lyon’s milestone-free tally now stands at 1586 runs from 133 Tests, with the record to be handed to West Indies fast bowler Kemar Roach (1257 from 84 Tests) should the Australia spinner manage to crack 50.

India’s victory target of 340 might not have seemed so lofty in the era of 50-over matches regularly producing scores of that size, but there’s a reason it had never been achieved at the venue that hosted the inaugural Test game almost 148 years ago’

The timeframe of minimum 92 overs meant a required run rate of almost 3.7 per over on a fifth day pitch that had yielded

But the complexity facing their batters, whether it be chasing a distant target or simply surviving for the day’s minimum 92 overs, became glaringly apparent in the first hour.

Starc, Cummins and then Boland found sufficient swing and seam movement to routinely threaten the outside edges of Jaiswal and his opening partner Rohit Sharma, without managing to graze them.

Jaiswal played and missed at least eight times – mostly against Starc whose pace wasn’t impacted by the back injury he is carrying – prior to the first drinks break, while Rohit was more circumspect though no less uncertain.

But the game’s complexion changed dramatically in Cummins’ first over after the adjournment when he removed Rohit with the opening delivery and KL Rahul with the last.

The usually free-scoring India skipper had endured for 74 minutes without finding the boundary, and so wretched is his current form the first genuinely attacking stroke of his knock brought about its end.

In trying to flick a full delivery through mid-wicket he somehow contrived to edge a sharp catch to gully where Mitchell Marsh juggled but held the chance, heaping further scrutiny on the Test captain.

Having missed the first Test due to paternity leave, Rohit has not passed 10 in any of his five innings this series with his rival skipper having claimed his wicket on four of those occasions (from just 44 deliveries sent at him).

With 31 runs at 6.20, Rohit’s return is the worst by any visiting captain in Australia (two Tests or more) since Sri Lanka’s Dinesh Chandimal managed 24 at six from his four innings in 2019.

To further place those numbers in context, even renowned West Indies batting bunny Courtney Walsh averaged 7.75 from seven hits at the bottom of his team’s batting order in 1996-97.

Rahul has been the most consistent performer after Jaiswal in India’s top-order since filling Rohit’s opening berth in the first Test, but lasted just five deliveries today edging Cummins to slip as he tried belatedly to withdraw his bat.

The clatter of two quick wickets enlivened the record-breaking crowd and Virat Kohli was welcomed to the arena by a low rumble of boos which was eventually drowned out by a growing chorus of acclamation from India’s fan base.

But that sizeable cohort was stunned into silence 40 minutes later when the ultra-competitive former India leader aimed an ambitious at what proved the final delivery before lunch.

The full-length ball Starc angled across the right hander and was neatly caught low down by Usman Khawaja at first slip, the sixth time in as many dismissals this series the once-great batter has been snared behind the wicket.

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