With Australia winning the Boxing Day Test in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy against India on Tuesday at the MCG, Pat Cummins led the Australian team to move closer to a place in the finals of the World Test Championship. Although the hosts have not won the Border-Gavaskar Trophy since 2015, Cummins rates Tuesday’s victory as ‘a bit bigger’.
“Oh, yes, it’s huge, and I think it adds an extra layer. You know, we still need another win or so to get into that World Championship final. So you know, every win is big but this one feels bigger. So yeah, it’s a very happy dressing room right now,” Cummins told ABC Sport Grandstand after the win.
On the day, which started with Australia opening their second innings with a total of 229 for 9, the hosts ended the innings on 234 setting India a target of 340 runs. In the end, Australia won the match by 184 runs. When asked about Australia’s team management’s thoughts yesterday evening about the early hours of Tuesday morning’s play, Cummins shared the team’s thought process of pushing and taking a few risks. “We have a little extra time today. I think, you know the wicket was a very good wicket. So I think both the team bowled brilliantly, it actually made the wicket look worse than it was. We felt like we were ahead. “This morning, we thought if we bowled well for the first few hours, we could push and hit a few wickets and take a few risks,” the Australian captain said.
In the end, Australia did not need the second new ball as India lost their last seven wickets for 34 runs in the space of one hour post tea. When asked about the best bowling performance in the bowling team, Cummins shared how it felt like ‘normal Test cricket’. “I mean I’m trying to remember that. It felt like normal Test match cricket. You know, when I started playing, when it happened, it was like every summer Test match here was five days. It’s been a while since we’ve had one like that, but I think it’s just the toil, the graft, I mean I think they were 30-something at lunchtime and I think it was because of the good bowling. So yeah, I thought both sides hit really well,” Cummins said.
After India lost three wickets for 33 runs, Indian batsmen Yashasvi Jaiswal and Rishabh Pant raised hopes of a comeback with a partnership of 88 runs for the fourth wicket before India lost seven wickets by -34 runs. Cummins took a simple note of that sharing that he probably had to watch the replays to see how his team did it. “I don’t really know. (Laughing). May be considered to play again. During the tea break nothing much seemed to happen. You always had the feeling that they were hitting well and you always hoped that there would be one success and you never knew what was going to happen next. So it is one success story. And that proved the case,” Cummins said.
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