An elderly Indian lady badgered the security guard at the MCG, an hour after India’s stunning capitulation in the final session that allowed Australia clinch a stupendous win. ‘Can I go and peep at the ground?’ No, Ma’am, you can’t, but come tomorrow morning, you can. Why do you want to see it now, anyways?’ And she drawled, a shopping bag in her hand, “Couple of hours ago, my grandson texted me to take a photograph, you see, but I had to shop for groceries. And then I stopped at a cafe. Apparently India have managed a famous draw. Can you at least go in for me and take a photo from my phone?” The young Australian guard did an admirable job of suppressing a smile, and broke the bad news to her. A puzzled look settled on her face, and she mumbled, ‘but my grandson said …”
Neither the grandson’s hope nor the grandmother’s bewildering look were wrong even as India buckled by 184 runs. Couple of hours before the game ended, it did look like a draw. Perhaps, not a ‘famous’ one, but a regulation draw. Australia had to take out seven wickets in just a session of play. The pitch had looked flat. The Indians in the crowd were screaming away. Pre lunch, every time the Australian fans tried to get into the game, be it booing Kohli, the Indians fans would silence them with chants of Kohli’s name. In the middle session, when the Aussie fans were chanting the name of the MCG cult hero ‘Scotty’ Boland, Indians would scream ‘Jaiswal’ or ‘Pant’.
But the Australian team wanted the win more than Indians sought the draw. Or rather they were more mentally alert and disciplined than the Indians. And it had come about by an out-of-box move from Pat Cummins, who had deployed Travis Head into the attack, not just for a while before tea, but even after that. Until then, Rishabh Pant and YB Jaiswal were steering India with great determination towards a draw.
Cummins must have realised that to break this auto-pilot mode, there was no use pressing on the specialist bowlers. Or asking his pacers to break their backs. They, including him and Mitch Marsh, had all tried that. The way to drag Pant out of this zone was to dangle a temptation. Make him perhaps think about an implausible win or at least easy boundaries. But Pant in fact was the more stable one, initially, leaving balls outside off and bunting around for singles.
At one stage, even after tea, when Sam Konstas started chirping away at Jaiswal from silly-point, and the young Indian was somewhat disturbed by it as he would once pull away from the strike at the last instance, and point at the teenaged Greek-Australian, it was Pant who sought to calm him down.
Hang it in the Louvre 🖼️ pic.twitter.com/xUAe7Vc1HJ
— Melbourne Cricket Ground (@MCG) December 30, 2024
Pant had realised what was happening and walked across for a chat. On other occasions, he would gesture at Jaiswal to take deep breaths and calm down, and nod encouragingly when Jaiswal settled down again with punchy drives off Nathan Lyon and Head. Suddenly, something snapped in Pant himself. In the 57th over of the innings, Head offered a shortish-ball outside off and Pant went for a drag-pull to the left of long-on where Mitch Marsh would make a good stop.
As he reached the non-striker’s end, Pant would shadow-practice that pull, seemingly aiming to pull it wider of long-on. That was the seed of the trouble. In the next Head over, the fourth ball he faced after that pull, came a similar ball, and Pant went for that shot again, but couldn’t get it wide enough or keep it down – and Marsh, nicknamed ‘Bison’, moved smartly to pouch a good catch. India were 121 for 4 in the 59th over at that stage, needing to play out the next 33 overs to draw. Not just Pant, but Virat Kohli, who had chased a well-outside off ball from Starc in the last over before lunch, and Rohit Sharma, who had tried an across-the-line flick to a Cummins delivery around off stump had dragged India down to this position.
#YashasviJaiswal didn’t just let his bat do the talking!
A cheeky ‘Do your job!’ to #SamKonstas was all it took to light up the game with some good old-fashioned on-field banter. 🔥👏#AUSvINDOnStar 👉 4th Test, Day 5 LIVE NOW! | #ToughestRivalry pic.twitter.com/cF7tWqLtdM
— Star Sports (@StarSportsIndia) December 30, 2024
It’s at Pant’s exit that Cummins and his men swooped in for the kill. Head was quickly swapped for Boland, who got one to kick up from back of length and Ravindra Jadeja, India’s best bet to play out a safe draw, was surprised into stabbing at it – edge and gone. It was 127 for 5 in the 63rd over and now the question hovering in the air was whether Jaiswal can hold his poise. Cummins had smartly replaced Head with Konstas as the close-in fielder if only one had to be breathing down the batsman. Konstas has the reputation in domestic cricket as the lippy kid, who loves to annoy batsmen with constant chatter. And here he was not only having a go at Jaiswal, but also gesturing the Australian fans to get into the act, whipping up their emotions. Needing no second invitation, they obliged the teenager.
Tension was in the air. It exploded when Nathan Lyon, who had looked every bit his age in this series, came up with a real beaut: an over-spun ball that landed on a length just outside off and went on straight. Reddy didn’t pick it, and was squared-up as he edged it, playing for the turn, to slip. 130 for 6 and now nearly 30 overs were left.
Australians in the crowd were all over Indians like a rash and Cummins closed in for the kill. Jaiswal and Washington Sundar began to dead-bat. Tuk-tuk-tuk. Oohs and aahs from not just the fielders but from the crowd. At one stage, Cummins went to have a word with Konstas; not clear what was told, but Konstas began to whip up the crowd’s frenzy even more. The Bay 13, the famously barracking crowd of Australia of the lore, had seemingly spread all around the park. Thunderous hollering ensued.
Travis Head gets Rishabh Pant and pulls out a unique celebration 👀#AUSvIND | #PlayOfTheDay | @nrmainsurance pic.twitter.com/EVvcmaiFv7
— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) December 30, 2024
But for nearly seven overs, which seemed longer as the passionate crowd lived every ball, the two young Indians continued defending. Cummins started to hide the hand holding the ball as he ran in as if there was some reverse swing on offer. There wasn’t much visible, at least. Starc too started doing the same. In the Q stand, at level 5, far above the pitch, the Australian fans congregating around the stadium bar were laughing. They had obviously seen this ‘trick’ by Cummins before.
At the start of the 71st over, Cummins moved in his field: a short backward square leg, a short cover, a short mid-off and Konstas was shuffled from silly point to short leg. The line of attack shifted from round the stumps to over the wicket from the second ball. A ball rearing on the hips was tucked past Konstas for a couple of runs. A short of length delivery was crunched down next. The next one was pounded into the fifth-day pitch and Jaiswal hopped to keep it down.
Konstas kept giving the lip. Mutter, mutter. In the stands, they hollered. With a field set for the short ball, Cummins let one fly up. Jaiswal, a talented young man who just doesn’t like being dictated by opposition and bereft of senior players who can potentially calm him down, went for the pull. Unwise choice, and the ball was gloved down the leg side to Alex Carey. A jubilant Australians took the DRS, and though the ultra-edge didn’t flicker, the third umpire was, rightly, convinced that there was contact. Jaiswal protested with the umpires but as Rohit Sharma would say later, they knew there was contact and that they were just questioning the process of technology.
Sundar stonewalled impressively, paying no heed to chatter around him as at one point Cummins had all 10 men, barring the bowler of course, all around him. But the tailenders understandably couldn’t handle the sustained pressure and claustrophobia. Akash Deep survived 16 balls, but fell next ball, inside edging Boland to Head at short-leg. Jasprit Bumrah lasted 10 balls before yet again Boland struck, producing a nick behind and for the alert Steve Smith to wrap his palms around the ball, inches off the turf.
“Empathy? Not very much,” Cummins would say with a smile when he was asked if he felt that emotion that Bumrah had to finish on the losing side after an outstanding bowling performance on the fourth day. And when Siraj was trapped lbw by Lyon, Sundar was stranded on 5 from 45 balls, and Australians were jumping in joy. As they left the centre pitch area, Head returned to pluck out a stump, and hand it to the debutant Konstas. “It was the best Test win I was part of,” Cummins would gush later. It has to be said though that while Australians did conjure a win out of thin air by their passion, skill, and raging desire, India had left the door ajar for them to gatecrash. A Test that had begun with an infamous shoulder barge ended with all eleven Australians barging through and past India for the most memorable win seen at the G.
I’m Manas Ranjan Sahoo: Founder of “Webtirety Software”. I’m a Full-time Software Professional and an aspiring entrepreneur, dedicated to growing this platform as large as possible. I love to Write Blogs on Software, Mobile applications, Web Technology, eCommerce, SEO, and about My experience with Life.
