‘It’s right at the top’

Australia skipper and player of the match Pat Cummins reckons his team’s 184-run win over India at the Melbourne Cricket Ground is one of the greatest

Pat Cummins said Monday he rates the fourth Test victory over India by 184 runs as “right at the top” of the greatest games he has played in for Australia. 

A rollicking match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground was won late on Day Five when the home side blasted out seven Indian wickets in the final session. Cummins was named player of the match for his all-round deeds, including taking three key wickets on the final day as the tourists were skittled for 155. 

Highest attendance record

He did it in front of a final-day crowd of nearly 75,000, pushing the combined attendance across five days to 3,73,691, easily the highest for any match played in Australia. 

The 66-Test veteran said he agreed with several team-mates that the Test was among the best they’d played in. “I just felt everyone was talking, trying to work out where it sits. I reckon that it’s right at the top,” Cummins said. 

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“When you take it all into account, it’s probably the best Test match I’ve been involved in. “I don’t know what the crowd was today, but it was huge,” he said. 

“It felt like the match swung a lot as well. It never felt like we were so far ahead of the game that a win looked certain. So overall, just one of those great wins.”
 
While Australia’s attack was devastating late on Day Five, Cummins believed victory was set up in the morning when key trio Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul and Virat Kohli were dismissed cheaply. “I reckon that first session today [Monday] was close to perfection from a bowling point of view,” he said. 

Australia can reclaim the Border-Gavaskar Trophy if they win or draw the fifth and final Test starting in Sydney on Friday. 

Cummins expected Mitchell Starc to be fit to play, even though the pace bowler was wincing throughout the second innings, favouring what is believed to be a rib complaint. 

Starc fully fit for Sydney Test

“We’ll reassess in a couple of days but he’s a warrior, he gets through. He never even contemplates not being an option to bowl. So yeah, other than 
being in pain, he’s fully fit and available,” Cummins said. 

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