After Australia took a 2-1 lead in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, skipper Pat Cummins reckons the 184-run win over India in the Boxing Day Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground is one of the best games he's played in.
He was named the Johnny Mullagh medal awarded to Player of the Match, after the star player of the 1868 Aboriginal tour of England. With that match, the records speak as he performed wonders in all-around skills by clobbering crucial knocks of 49 and 41 in the bat while taking figures of 3-89 and 3-28 with the ball that gave Australia a memorable win.
"What an amazing Test match, I reckon 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. Marnus helped me out in that second innings big time, happy to contribute," he said in the post-match presentation ceremony.
He also discussed how the big first-innings total and lower-order contributions brought Australia to seize decisive moments in the match. "Amazing innings from Steve, winning the toss, it wasn't easy on the first day, to get up to high 400s was terrific.". It seems to me we have invested huge work into lower-order batting and that we spend a lot working how we bowl against opposition batters first off but also how we might add with the bat".
Cummins also disclosed the reason behind not declaring overnight was to avoid having chances of an Indian win. "We wanted to take an India victory out of the equation (by not declaring). We had plenty of runs to play with, and as many helmets around the bat as we could."
We were a bit behind on the over rate, so we thought, get Trav in there, it may help us out with that. Him bowling to Pant was an idea by the coaching staff. Very happy change room, we'll savour this for a little bit before we get to Sydney."
Head, who took the key wicket of Pant said that he was happy to contribute with the ball after a rare quiet Test with the bat. "I've had four and a half days, didn't do much with the bat, happy to contribute. (The plan to Pant) Have everyone on the fence and bowl a rank one. Two teams went at it pretty hard, and there were moments where both teams stepped up."
Left-arm pacer Mitchell Starc said the belief in the Australian camp to win at Melbourne was ever-present. "There's always belief in this group, it's been a feature of this group over the years. Calmness and ability to adapt to situations."
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