Who would’ve thought this would happen when there’s not much time left on the final day’s play but we got a result to settle though and it turned to be a good one with Australia victorious over India by 184 runs in order to keep their series hopes alive 2-1 going into the Sydney Cricket Ground decider starting Friday.
We began the morning with the Aussies all out for 234 with a 339 run lead after Nathan Lyon was bowled through the stumps for 41 by India’s frontline fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah who did collect his 5fer after all. That leaves India 340 to chase in order to not just win this match but also retain the series where they’ve been holding that firm for so many years now since March 2017 on home soil.
Fortunately, Australia got away with early wickets with one by Mitchell Starc and two from captain Pat Cummins – he’s a top bowling all-rounder of any kind even though scoring 40 odd runs across both spells at No.8 isn’t bad. Here’s a special shoutout to Travis Head by the way despite an underwhelming batting shift who got a wicket off Rishabh Pant and he’s a part-time spinner by the way in addition to batting on the top order (No.5).
Then Scotty Boland “the MCG hero” came in to save the day by dismantling the other India half batting card. That lower order they’ve got on there can still be terrifying as if all of their starting XI are batters including one that has eventually shrugged the good look of Yashasvi Jaiswal’s face after he actually knicked the ball straight into Alex Carey’s gloves.
He top scored 84 by the way and has been a brilliant opener through the course of this series so far but safe to say that he mistimed that hook shot unfortunately.
And the rest as the Aussies say is history who somehow managed to reach their arm’s length towards victory with thanks also to Nathan Lyon via LBW against Mohammed Siraj. He’s usually good when bowling offies having got rid of Day 3 centurion Nitish Kumar Reddy while he can bat a bit at the tail as seen throughout yesterday afternoon & he is still at it at 37.
What more can we say? Our batters are revved up and still on track to achieve something special again that could be championship-winning for the Sydney decider.
We’ve got a new cult hero and he’s only under 20 in Sam Konstas as sure he will continue to keep learning on what it takes to have a positive approach at Test level like scoring heaps of quick runs along the way when David Warner is now gone as message already sent worldwide including England who will come here next Summer for the home Ashes. Also, Steve Smith still on form, so does Marnus Labuschagne, and Usman Khawaja still has something left in the tank at 38 – at least for another 12 months when he wants to finish off on a high note especially against the English.
Now that we’ve done a victory shoutout lap to the Aussie Men’s Cricket Team after their triumphant win, they only have one job to go and they better take this series deciding opportunity with both hands. That way, we know the Aussies will go one step closer to not just beating India for this next Test but also the series on what has been a top-notch World Heavyweight Championship contest so far as if cricket meets boxing or WWE when writing an excelled scripted series storyline like this Test.
