Australia battles to victory in MCG epic, controversial and captivating to the last

It was always going to end like this.

One way or another this Test match was going to traverse the bends and bumps and meet us right here, with the shadows at their longest and fielders around the bat like fruit flies.

This magnificent game, so ridden with subplot from the very first ball of day one, had the feeling of an epic from the outset. And with a dramatic final act that won’t soon be forgotten, it got the finish it deserved.

Through fatigue and controversy and brave Indian batting, Australia emerged with the most battle-worn of victories.

It was a reward for Australia’s careful calculation and its patience on a fifth day that featured the requisite momentum swings, but also for the raw physical endeavour of its bowling attack.

This was simply a Test Australia had to win. And though it took every sinew of effort and self-belief, somehow Australia won it.

Captain Pat Cummins was titanic all day, Scott Boland dipped his statue in gold. Nathan Lyon, called upon in a meaningful way for the first time all summer, met the moment as a champion does.

Mitchell Starc seemed to be bowling with a broken back all week, but it was he who removed Virat Kohli before lunch in a moment that proved as pivotal as it felt at the time.

Australia held its catches, another key point of difference with its opponents. Sam Konstas didn’t stop yapping for the entire afternoon, and at one point managed to orchestrate Bay 13 festivities from silly point. The untapped powers of youth know no bounds.

The Australians trusted themselves, taking a risk by delaying the declaration first on Sunday night but especially on Monday morning. Having played the percentages, taking an Indian win almost totally out of the equation, it was up to the bowlers to deliver in a shortened window with the 10 wickets required for victory.

As is often the case with these sorts of game, the match resets at the tea break of the last day and, freed of the context of everything that had come before, it becomes a war of attrition. At that stage the pitch is worn and so are the bodies, and so every over becomes its own battlefront.

It can make men do crazy things.

Take Rishabh Pant for example, always a gust of wind away from the inexplicable. Having batted with an admirable resolve for the entirety of the middle session, putting India in a strong position to save a draw, he came out for the final stanza in a charitable mood.

Australia was expecting to have to fight for every one of the seven wickets it needed in the last 38 overs of the match, but here was one express delivered. Travis Head, bowling only to keep Australia on the right side of the over rate ledger, dropped one disgustingly short and watched Pant hoik it straight down Mitch Marsh’s throat at cow corner.

If Pant’s first-innings dismissal, rank enough to prompt a rare triple “stupid!” from Sunil Gavaskar in the commentary box, wasn’t costly enough this was a dagger into Indian hearts. So needless and so sloppy, Australia consequently saw its victory in the stars.

Suddenly the game was alive. Boland, the undisputed master of the MCG, found lift where before there hadn’t been lift to clip the shoulder of Ravindra Jadeja’s bat and take Australia to the halfway point.

Nitish Kumar Reddy, so spectacular in the first innings, was a victim of momentum as Australia’s wave became a tsunami. His prod forward to Lyon found only an outside edge and the swift hands of Steve Smith. The Australians, for the first time in a while, were clear favourites.

But Yashasvi Jaiswal was still there, and with him Indian hope. The young star has made a habit of turning starts into big scores, and as ball after ball flirted with but beat his outside edge, the feeling grew that it might be Jaiswal’s day.

Cue yet more drama. Cummins dropped in a dying short ball towards Jaiswal, who attempted a cramped pull shot. The ball took Jaiswal’s glove, or maybe even ran up the face of his bat, deflecting about six inches and changing its trajectory completely on its way to Alex Carey.

Umpire Joel Wilson, for reasons known only to himself, gave it not out. Cummins had reviewed before Wilson had finished shaking his head.

The very first replay proved conclusively, to anyone who was open to the prospect, that Jaiswal was out. The third umpire recognised as much, but ran the snicko anyway — and no spike appeared.

That’s almost certainly due to the brushing nature of the contact — the bat helped the ball on its way gently, rather than abruptly striking an edge — and fortunately the third umpire trusted his eyes first and foremost.

It felt like a flashpoint even while it was unfolding, and the BCCI will surely have plenty to say in the coming days. Salt was rubbed in the Indian wounds when Akash Deep was subsequently given out thanks to an inside edge to short leg — not by the bewildering umpire Wilson, but by the spike on the DRS’s snickometer.

Both decisions ended up being correct, but the processes were undoubtedly curious and both went in Australia’s favour — a recipe for a conspiracy and a half.

Their get-out clause now prepared, India’s resistance swiftly vacated the premises. Jasprit Bumrah nicked one from Boland, Mohammed Siraj planted his pad in front of a Nathan Lyon delivery and the Australian celebrations were launched.

Test cricket doesn’t get a whole lot better than the past five days. More people attended the MCG this week than for any other cricket match in Australian history, and they were treated to the full gamut — the emergence of youth, the proclamation of greatness, the fight of India and the spirit of Australia.

The fifth Test is only a handful of days away, and how these players back up for Sydney is anyone’s guess. Both sides have selection concerns confronting them, with Sharma in India’s firing line and Marsh in Australia’s. Starc too has to be considered a doubt considering the grimace that hasn’t left his face for days.

It’s incredibly rare that a five-Test series remains live for the final match at the SCG. Australia has the security of now knowing a win or a draw would earn them the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, but India has very recent form with stirring underdog wins down under.

It is a gift we have before us next week, only days after we’ve finished consuming this one. Perhaps we are being greedy, or perhaps we are simply indulging in the spoils of Test cricket as we have always known, captivating to the last.