Australia claims dramatic final-hour victory against India in 4th Test

Melbourne : Australia took seven wickets in the final session of the final day to claim a thrilling 184-run victory in front of a record test crowd Monday in the fourth test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

With less than 40 minutes remaining in the match, Nathan Lyon trapped Mohammed Siraj lbw to bowl India out for 155 in its second innings and complete a remarkable match that had more than 370,000 people attend across the five days.

Australia now takes a 2-1 advantage ahead of the fifth and final test which is scheduled to start on Jan. 3 at the Sydney Cricket Ground, where avoiding a defeat will be enough to regain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy for the first time in 10 years.

“It’s probably the best test match I’ve been involved in,” said man-of-the-match Cummins, who took 3-28 off 18 overs Monday for six wickets in the match, plus playing valuable innings of 49 and 41 at No.8. “I don’t know what the crowd was today, but it was huge.

“Overall, it was one of those great wins.”

Earlier, India had been 25 without loss when Pat Cummins produced a double-wicket maiden, dismissing Rohit Sharma (9) and K.L. Rahul (0).

India went to lunch at a shaky 33-3, losing the crucial wicket of Virat Kohli in the final over of the session when the star right-hander was caught at first slip for five off Mitchell Starc’s bowling.

Rishabh Pant (30 off 104 balls) and opener Yashavi Jaiswal added 88 runs for the fourth wicket.

But with India seemingly playing for a draw, Pant aggressively clubbed a delivery from part-time spinner Travis Head to long-on and was caught at 121-4 just after tea, sparking a calamitous seven-wicket collapse for the visitors.

India lost three wickets for nine runs as Scott Boland (3-39) removed Ravindra Jadeja (2) caught behind and first-innings century-maker Nitish Kumar Reddy (1) edged to slip off the bowling of spinner Lyon (2-37).

In a pivotal moment of the innings, Jaiswal was given out after Australia called for a review when an appeal for caught-behind was turned down by umpire Joel Wilson. Despite no sound being picked up on ‘snicko’, video replays appeared to show the ball glanced off the bat and glove and Jaiswal had to depart for 84 off the bowling of Cummins (3-28) at 140-7.

With less than an over remaining before the final hour of play was due to start, Wilson again turned Australia’s appeal down and the decision was overturned following a review by the hosts. Boland claimed his second wicket as Akash Deep fell, caught at bat-pad for 17 at 150-8.

Boland struck again to remove Jasprit Bumrah for a duck and Siraj was lbw to Lyon in the last over before the second new ball was due and sparked wild celebrations among the Australian players and in the stands.

But with a fifth test starting Friday and the possibility that India could still win in Sydney and draw the series 2-2 to retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, Cummins said there was little time for celebrations.

“It’s a short turnaround. We’ll savor this for a couple of hours at least and then it will be recovery for the next three days,” Cummins said. “You gear up again for the last test of the summer. It’s a mix of happiness and rest for the next three days.”

A crowd of 74,362 for Monday’s fifth day of play lifted the total attendance to 373,691, beating the previous record for a Melbourne test match of 350,534 in the 1936-37 Ashes series.

Australia was dismissed in its second innings for 234 on Monday morning. Bumrah (5-57) claimed his 13th five-wicket haul by bowling Lyon (41) in the second over of the morning after the home side resumed on 228-9.

Bumrah, 31, is the leading wicket-taker in the series with 30 victims at an average of 12.83.

The 44-test veteran took match figures of 9-156. Bumrah is the only player in test history with at least 200 wickets and a bowling average under 20 (203 at 19.42).

Steve Smith top-scored with 140 in Australia’s first innings of 474. India replied with 369, led by Reddy’s 114.

“It is pretty disappointing. We wanted to fight until the end but unfortunately we couldn’t do it,” India’s captain Rohit Sharma said. “We had our chances. We just didn’t take them and we let Australia come back into the game when we had them 91 for six (in its second innings).” — (AP)