Australia vs India: Home side take Test series lead after flurry of wickets at the MCG as Pat Cummins stars | Cricket News happymamay

Australia overcame India during the final hour of the fourth Test in Melbourne to take a 2-1 lead in the dramatic series.

India needed 340 runs to win at the start of the final day and looked on course to secure a draw when they reached tea-time with just three wickets to spare.

But Rashib Pant holed out Mitchell Marsh on the boundary off Travis Head, the first of seven wickets to fall for 34 runs as they collapsed to 155 all out.

Pant (30) and opener Yashasvi Jaiswal, who was clearly unhappy when the third umpire ruled that he had put the glove of Pat Cummins on wicket-keeper Alex Carey for 84, provided the main resistance.

But no other Indian batsman reached double figures as they slumped after a 184-run defeat.

Scott Boland struck twice before Nathan Lyon wrapped up the innings when he trapped Mohammed Siraj leg before as the last three wickets fell for five runs in three overs.

Lyon was bowled out by Jasprit Bumrah, who finished with 5-57, for 41 as Australia were bowled out for 234 at the start of the day.

The final match of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series begins on Friday at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

Australia will secure a place in the World Test Championship final against South Africa to defend their title if they win the final Test.

Cummins: One of the best auditions I’ve ever been to

Australian captain and Test player Pat Cummins:

“What an amazing trial match, I think it’s one of the best I’ve been involved in. The crowd all week were absolutely ridiculous and it was great to be part of it.

“Winning the toss, it wasn’t easy on the first day, and to get to the 400-run mark was great. We wanted to take India’s win out of the equation. We had a lot of runs to play with, and we had a lot of helmets around. We bat as we can.”

“Steve (Smith)’s amazing innings showed how to bat on those wickets. It was brilliant, some useful catches, sometimes unnoticed slips.

“We put a lot of work into the lower-order batting, how best to hit opposition batsmen, but also how we can contribute with the bat. We were a little behind in the over-rate, so I thought, ‘Get Trav in there, that might help us.'” Changing Room “So happy, we’ll enjoy this before we get to Sydney.”

India Captain Rohit Sharma:

“It’s very disappointing. It’s not that we went in with the intention of giving up the fight. We wanted to fight until the end and unfortunately we couldn’t do that.

“It would be difficult to evaluate just the last two sessions. If you look at the overall Test match, we had our chances, but we didn’t take them. We had Australia 90-6.”

“We know things can get tough, but we want to play tough cricket from tough positions. I don’t want to look at one situation.

“We were not good enough. I went back to my room and thought what we could do as a team, but we gave it our all. But they fought hard, especially that partnership in the last wicket, which probably cost us the loss.” game.

“We knew 340 was not going to be easy. We tried to set a stand and keep the wicket in hand over the last two overs, but they bowled it perfectly too. We wanted to get the target, but we didn’t get it,” he said. “The platform from our side. There are ways to win matches and we failed to find ways to win matches.”