At the Melbourne Test
After a couple of weeks' gestation, the ABC statistician returns with his reflections on a record-shattering Boxing-Day Test Match
My excitement at attending another Boxing Day Test is tempered by the fact that I have to leave yet another backyard cricket match mid-innings at the family Christmas celebration to catch a late-afternoon plane to Melbourne. The family is cunning: This time they’ve delayed said match, knowing my highly competitive nature, until I am about to leave. On the plus side, my bowling shoulder will not blow up like it did last year…
My diary tells me that today is the 50th anniversary, exactly, of my first trip to a Boxing Day Test, when my Dad and I made the trip to see our first Ashes Test, and to see live the legendary Australian team of Lillee and Thommo, the Chappells, Walters and Marsh. We witnessed a tense draw, with all four innings totals remarkably similar. We had made the same trip seven years earlier to see India, but that was held over the New Year.
Thursday
India enter this Test with confidence. In the last three tours to Australia, they have not lost a match at the two remaining venues for this series, Melbourne and Sydney—that is, six Tests, two wins (both at Melbourne) and four draws. With the series level at 1-1, India must feel confident of prevailing by the end.
I note that the engine-room of the Australian batting in this series is sadly below par coming into this Test, with Steve Smith averaging 29.50, Mitch Marsh 27.73, Marnus 25.93 and Usman Khawaja 23.69. I wonder how far selectorial loyalty trumps performance.
On the other hand, we have some youth injected into the team. Sam Konstas at nineteen years and 85 days is the fourth-youngest to don the Baggy Green, after Ian Craig (17y 239d), Pat Cummins (18y 193d) and Tom Garrett, who was 18y 232d when he played for Australia in its very first Test in 1877.
The pairing of Konstas and Khawaja to open the batting provides the largest generational gap between two Australian openers, relieving Sid Gregory and Charlie Kelleway of the honour (a difference of 16.03 years in 1912), and upping it to 18.79 years. Which is just about Konstas’s age! And—of course, you are wondering—the Australian opening pair most similar in age was the Hayden-Gilchrist pairing in 2001: just sixteen days!
Just to remind people that Boxing Day hasn’t been forever, this is in fact the thirtieth consecutive Boxing Day Test (i.e., one that starts on Boxing Day), and the 44th in all, with the first one being as recent as 1968. Before then Boxing Day was the preserve of the Very Important NSW v. Victoria Sheffield Shield match.
Konstas starts in a measured manner with a two that elevates him immediately fourteen places in the list of Australian Test run scorers. The is no sign of what is about to come.
Konstas becomes the first player from any country to play a ramp shot for six on the 38th ball before lunch on the first day of a Boxing Day Test at the MCG. (I have no basis for claiming that, but I defy anyone to contradict it.) In an extraordinary assault on the world’s best current bowler, Konstas takes fourteen off Jasprit Bumrah’s fourth over and another eighteen off his sixth.
Konstas, from NSW, reaches fifty, thereby breaking a run of three Victorians (Handscomb, Finch and Pucovski) to have been the last Australians to make fifty on debut.
Konstas smacks sixty off 65 balls, with Khawaja a bemused bystander, before he, Konstas, is out. His innings strike rate, 92.31 runs per 100 balls, is the second highest for an Australian scoring 50 on debut, after Ashton Agar’s extraordinary innings of 98 at Trent Bridge in 2013 at a strike rate of 97.03. I note that the player Konstas has replaced, Nathan McSweeney, needed 145 balls in three Tests to reach the same tally of runs as Konstas has mustered in 65 balls today.
But we are back to “old man’s cricket” as Labuschagne and Khawaja play more traditionally. With the top three all passing fifty, I note this is the first time since Rawalpindi in March 2022; such have been the travails of the top order.
With Australia finishing at 6-311 on the first day, I discover this has happened before: at Adelaide (coincidentally, also against India) just before Christmas in 1967. On that occasion, the individual scores, reading down the page, were 55, 42, 81, 85*, 0 and 2. Today they are 60, 57, 72, 68*, 0 and 4—a creepy similarity that must have caused Steve Smith (the 68*) a sleepless night, since the 85* (Bob Cowper) went for 92 the next day. I am assuming that Smithy knows this, but that wouldn’t be in doubt.
Friday
I make my annual pilgrimage to the Melbourne Cricket Club Library before play today. This is a wonderful institution, full of history, and a place in which I could spend a week. It is wonderfully curated by David and Trevor, who have allegedly been there since it opened in 1838. Given the work environment, I’d be reluctant to leave, too.
Fortunately for Smith, history only goes so far in repeating itself, and he goes on to 140 today—his 34th Test century, bringing him level with my co-commentator Gavaskar, together with Lara, Jayawardena and Younis Khan. I remember that when Smith went from 32 to 33, Kane Williamson across the ditch followed him the very next day, but unfortunately for Kane, he has run out, for the moment, of Test Matches to play, so Smith has escaped his clutches.
Smith’s century is also his fiftieth first-class hundred, being the 28th Australian to that milestone—or the 30th, if one includes two others who played significant roles in Australian cricket: Kepler Wessels and Murray Goodwin. Only two of this group didn’t play Test cricket, Michael di Venuto and Jamie Cox, again affirming my belief that the Bass Strait has an unhealthy influence on Tasmanians aspiring to play for Australia.
Smith and Pat Cummins combine for a seventh-wicket stand of 112, a new record for Australia against India at the MCG, relegating Brad Haddin and Peter Siddle (72 in 2011-12) to second place. Cummins’ batting fortunes are on the rise, as is demonstrated by his chronological batting quartiles of, successively, 20.96, 10.79, 17.33 and now 18.87.
The same can’t be said of Virat Kohli, whose own metric now reads 41.78, 63.20, 51.40 and 34.35. He makes 36 today, but still perishes fiddling outside the off-stump, as he is apt to do these days.
Saturday
The day is made famous by a memorable display of commentary by Sunil Gavaskar, who reveals how deeply invested he is in the fortunes of the team he once played in with distinction. Rishabh Pant, with his team nearly 300 runs in arrears, elects to take the aggressive route, and after a first failed try, attempts a second ramp against the pace and accuracy of Scott Boland and finds the waiting hands of Nathan Lyon behind the wicketkeeper on the boundary just in front of us. I, in a moment of nationalism, involuntarily execute a perfect fist pump, knowing how dangerous Pant can be, which Sunny, sitting beside me, must surely have noticed. He thereupon launches upon his now-famous “Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!” tirade, not coming up for air for at last two minutes as he berates the departing Pant with all the venom he can muster. Whatever the ABC pay him, he returns it with interest in these few minutes, as we all sit stunned around him. Brilliant radio! Later on in the day, he has the contrasting opportunity to applaud one of his countrymen.
Sunny Gavaskar, alongside Corbin Middlemas, shows a countenance that reflects his name. Jim Maxwell, in the background, is more pensive.
Until I met my co-commentator Corbin Middlemas some years ago, I had never heard of his given name before. He is mightily chuffed, therefore, when I am able to inform him that overnight Corbin Bosch, a newcomer to the South African team (currently playing Pakistan), by taking 4/63 and scoring 81, has made the best-ever all-round performance by a Corbin in the first half of a Test Match.
After Pant’s indiscretion, India’s lower order digs in, and Nitesh Reddy and Washington Sundar add 127 for the eighth wicket—a record for India at the MCG, and just two runs shy of India’s record in Australia, made by Sachin Tendulkar and Harbhajan Singh at Sydney in 2008. The previous MCG record for India was 72 by the Nawab of Pataudi and Rusi Surti in 1967-68.
Reddy goes on to his maiden Test match century, and really looks the part in this company; his temperament is clearly superior to many of those who bat above him. I note that he is only the second Indian to make his maiden Test century at the MCG, after Vinoo Mankad, way back in 1947-48. On reaching 100, Sunny stands for an ovation, and an oration, clapping loudly as he extols the virtues of this very good young cricketer. It’s been wildly-swinging emotions for Sunny today.
The lunch break is spent interviewing Paul Kelly, one of the best-known contemporary Australian musicians. Paul is a former grade cricketer in Adelaide, a passionate fan, takes a keen interest in the statistics, and has incorporated the likes of Shane Warne into his original music. We spend some time after chatting about my experience as an a capella quartet singer, his fondness for Irving Rosenwater’s book on Test cricket, and the occasion of Irving visiting my home many years ago, when he was covering a match in Hobart. My overriding memory of that encounter was his disparaging remarks about a newspaper caricature of Lord Sheffield when he visited Australia in 1891-92, and of whom photographs are virtually non-existent. This image appears in the history of the Sheffield Shield edited by Chris Harte (opposite the title page, for those who have it), to which I contributed a section on the formation of the competition, plus the illustration, which, unlike dear old Irving, I find totally endearing:
Sunday
After Australia’s traditional mid-inning collapse, Marnus finds a willing partner in his skipper Cummins, who makes 41. Added to his first-innings 49, this gives him as many as 90 runs for the first time in a Test match. On the other side of the ledger, Mitch Marsh (4 and 0) has his least productive Test match (of those in which he has batted in both innings), and Travis Head (0 and 1) only has the pair at the Gabba last season to prevent him sharing the same fate.
Australia are 283 runs ahead when Scott Boland joins Nathan Lyon, so there are many calling for a late-evening declaration in order to give the Australians an opportunity to cadge a wicket or two before play ends. Cummins resists the urge, allowing Boland (65 balls overnight) to play comfortably his longest Test innings, exceeding the forty balls he faced at Edgbaston in 2023. It is easy to believe that the stubborn and technically well-equipped Boland once played an innings of 213 balls in a Shield match. It is not difficult to recall, since I had to sit through it—he made 51 as nightwatchman—in Hobart over a decade ago, and have had nightmares over it ever since.
Monday
Jasprit Bumrah wraps up the Australian innings in the third over of the day as Boland extends his innings to 74 balls and the tenth-wicket partnership to 61. It’s the second-highest against India at the MCG, leaving Border and Gilbert’s 77 in 1985-86 intact.
With Lyon out for 41, as Cummins was yesterday, I observe that it is exactly fifty years (1974-75) since Australia played an innings that included two scores of 41. Redpath and Marsh obliged on that occasion in Perth.
Of the 85 bowlers with 200 Test wickets, Bumrah is the only one with a sub-twenty average, sitting on 19.43 as India walk off the field. Of the 61 bowlers with fifty wickets in Australia, his 17.18 lies third, behind Nineteenth-Century exponents “Terror” Turner (14.84) and Englishman William Bates (16.42). Even Hadlee (17.83) is in the shade. At one point in Australia’s collapse yesterday, he had a spell of 3-1-4-3, bowling to allegedly the cream of Australia’s batters.
Bumrah now has thirty wickets in the series—the second-highest by an Indian in Australia, behind Bishen Bedi’s 31 wickets in 1977-78. Of those with thirty wickets, Bumrah’s average of 12.83 puts him only third behind Herbert Ironmonger (31 at 9.55 v RSA, 1931-32) and Hadlee’s 1985-86 effort of 33 at 12.15. It has been a privilege to watch Bumrah this summer.
Away from this game, there is a discussion about Kurtis Patterson’s excellent domestic form. This concerns me greatly, because Patterson (144.00) has the top Test batting average of all time, and a return to the team risks compromising this exalted position. I hope his age (thirty-one now) will prevent his second coming.
The Indians are set 340 to win this enthralling Test, made so by the best pitch of the series so far. The record is mixed where this target has been set before: two losses for the chasers, two draws. My gut feeling is that India is good enough to play the match out.
Captain Pat has different ideas, and after a relaxed start by India (25 runs in sixteen overs), he snares both Sharma and Rahul with the first and last balls of his seventh over to catches behind the wicket.
When Virat Kohli falls to Starc shortly thereafter, I note that the only other time Australia has had its opposition 3-33 in the fourth innings of a Test was at the ’Gabba in 2002-03, when England eventually expired for 79. All of a sudden, it doesn’t look so good for India.
Kohli is Mitchell Starc’s first wicket of the match. I imagine he sighs a breath of relief, since it is 25 Tests since he played in a Test without taking a wicket. In 93 Tests, he has only failed to take a wicket thrice: Chennai in 2012-13, The Oval in 2015, and Rawalpindi in 2021-22.
Pant waits this time until he has batted two-and-a-quarter hours before he essays a speculative waft over long-on. Mitch Marsh lurks there, however, and gratefully accepts a difficult swirling catch right in front of us. Marsh’s batting has been less than productive lately, but no-one can fault his efforts in the field. I count four outstanding catches in the last two Tests, including two blinders at gully—one at Brisbane, and the other at gully off Sharma just a little earlier today.
Fortunately for the ear-drums of ABC listeners, Sunny G is doing a television stint when Pant gets out to this unnecessary shot. There is a long on-air discussion about what might have been said had he been with us at this moment.
Predictably, Pant’s dismissal precipitates a collapse, and India lose their last seven wickets for 34 runs in just over twenty overs. Nathan Lyon traps Mohammad Siraj lbw at 5:24 pm, just six minutes before the scheduled end of what has come closest in my experience to the perfect forty-wicket five-day Test. Australia prevail by 184 runs.
India’s decline of 7/34 is their second-worst collapse at the MCG, just beating the 7/32 suffered here in 1947-48; but their worst in the fourth innings of a Test here.
Young Yashashvi Jaiswal, having made 82 in the first innings, departs somewhat controversially today for 84, just failing to beat VVS Laxman’s 85 and 87 at Barbados in 2011 for the most runs scored by an Indian in a match by compiling two innings with a difference of two runs. Marnus in this Test has tried much the same thing with 72 and 70, but he’s nowhere near the all-comers’ record of 144 and 142, set by Steve Smith at Edgbaston in 2019.
Lyon’s wicket takes his career tally to 538, thus moving ahead of his Indian rival Ravichandran Ashwin (537), who bizarrely has announced his international retirement midway through this tour. Lyon’s career of 133 Tests is shaded by Ashwin’s 106, but it can be argued that Lyon has had much more bowling support than Ashwin.
This Test has obviously captured the imagination of the public, bolstered by a sizeable Indian contingent, with a massive 373,691 attending this match. The daily numbers are staggering: 87,242, 85,147, 83,073, 43,867 and on the last day, an incredible 74,362. The previous record, 350,534, set in 1937 when the English tourists drew huge crowds to the Test, is swamped by lunch time today.
Just a reminder that Test-Match cricket is not yet finished at the MCG this season, we observe an unusual advertising gimmick as we wend our way home:
Nor has the record-breaking for the day finished yet. The fifty-minute flight home from Melbourne later in the evening (not in the above balloon) is exceeded by the 65 minute-wait for our luggage to appear on the carousel once we’ve arrived, thus establishing a new mark in the category of Waiting for One’s Bag. This confirms my assessment that Hobart Airport is the most dysfunctional hectare in Australia.
Ric Finlay serves on the ACS general committee, and as cricket statistician and scorer for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
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