Australia vs India, 4th Test at Melbourne, AUS vs IND, Dec 26 2024 - Match Result

5.43pm Like Cummins said, what a Test match. We'll have plenty (and that's an understatement) of post-match content chewing over what we've witnessed from all possible angles, so please do check out all of that as soon as it's up. But for us commentators and scorers, it's time for a well-deserved (if we can say so ourselves) rest. It's been a pleasure bringing this match to you. Until next time, it's goodbye from me, Gnasher and Thilak. I'll leave you with a few more reader comments.

Ahmed: "Its amazing how the players who are playing in Australia for the 1st time fared way above compared to the ones who has played in Australia many times and that is the main reason for India being in this position in the series."

Fox: "Only Scenario left of India to qualify for WTC final is to win the last test match and hope SRL to beat Aus in both test match. Any draw out of last three matches of Aus will be nail in the coffin for India's hope."

Gage: "This last day felt a lot like Adelaide in 2014. Just like that test, India were cruising along until a long hop was hit to Mitchell Marsh in the outfield. Floodgates opened from there."

mayank s: "Simple equation for next test match- Gill in, Rohit out. Bumrah to captain and manage himself!" -- A lot of speculation around Rohit and Kohli now. Let's see how it all pans out.

Pat Cummins wins the Johnny Mullagh medal for the Player of the Match, named after the star player on the 1868 Aboriginal tour of England. "What an amazing Test match, I reckon one of the best I've been part of," he says. "All week the crowd has been ridiculous, and it's been amazing to be part of. Marnus helped me out in that second innings big time, happy to contribute. Amazing innings from Steve, winning the toss, it wasn't easy on the first day, to get up to high 400s was terrific. We wanted to take an India victory out of the equation [on batting on and not declaring]. We had plenty of runs to play with, and as many helmets around the bat as we could. We put a lot of work into our lower-order batting, we work a lot on how best to bowl to the opposition batters firstly, but also how we can contribute with the bat. We were a bit behind on the over rate, so we thought, get Trav in there, it may help us out with that. [Smith] just showed how to bat on that wicket. He was brilliant, and some handy catches, sometimes that goes unnoticed in the slips. Very happy change room, we'll savour this for a little bit before we get to Sydney."

Rohit Sharma: "It is pretty disappointing. It's not that we went in with the intent of giving up the fitght. We wanted to fight till the end and unfortunately we couldn't do it. It'll be tough to assess 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 for 6. We know things can get tough, but we want to play tough cricket from hard situations. I don't want to look at one situation. We were not good enough. I went back to my room and thought about what else we could have done as a team, but we threw everything we had, but they fought hard, especially that last-wicket partnership, which probably cost us the game there. We knew 340 wasn't going to be easy. We tried to set a platform and keep wickets in hand for the last two sessions, but they bowled perfectly as well. We wanted to go for the target, but we didn't set the platform from our side. There are ways to win games and we fell short in finding ways to win games. [On NKR:] He's coming here for the first time, these conditions can get really tough, but he showed great character, solid technique as well. He's got everything to be successful at this level, I hope he goes from strength to strength, and he's got all the backing from the team as well. [On Bumrah:] Absolutely brillaint, we've been watching him for so many years now, coming here and getting the job done. He's not a statistical person, just wants to play for the country and do well for the team, but unfortunately he's not got a lot of support from the other side."

5.23pm What a finish. What a session for Australia, who go 2-1 up and are now pushing hard in their quest to regain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. India were 112 for 3 at tea, and then that dismissal of Rishabh Pant opened things up dramatically. India have lost their last seven wickets for 34 runs. In the space of 20.3 overs. This is what can happen on a day-five surface if you give an opening to a bowling attack this good. Cummins, Starc, Boland, Lyon. They've all been exceptional. Australia have been the better team for most of this series, and as well as India have played it's fair that the series is 2-1 to the home team heading into the final Test.

For India, I'll go back to their selection. Three strike bowlers, three allrounders who are more batters than bowlers (in these conditions). Their fast bowlers had Australia 191 for 6 in the first innings and 91 for 6 in the second, and both times Australia's lower order took it away from India. As many runs as Reddy and Washington scored in the first innings, I don't think it made up for all the runs they gave away by not having enough bowling depth and by overbowling their three frontline quicks.

"There's always belief in this group, it's been a feature of this group over the years," Mitchell Starc says. "Calmness and ability to adapt to situations."

"I've had four and a half days, didn't do much with the bat, happy to contribute [with the Pant wicket]," Travis Head says. What was the plan to Pant? "Have everyone on the fence and bowl a rank one. Two teams went at it pretty hard, and there were moments where both teams stepped up."

Shubha : "Most Tests are won by a solid 1st innings total (like this). The moment India were behind by more than 100 runs , winning was never in question. When you start playing not to win ,your chances of losing increase manifold."

Udayan: "Rishabh should atleast had a look at the field before putting that shot He will cop a lot of criticism and deservedly so since he was playing patiently." -- It was smart from Australia, and it went in their favour. Mid-on was about 2/3rds of the way back, and there was a big gap between that fielder and deep midwicket. He didn't hit it as well as he wanted to.

Anurag : "3 months back India was a sure contender for the wtc finals and now have no hope left. That's a drastic turnaround in the wrong direction "

Lyon, over the wicket to Siraj with two slips, two silly points and two short legs. And a leg gully.

Round the wicket to Washington

Here's Siraj.

Phani: "Why is Washington not trying to steal singles of the last ball?" -- He doesn't want to get out trying to work the ball across the line or something.

Lyon, round the wicket, with five around the bat on the leg side and three on the off. I think. Ah, I reversed the sides because the left-hander is on strike. Five catchers in a ring on the off side, three on the leg.

Drinks. We'll have 15 overs after this, or a full hour of play, whatever occurs later. So we could have more than 15 if they really rush through this. (And if India survive that long)

And we could have one more variable as this goes on. Alex tells us the floodlights have come on.

Vishak: "Why was Sundar not farming the strike and letting Akashdeep face so many balls? Seems to have missed the memo there!"

dav: "On the coverage you can see a new mark on the edge of the bat above the existing cherry created as the ball goes past"

A lot of you are saying there was a spike on Ultra Edge. Like I said, I probably missed it because I was typing as I was watching.

Here's Bumrah, the man least deserving of defeat in the world.

Four overs to go for the new ball. Boland returns. Over the wicket, with short leg and silly point and a dozen fielders behind the wicket.