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The 2018 Boxing Day Test match at the MCG saw India outplay the Aussies completely and register a 137-run win.
Virat Kohli won the toss and elected to bat first. India made the full use of the day 1 surface and piled on a huge score of 443 runs before declaring and putting Australia to bat. The hero of the day was Cheteshwar Pujara who scored a magnificent century.
Day 3 began with Indian pacers blowing away the Aussies with Bumrah giving his career-best performance, taking six wickets for just 33 runs. Australia fell behind India’s target by a huge margin of 292 runs. To everyone’s surprise, the Indian captain decided not to enforce the follow-on.
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In their second innings, India lost some quick early wickets to Pat Cummins and thereafter declared setting Australia a daunting 399 runs to chase. Australia’s reply was better than their first innings but was never at par with India. Pat Cummins was their hero with a bat scoring a gritty 63 when everyone else around him failed.
With this win, India took an unsalable lead of 2-1 in the series. And to no surprise, Twitter was as reactive as it could have been. So let us have a look at who said what:
Virat Kohli: "We are not going to stop here. This has given us more confidence to play more positive cricket in Sydney. We've done well in all three departments, which is why we've retained the trophy. But we want to continue. This is how we played in South Africa too, and we're not ready for the final game. It's a good thing I don't read any comments or opinions (on not enforcing the follow-on). I wanted us to bat more, and add some more runs, because batting would be difficult on day four and five. We knew that it would be tough for Australia, but credit to our bowlers, especially Jasprit. The three fast bowlers have broken the record for most wickets by pacers in a calendar year for a team, which is brilliant. I certainly feel proud as a captain when they bowl in partnerships. No one is looking to out-bowl each other. Our first-class cricket is amazing, which is why we won. Credit must go to first-class set-up in India, which challenges our fast bowlers in India, and that helps them abroad. Agarwal showed great character on Boxing Day. And Pujara has always been composed, so we just wanted a big partnership. And the fact that Vihari batted so long in the first innings, it allowed us to bat more confidently. And Rohit's 60-odd as well. (Can you be the first Indian captain to win a Test series?) Honestly I cannot answer that. Nothing can distract us from trying to win that final Test, because we've never been in a position to win a series. Thank you."
Tim Paine: "We made some strides forward in Perth, but this was disappointing. We're playing against some of the best bowlers, and we need to find positives before Sydney. Another huge challenge coming up. We had little discussions about the batting order, but conditions in Sydney will be different, so we'll decide on the best formula. The pitch was a good one, although some said it's a 'bad wicket'. I was glad I didn't win the toss, because I wanted to bowl anyway. Would've looked disastrous. Cummins has been superb all series. The quality was always there, but the Australian public can see his effort. We just need a few more guys to jump in with him. It's been a difficult year, but the silver lining is that we'll have some world-class players available for selection in a few months. And we'll see the benefits of what happened this year over the next few."
Jasprit Bumrah, Man of the Match: It is a great feeling. I always wanted to play Test cricket. I am really happy to contribute to team's success. I always focus on consistency. My aim is to always focus on inconsistency, We train very hard and we are used to bowling a lot of overs in Ranji Cricket so body is doing well. It was always a dream to play Test cricket. I started learning slowly, hopefully, the start has been good. I hope it will keep getting better.
Here is how the Twitter reacted:
1) Mumbai Indians
2) Harsha Bhogle
3) Aakash Chopra
4) VVS Laxman
5) Sachin Tendulkar
6) Joy Bhattacharjya
7) Boria Majumdar
8) Mohammed Shami
9) R Ashwin
10) Hardik Pandya
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