Australia regain Border-Gavaskar Trophy, set up WTC final date with SA
Without Bumrah, India's hopes faded away as Australia wrapped up the win within three days
Without Bumrah, India's hopes faded away as Australia wrapped up the win within three days
Scorer: Ranjith P | Commentator: Ashish Pant
What a corker of a series this has been! Right from the first Test in Perth to this, here in Sydney. India had their moments, but Australia keep coming back and then had the upper-hand. It's been a pleasure bringing you the coverage today and right across the series. Thank You for tuning in. Until then, this is me Ashish Pant, signing off on behalf of Alex Malcolm and Venkat Raghav. Ciao!
A beaming Cummins walks up to Allan Border to collect the trophy, one that has evaded them for close to ten years. Only four players from this squad have ever held the BGT, so this is a special feeling for them. Cummins takes a selfie to frame this moment. Deivarayan Muthu's report is almost ready. Do have a read in case you missed out on an action today while Alagappan Muthu, Andrew McGlashan will have the post-match copies up soon.
Pat Cummins, the winning captain: [Feelings] Unreal. It is one that a few of us didn't have. The boys have had their eye on it and it has lived up to the hype. We were just clear with the plans. [Plans in the morning] Wanted to minimise the runs. We knew it was going to be a tricky wicket. The batters had a good method. Ultimately it worked out. Immensely proud. We have spent a lot of time as a group. Perth was not as bad as it seems. We have had a lot of fun along the way. Some success along the way is always nice. It has been such a special group. We feel so privileged to have achieved what we have. Really proud. We are also having the best times of our lives. It is always nice. [Youngsters] Three debutants this series and all came in and contributed. Beau today was fantastic. Pretty happy with how I played throughout the series. [On Head and Smith] Some key moments some of our mainstays really stood up. in those key moments, these people have turned up. [On the series] It will go down as one of my favourite series. The fans have made this series. MCG was great, and three sellouts in Sydney. It is such a special day in the calendar. It is something I grew up with. We are cleberaing such a great cause.
Jasprit Bumrah is the Player of the Series for his 32 wickets: [Injury] A little frustrating but sometimes you have to respect your body, and you can't fight your body. Sometimes you have to accept. Would have loved to bowl on the spiciest wicket of the series. Just had a little discomfort after the first innings. [Chat in the morning] The chatter was about belief. The other bowlers stepped up in the first innings as well. This morning the chat was also about belief. Lots of ifs and buts. The whole series was well fought. Today also we were there. It was a well-fought series. [On the learnings] A lot of experience and learnings. A lot of the younger players have come in, and the learnings will help us in future. They have gained a lot of experience and they will go from strength to strength. It is all about adapting and learning. We will want to take the learnings forward. It was great series and congratulations to Australia. We will regroup and go forward from here.
Scott Boland is the Player of the Match for his 10 for 76: That will be nice. It's been a really enjoyable couple of months. I didn't think I would take too much part in the series. But I was prepared. Just got my body right, did some gym work and here I am. [The win] It was awesome. To win 3-1 against India, hasn't been done for a while. It was awesome. I am just happy to play the part whenever possible.
Time for presentation
A few stats courtesy Namooh Shah:
1) Most runs in a BGT series batting at 5 or lower
Michael Clarke 626 runs, 2011/12 VVS Laxman 470 runs, 2003.04 Travis Head 446 runs, 2024/25 Andrew Symonds 410 runs, 2007/08 Michael Clarke 400 runs, 2004/05
2) Highest RR in a chase of 150+ in Australia in tests 6.00 AUS v IND, Sydney 2025 5.89 AUS v ZIM, Sydney 2002 5.11 AUS v ENG, Adelaide 2006 4.76 AUS v SA, Sydney 2006 4.58 AUS v SA, Sydney 1911
3) Third shortest result induced test at SCG (By balls) 911 balls AUS v ENG, 1895 1129 balls AUS v ENG, 1888 1141 balls AUS v IND, 2025 1184 balls AUS v WI, 1931 1347 balls AUS v IND, 1981
Praveen Kumar: "To be honest, at various crucial points in this entire series, the Aussies were there for the taking, India just not clinical enough and deserve this beating, after the 3-0 loss to NZ at home! Gambhir and his useless support staff need to go!"
Marnie: "Webster has come into the squad and done everything required. Fantastic debut. Konstas I'm afraid may need to spend more time in FC and improve his shot selections. India back to the drawing board. The batting average at best and the bowling was poor with reliance all on Bumrah. India without him may find themselves in the wilderness for a period of time. "
Alex: "Player ratings. India: Bumrah 8" More like 10!
GC: "Webster scoring more than a quarter of Australia's runs in those conditions is special, also bowled responsibly and fielded well. See you in S.L. mate"
Praveen Kumar: "To be honest, at various crucial points in this entire series, the Aussies were there for the taking, India just not clinical enough and deserve this after the 3-0 loss to NZ at home!"
Gc: "Despite Baz's best efforts, I think we may look back at this test/ series as the catalyst for a change in how test cricket is played and viewed. Was way more exciting than the scoreline indicates"
Mamoon: "Result is result but a Big Thanks to both teams for a wonderful entertainment and excellent Test Cricket! Amazing series that lived up to the hype! "
Pushkar: "In another era Scotty Boland could have been a second McGrath. Super guy."
Travis Head: [On the result] Yeah, just nice to contribute. I don't worry too much about what the result might be coming here today. It's been two pretty good teams and I felt like if I could contribute in some way, that'd be great. So yeah, it's nice. I actually realise it's in the Test championship as well. I've forgotten about that in all what's been a crazy three days, it's been busy and I'm looking forward to 10 days off. [On his approach] The same as always, and if it was to be, it's to be and I felt like I'm moving well. I've been disappointed in the last couple of innings to find ways to get out, but knew that if I could just build a little partnership with Uzzie and just take a little bit of momentum out, same with Beau. So we knew with a short total, all you need to do is take a little bit of momentum and I guess you see that in their body language and then you get down to 20 or 30 and yeah, it was nice the way it played out. [On the 3-1 win] It's been obviously very difficult the last couple of the last series in Australia they play exceptionally well. Like I said, we probably let one slip in. So we knew that the series could have gone any direction for a few of the last few test matches. Like I said, it's been a crazy five when you add that extra one. It puts a lot on us and the guys that got through all five, I think they're looking forward to a bit of time off because to be crazy, the media's hyped it up in different directions, different narratives, which I don't agree with some I agree with some others and it's a bloody tough tour and for them and for us and nice to come out the winning side of things today and it's going to be nice to enjoy the next couple of days and reflect on it. But yeah, extremely pleased. [On Bumrah] I think there was 15 people that were pleased that he has not been involved today. But yeah, that's the way it plays out. I think everyone would've love to see him bowl. He's had a hell of a series. It's probably the best individual performance that I've seen since I've been, I guess playing Test cricket. I thought he had an exceptional tour.
Here's the debutant Beau Webster: [On his series]It definitely wasn't looking like that a few days ago. But no, it's been a hell of a game. I probably couldn't ask for much more on day two. It was a hell of a fixture. It was a great crowd, great atmosphere, and three days there was great. [On walking out at three down] I was sort of counting down the runs a little bit in lots of 10 there. I was hoping under 50 might be alright. But no, I was pretty confident. He's [Head] a good player. We had a few behind us as well. So pretty confident in the whole chase. [On the winning shot] Yeah, I just said to Head that I was going to go no matter what ball. I was going to try and flog it and I'll leave it up to him in the over. So glad I got a good connection and I went to the boundary. [Feeling on his debut] Yeah, it is pretty surreal to be honest. It probably hasn't sunk him. It's been a nice couple of weeks just to be around the lads throughout the whole series and then to get a chance in the last one was a little bit unexpected, but I was stoked and I think I was ready and today showed that I still do have the game. They can go to the high level and hopefully I can play a few more knocks. [On teh crowd] The whole series has been really well supported and just every time you are hitting a four, you're taking a wicket... that noise. It's infectious, it's great. It makes you want to be in the team and have that success. So it couldn't have been better.
2.25pm Big, big celebrations in the Australian dressing room. Cummins exults, so does Smith. Australia have won the fifth and final Test in Sydney by six wickets and claimed the series 3-1. There were a lot of questions asked by everyone after Australia lost badly in Perth. But, since then, they have been clinical and absolutely outplayed India. It was all Australia right from the time they walked out today picking the last four wickets in no time to set up a 162 chase. Then a Jasprit Bumrah-less India walked out and didn't look the part. Prasidh Krishna picked three wickets to set the cat among the pigeons but Travis Head (like he always has in crunch times against India) and debutant Beau Webster added an unbroken 58-run stand off 53 balls to take Australia home. With that, India is also out of the WTC final race, and as things stand, Australia will take on South Africa in the WTC final at Lord's in June. But spare a thought for Jasprit Bumrah, who has been absolutely fascinating. He picked 32 wickets and almost single-handedly carried the Indian team. How dearly was he missed today.
Stays around
Alex informs that Attendance at Lunch on Day 3 is 42,001. Here's a first look at Washington Sundar, meanwhile. He is around the wicket with a slip in place.
After Boland's six-for, Konstas' early charge and Webster's assuredness took Australia over the line on a lively Sydney surface
On Saturday he edged to slip five short, and on day three he could only make four runs before falling to Prasidh Krishna
Gambhir makes it clear that he wants Test hopefuls to take domestic cricket seriously, and play the Ranji Trophy if they are not committed elsewhere
Without Bumrah, India's hopes faded away as Australia wrapped up the win within three days
"I've been really impressed with how he's gone about it," Pat Cummins says of newcomer Sam Konstas, who was involved in a couple of scraps in the last two Tests