After Australia’s exciting three-wicket victory in Christchurch completed a 2-0 series sweep over New Zealand, skipper Pat Cummins was full of praise for his side. After falling to 34 for 4 in a fourth-inning chase of 279, Australia once again found heroes in adversity as Mitchell Marsh (80) and Alex Carey (98*) combined for a 140-run stand.
After coming within 59 runs of victory thanks to that partnership, Cummins quietly added 32 runs to put his team over the finish line, allaying worries of a double strike. “Consider that the plot of this series was that, even if we didn’t play the entire game, at crucial junctures one player rose up and won the match. It’s a fairly amazing team, and we keep finding ways to win,” Cummins said.
During their fourth-inning run chase, Australia scored at an incredible run-rate of 4.32, and the pace created by the Marsh-Carey duo earned them a lot of praise even if the squad struggled on the third evening. “We’ve been on the other side of it plenty of times and if the scoreboard’s not moving you feel in the game, but if they are chipping away it seems like it’s all happening pretty quickly,” he stated. “That was goal today, be busy, keep the run rate ticking over and bit by bit getting closer.”
“That was rather tense. Observing for the past few hours, with everyone attempting to occupy their time and then staring up at the board, was rather unsettling. Incredible victory.
With the 2-0 series triumph, Australia’s summer Test record now stands at six wins, the one loss coming in Brisbane against the West Indies. They are now only one point behind India in the WTC rankings, which they will meet early in the next home summer.
