Boxing Day Test for the ages is the cricketing dream Australia needs | Jack Snape
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The historic fourth Test at the MCG will forever be associated with Pat Cummins and his peers, and motivate a new generation of India cricketers. Life rarely meets expectation. At around this time each year, those realisations come knocking with increasing frequency. Yes, you are fatter, poorer, wrinklier and less well-read than you would like to be. That fleeting aspiration in high school, that you might travel the world, or make a difference: for most, sorry to say, the optimism was misplaced.
![[Jack Snape]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/uploads/2023/07/11/Jack_Snape.png?width=75&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
So when a match of cricket delivers far beyond what fans could dream, it is worth celebrating. There can be no doubt that the Boxing Day Test was among sport’s finest moments. The most culturally significant annual sporting event in Australia, bringing together two rivals, ebbing and flowing right down to the ultimate hour of the final day. A victory that will forever now be associated with captain Pat Cummins and his peers, a loss sure to motivate a new generation of Indian cricketers.
![[Nitish Kumar Reddy celebrates a Test century at the MCG]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/39a58932d35238fbd71aa841e68c4123ea87afd7/0_0_4838_3226/master/4838.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
Just today The Guardian published a list of Australia’s 10 biggest sporting moments of 2024. Although the calendar wouldn’t allow it, the article needed to wait another day. This five-day cricketing spectacular was at times funnier than Raygun. Fresher than Gout. Tougher than the Blues. Slyer than a Fox. Certainly, more unpredictable than Angeball.
So lasting is the match’s lustre, this is being written some 15 hours after the final wicket fell. And yet, still people will come to read, the headline and accompanying image igniting within Australians something irresistible. The world should have moved on. But this Test – in the minds of those who witnessed even just a ball – will long linger.
