As it happened: Australia win the Boxing Day Test by 184 runs over India, lead series 2-1 going into the final Test

What a brilliant way to finish our Test match live blog for 2024.

Australia has won the fourth Test by 184 runs and has 2-1 series lead over India going into the final Test in Sydney starting on January 3.

Pat Cummins thanks fans as he leaves the MCG after day five of the Boxing Day Test.Credit: Justin McManus

That is all we have for you on our live blog tonight, but thanks so much to Scott Spits, Vince Rugari, Andrew Wu, Gemma Grant, Daniel Brettig, Tom Decent and Greg Baum for their contributions throughout the match (apologies if I left anyone out).

It’s been an honour, as always, to blog such a great event. Our cricket live blog team will be back on January 3 for the SCG Test.

We will have plenty more cricket coverage tonight and throughout the coming days, so please keep visiting our sport pages.

Good night, have a wonderful New Year and bye for now.

Australian star Steve Smith is back in the runs and could pass 10,000 runs at home at the SCG in the final Test.

But his immediate concern during day five was the safety of young batter Sam Konstas who was causing some chaos while fielding, and talking, at bat-pad.

Steve Smith of Australia celebrates a century.Credit: Getty Images

“I mean, he is mad. He enjoyed himself under the lid,” Smith told Seven post match.

“I thought at one point Jaiswal was trying to hit the ball at him to shut him up.

“He has brought great energy, a lot of confidence. Nice to see him start well. He has a bright future.”

Smith is around 38 runs away from 10,000 so will have the chance to pass the milestone in the final Test at the SCG starting on January 3.

“We’ll see. It would be nice,” Smith told Seven.

“I don’t play for those kinds of things, but 10,000 would be a cool milestone to tick off. Join you and a few of the others, that would be cool.”

Smith said the SCG conditions were a little unknown at present so they would need to scout things out in the coming days.

“It was a huge game for us. We played really well. Nice to get the result in the end,” Smith told Seven.

“Sydney, we will see what Sydney holds. The wicket there, we don’t know what it’s going to do. Wait and see when we get up there and adapt accordingly.

“A wonderful series so far. Sydney is going to be a belter, too, I dare say.”

Were Australia chasing a wicket or trying to fix their lagging over rate?

Whatever reason they had to bring Travis Head on to bowl his spinners to start the final session, it may have won them the series, as his half-volley was top-edged by Rishabh Pant and was caught in the deep.

Australian players celebrate the wicket of India’s Rishabh Pant.Credit: AP

“He’s got a bit of a Midas touch,” Australian skipper Pat Cummins said of Head’s bowling.

“I will give the coach [Andrew McDonald] the credit for suggesting that one, but we were also a bit behind on the over rate so we thought we would throw him in there, he might get a breakthrough and he would help us out with some [quick] overs.”

Mitchell Starc has refused to be drawn on his back issues, deferring the question to tomorrow, when asked post match.

Starc appeared to be favouring his back but kept bowling on the last day despite his issues.

Mitchell Starc of Australia celebrates with team mates the wicket of Virat Kohli of India.Credit: Getty Images

Starc took 1-24 from 16 overs on day five taking the key wicket of Virat Kohli.

“I’ll deal with that tomorrow,” Starc told Fox Cricket when asked about his back.

Starc described the match as one of the best he had played in and praised his side’s poise in a challenging last day.

“I think it has been a feature of this group for a number of years to have that calmness and just go with the flow,” Starc told Fox Cricket.

“We managed to find a way. We had that belief we could get the job done.”

Australian skipper Pat Cummins has won the Mullagh Medal as man of the match in the Boxing Day Test.

“What an amazing Test match, this was one of the best I’ve been a part of,” Cummins said.

“We have a pretty happy change room at the moment.”

Player of the Match Pat Cummins of Australia poses with the Mullagh Medal.Credit: Getty Images

Cummins batted and bowled well, taking six wickets and scoring 100 runs in the match.

“You never know what you will get with my batting, but Steve batted very well,” Cummins said.

He praised his side’s efforts in the last session.

“We were just going in for the win,” Cummins said.

“Once we felt we had plenty of runs to play with, we got as many helmets around the bat as we could.”

Indian skipper Rohit Sharma admits his side missed out on too many chances to win the Boxing Day Test.

“We had our opportunities, we had our chances and we let Australia get back into the game,” Sharma said.

“Things can get tough, things can get difficult. But we want these challenges, we want to play tough cricket.

“We had our chances, we didn’t grab them and it probably cost us a little bit the game there.”

Rohit Sharma of India plays a shot during day five.Credit: Getty Images

Travis Head was in good form on the microphone after he managed to snare the wicket of Rishabh Pant early in the last session.

Head’s short ball was smashed by Pant out to Mitch Marsh in the deep.

“I had four and half days off, so I thought I would contribute,” Head quipped while speaking to Fox Cricket.

Mitch Marsh catches Rishabh Pant close to the boundary.Credit: Justin McManus

When asked what the plan was to get Pant, Head, with his tongue in cheek, said, “just get me on”.

“I just threw them down there and see what happens. I was very lucky it turned out that way.”

That was a stunning last session at the MCG.

First Pant holed out off the bowling of Travis Head and then the collapse continued.

More than 77,000 fans turned out on the last day for the conclusion to the longest Test match of 2024.

Australia needs to win or draw to claim the Border/Gavaskar trophy in Sydney while India now needs the win to draw the series 2-2 and retain the trophy.

Scott Boland of Australia celebrates the wicket of Jasprit Bumrah of India.Credit: Getty Images

Australia have bowled out India to win the fourth Test at the MCG by 184 runs.

Nathan Lyon took the last wicket trapping Siraj lbw. The DRS review confirmed the on-field decision.

They will take a 2-1 lead to Sydney for the fifth and final Test starting on January 3.

Lyon looks to have trapped Siraj in front.

He was called out but Siraj reviewed. He looks gone.