‘Absolute high’: Aussies take in Hobart after Ashes
Aussie Skipper Pat Cummins and the rest of the team celebrated its dominant Ashes performance with an afternoon in the sun at MONA - but the absence of one key cricket figure was sorely felt.
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CAPTAIN Pat Cummins and the rest of the Australian cricket team has celebrated its dominant 4-0 Ashes performance with an afternoon in the sun at MONA.
Just over 12 hours after storming home with a blitzing day three performance to regain the Ashes the victors were out enjoying the aftermath with a cruise along with Derwent on board a MONA Ferry before pulling up stumps for some beverages on the grassed area of the popular museum.
Captain Pat Cummins fronted the media looks surprisingly fresh despite a night of celebrating at Hobart’s Crowne Plaza Hotel which he said included some beers with the English side.
“I’m feeling great and I can’t believe the series is over now,” he said.
“I woke up this morning on an absolute high.
“It’s been an amazing five or six weeks and it doesn’t get much better than last night’s session.”
“[Last night] We stayed in the change rooms for a little bit and caught up with English side for a couple of beers back at the hotel so that was good as it was a hard fought series between both teams so it was good to catch up with them after that.”
Cummins was quick to point out spin king Nathan Lyon and run machine Travis Head as the team’s best off field performers in Sunday night’s celebrations.
“Nathan Lyon is a pretty experienced campaigner when it comes to winning series and he leads the team song so he was leading the way.
“Man of the series Trav Head probably got man of the night last night as well so there was a few impressive performances.”
Cummins said despite the celebrations they were also feeling for former teammate and former Australian Test captain Tim Paine who missed out on what was likely to be a fairytale ending to his Australian career in front of his friends and family on his home deck at Bellerive.
“Yeah we spoke about that probably six or seven weeks ago that that was going to be Painey’s moment so we missed him yesterday,” he said.
“It’s great that for a small state Tasmania you’ve got David Boon as match referee, George Bailey as our selector, Ricky Pointing commentating, there’s some great history around and Painey is a really tight mate with a lot of the boys here so we missed him last night.”
The historic Ashes Test was the first ever held in Tasmania and Cummins said his side certainly felt the support from the passionate Hobart crowd.
“Even the morning of the games walking around Hobart you felt the love and felt the buzz around the place.
“We absolutely loved playing down here. I think it really turned it on.
“Even the first couple of days with a bit of bad weather around there was still really good vocal crowds and so hopefully Hobart people loved it as we sure did.”
On the back of the success of the Ashes Cricket Tasmania is said to be pushing for more international test cricket to be held in Hobart and Cummins said he would be a supporter of that mission.
“Yeah for sure, there’s no reason why not,” he said.
“I guess the challenge is that we only ever play four or five or maximum six tests in the summer and there some other pretty big states that we play in every year but if the schedule allows then of course.”
Cummins also said he had no issues with the often talked about green pitch at Blundstone
“I think it was probably as expected down here.
“Its really hard to get a wicket right for pink ball,” he said.
“If you err on the flatter side it becomes really really flat so it was certainly bowler friendly but I think that’s what we expected coming down here.”
After demolishing the Poms with a commanding 4-0 scoreline to regain the Ashes Cummins said taking that form overseas against Pakistan and India was their next goal.
“That’s the next big challenge,” he said.
“I think the best teams in the past not only won at home but they were really successful overseas as well.
“Pakistan is next on the radar for us and it’s going to be huge.
“A lot of our young players haven’t played a lot overseas…so we’re excited to go and try our wares in different conditions.
“There’s some absolutely brilliant signs this summer and I think we will show we are in a good place no matter where we play.”
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