Australia reward Cummins' caution to claim MCG thriller

Criticized for waiting to unleash his bowlers at India, Australia captain Pat Cummins was ultimately rewarded as they engineered one of the best wins of his career on a tepid Melbourne Cricket Ground pitch on day five.

Australia took seven wickets after tea on Monday to claim an astonishing 184-run win in the fourth Test in front of a huge crowd and forge a 2-1 series lead with the final match in Sydney to come.

Cummins defied former players, pundits and plenty of fans who had wanted him to declare Australia's second innings closed on day four, thereby allowing his bowlers to hunt quick wickets after tea.

Instead, tailenders Nathan Lyon and Scott Boland marched out to bat early on Monday and raised India's victory target to a record 340 runs.

It looked inevitable the match would peter out into a draw as India openers Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal held onto their wickets through the first hour.

But Cummins had other ideas, producing a two-wicket burst to remove opposing skipper Rohit for nine and KL Rahul for a duck, before Mitchell Starc dismissed Virat Kohli for five.

Jaiswal and Rishabh Pant looked to have steered the tourists to safety by batting through the entire middle session but India crumbled after tea.

Cummins was named Player of the Match for taking six wickets and scoring 100 tail-end runs in front of the biggest aggregate crowd for a Test match in Australia.

Little wonder he rated the match so highly among his wins.

"I'm just trying to work out where it sits, I reckon that's right at the top," he said.

"Edgbaston was pretty special and I reckon that's pretty much on par, that was amazing.

"When you take all that into account, it's probably the best Test match I've been involved in, in terms of 80,000 in the first three days, don't know what the crowd was today, but it was huge."

Cummins said the decision to keep batting into the final day was based on the conditions.

"I thought the wicket was pretty good," he told reporters.

"I saw our tail bat reasonably comfortably on it. So I felt like we needed at least 300 on it.

"It wasn't playing too much tricks. You saw today it didn't really spin heaps, didn't play too many tricks.

"We got 90-odd overs, that gave us 12 overs or 11 overs with the new ball, potentially second new ball today, so I felt like there was enough time."

Australia now need only a draw in Sydney to reclaim the Border-Gavaskar trophy contested between the sides.

India have won the last four Test series between the nations.

"I'm sure there'll be a lot of sitting around tonight and a couple of boys might have a beer, some others might not, (instead) have water and some protein shakes and an early night," he said.

"But we'll savor this for a couple of hours at least and then it'll be recovery for the next few days."

Rohit wants Pant to find balance

India captain Rohit Sharma said Rishabh Pant must learn to temper his aggression with the bat after yet another reckless dismissal triggered a collapse that culminated in defeat by Australia in the fourth Test on Monday.

Wicketkeeper-batter Pant has produced several match-defining knocks with his take-no-prisoners approach, which has also made the 27-year-old a fan favorite.

However, his aggression has also been his undoing at times.

The left-hander made 28 runs in the first innings at Melbourne Cricket Ground before losing his wicket to an ill-advised scoop shot against Scott Boland.

It was a shot which let former India great Sunil Gavaskar screaming "Stupid, stupid, stupid!" into his microphone during his radio stint on ABC Sport.

In the second innings, with the match in the balance, Pant was out trying to pull part-time spinner Travis Head from outside the off-stump.

India had been cruising at 121-3 at the time, but lurched to all out for 155 as Australia went 2-1 up in the five-match series and put one hand on the Border-Gavaskar trophy.

"It's about him understanding and figuring out what is the right way to go about it," Rohit said after India's loss by 184 runs.

"In the past, he's given us a lot of success doing what he does. So as a captain there is a kind of mixed reaction to that.

"It's about (match) situation as well. If there is a risk percentage in certain situation of the game, do you want to take that risk? Do you want to let the opposition come back into the game? Those are the things he needs to figure out himself."

While India's frontline batters -- barring opener Yashasvi Jaiswal -- flopped again, the defeat also highlighted the tourists' over-reliance on pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah.

Comfortably the leading wicket-taker in the series, Bumrah bowled 53.2 overs in the match - the highest in the 44 Tests he has played.

Rohit accepted they risked over-bowling his deputy.

"Every Test match we play, we keep in mind the workloads of all the bowlers. But if somebody is in such a great form, you want to try and maximise that form. That is what we've been trying to do with Bumrah," he said.

"But there comes a time where you need to step back and give him that little bit of extra breather as well.

"I've been very careful. I talked to him about how he feels and stuff like that. Those things should be managed carefully, and I'm trying to do that."