Why Kohli’s cheap shot made Australia’s era-defining win even sweeter

As Australia galloped to a six-wicket victory that gave them possession of all bilateral trophies in Test matches for the first time since the dying days of the “golden years” in 2008, Virat Kohli seemingly made sandpaper gestures in response to taunts from sections of the SCG crowd.

Cheap shots, it must be said, are now all the rest of the world have left to fire at Pat Cummins’ team, after a seven-year journey that has seen them rise to the undisputed summit of Test cricket by playing the game the right way.

Responding to crowd taunts: Virat Kohli and his apparent sandpaper gestures. Credit: cricket.com.au

But it must also be said that this triumph, leaving Cummins and his men to frolic on the Sydney outfield in late afternoon with their families on Jane McGrath “Pink Day” as threatening clouds rolled in from the south, was a credit not merely to the team but to the wider system of which they are a part.

This victory over India was truly an achievement of historical resonance. Not since the 1997 Ashes tour had an Australian Test team won a series from 1-0 down. Not since 1968-69 had they done so on home soil.

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