Australia's triumph over India in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy stands as the defining moment of the Pat Cummins era

The lunch break is perhaps the most agonizing time. For a full forty minutes, anxiety builds, pacing back and forth, the emptiness in the stomach growing stronger.

After five test matches and nearly twenty days of cricket, the fate of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy is about to be decided, with the tension reaching unprecedented levels. No matter how many of these test matches one has experienced, that feeling never changes. It's a helpless anxiety, even bordering on guilt. While sports shouldn't make you feel this way, it does, and it's a strange feeling.

The morning's play was tense, continuing the fast pace that Australia and India had maintained throughout this test series. But when the moment of truth arrived, it felt like the world had stopped turning. Australia needed 162 runs to win and claim the Border-Gavaskar Trophy for the first time in a decade, and every run would be hard-fought.

The players' minds were filled with all sorts of thoughts, and the pitch was as unpredictable as it had been on the first day. Despite this, Australia withstood the pressure bravely and brilliantly. They rectified the mistakes of four years ago, when they lost a series they shouldn't have to a makeshift Indian team. They also completed the task they failed to achieve in England 18 months ago, when the Ashes were retained but the series was painfully drawn.

They overcame historical disadvantages, successfully turning things around after a crushing defeat in the first test of the summer. This made this series only the fifth time in Australian history that they have won a test series after trailing 0-1. The panic after the Perth loss was justified, but it now only highlights the brilliance of the Sydney victory. This is a defining victory of the Pat Cummins era.

His team has already conquered the T20 and ODI World Cups, but lacked a test series victory of this magnitude. They had easily beaten England at home and drawn a series away, but had repeatedly lost to India. The World Test Championship is interesting, but series like this are where legends are made. For this team to be ranked alongside the other modern greats of Australian cricket, they needed a victory like this, a victory in a hard-fought five-test series against quality opposition.

Australia had to dig deep into their reserves to achieve this, using three players whose ages spanned three decades, and losing a key fast bowler along the way. It required truly outstanding bowling from Scott Boland, who has always been on the fringes of the starting lineup, but is one of the best bowlers in the world. Losing Josh Hazlewood was a blow, but without Boland's brilliance at the Sydney Cricket Ground, Australia would not have won this series.

It also required a key contribution from a "slug" from Snug, who is now loved by the entire nation. Beau Webster might have been content to spend the entire summer doing bowling drills and running errands, such was his selfless team player attitude. But when he got his chance in the most important test of the season, he exceeded his reputation. At the Sydney Cricket Ground this week, everyone's batting looked unusually difficult except for Webster's. This tall Tasmanian, with his steel-strong limbs, remained calm and composed at the most important moment of his career.

Webster saved Australia in the first innings and then led the team to victory in the second. Whether he plays five more tests or fifty, he will always be able to tell the story in the bars of his hometown of Snug about how he won the Border-Gavaskar Trophy for his country. The scoreboard might make it seem like it was easy for Webster and Travis Head to win the game, and in the end they did. India conceded defeat with about 30 runs left, at which point the batsmen could easily walk singles against the scattered field, and Mohammed Siraj walked back to the dressing room with his head down.

But everything before that was like a movie. Everyone was watching Jasprit Bumrah in the morning, eager to see if the game-breaking champion would overcome his back problems and bowl. It wasn't until the Indian team gathered before the start of the fourth innings that the intelligence officers at the Sydney Cricket Ground cracked the mystery - Bumrah was clearly absent. Bumrah was later deservedly named player of the series, but it was a sad end to a journey for him alone. He had given his all, carrying the team until his body broke down under the increasing pressure.

The 162-run chase was right in an awkward sweet spot, too big to blow away in one go, and too small to slowly chip away at. Especially on this pitch, it required both aggression and stability. Sam Konstas's manic start was unrestrained, and the ball he was eventually dismissed with was a special shot of park cricket, but the youngster's performance contributed to Australia's victory as much as any of his teammates. He and Usman Khawaja put on 39 runs for the first wicket and quickly dampened the mood of the Indian team.

Konstas's impact on the series was profound. It wasn't always reflected in the score, but he injected a bolt of lightning into the Australian team with his provocative energy and contagious positivity. Ever since Konstas walked to the crease on Boxing Day, the Indian team has been on the back foot. He is going to have a very exciting career. The fact that Steve Smith missed out on 10,000 runs by one run will drive him crazy until he achieves it in Sri Lanka. The score was 3-58 at the time, and India saw a glimmer of hope for victory.

His dismissal was a rare source of joy for Virat Kohli, who, after receiving some attention from the Sydney Cricket Ground crowd, began a lovely little pantomime, alluding to the ball-tampering scandal of 2018. Perhaps fortunately for Kohli, his lasting memory of this series will not be this tiresome charade, but his incredible ability to get out every time he touched the ball all summer. No matter how you view his behavior, there is no doubt that the Virat Kohli that Australia first encountered in 2011 is the same Virat Kohli who bid farewell in 2024.

After safely navigating the lunch break, Khawaja played the most crucial innings of the series, scoring a vital 41 runs, before Head and Webster combined to guide Australia to the finish line with ease. The Australians celebrated victory - at least publicly - with weary restraint. Their faces were full of pride, but also acknowledged that they had given every ounce of their courage and skill to finally cross the finish line. This is the best kind of victory. Victory is all the more precious when you have risen from adversity several times, and when every member of the team has stepped up when they were needed.

Victory is all the greater when the quality of the cricket and the character of the cricketers breaks attendance and viewership records, breathing life into a sport that many had declared dead. Victory is all the more satisfying when you slightly dislike your opponents, but also have great respect for them. The matches are always tough when they are as tenacious as you, even when it looks easy. Victory is incredibly sweet when you can sit in the dressing room and play "remember when?" games, telling stories about Starc's first ball in Adelaide, Travis's blitzkrieg at the Gabba, and that cheeky little guy Sam hitting Bumrah in front of 90,000 people at the MCG.

Pat Cummins' team has now won it all. But now, on this sunny afternoon, spending time with family and friends at the Sydney Cricket Ground, all those victories cannot compare to this one.