Hometown hero Scott Boland confesses he never expected an opportunity to wear a baggy green, after a dream Test debut in front of a baying home crowd.
Boland’s figures of 6/7 are the best by a debutant on the Melbourne Cricket Ground in 144 years.
The only player to have taken more wickets is Tom Kendall, who recorded 7/55 in 1877 - five years before Australia’s victory at The Oval gave life to the Ashes.
“It is a dream come true,” Boland told SEN Test Cricket after the match wrapped up.
“I didn’t think anything like that would ever happen. I’m just really lucky, I think.
“We got off the ground 20 minutes ago and I’ve been mobbed by my family and teammates. It’s just been a whirlwind.”
On the boundary, Boland reunited with former Test opener and his Victorian state coach Chris Rogers.
“I can remember conversations in the winter where (national selector) George Bailey would call you and say just hang in there, there might be an opportunity coming your way,” Rogers recalled.
“Did you actually believe him, did you think it was lip service or were you genuinely thinking ‘I’m going to get a chance here?’”
With metronomic fast bowler Josh Hazlewood still recuperating from a side strain and Adelaide hero Jhye Richardson rested, Boland was preferred to Michael Neser on the MCG.
“I thought there was a chance I might be in the squad, but I didn’t think I’d play,” Boland confessed.
“When (Josh) Hazlewood pulled up a bit sore, I thought maybe there might be a chance for me there,’ because I think we can play similar roles.
“But no, not really. I didn’t think I’d get this opportunity.”
Boland has long pressed his claims, with 45 wickets over the last two summers of Sheffield Shield cricket, so naturally his haul on a wicket he understands felt like a culmination of his efforts.
“The amount of work I’ve done over the last six or seven years… it’s worked,” Boland shook his head.
“I didn’t have to change anything when I got to the crease.
“The stuff I’d done in the pre-season for the last four or five years, trying to be really strong and fit at the crease and doing work on my action…
“It’s all paid off today.”
Boland brought the crowd of 40,945 to life, and infused his home Test with meaning after another uncompetitive display from the tourists threatened the spectacle.
“Last night, even today the crowd was going nuts,” he smiled.
“I’ve never experienced something like that, where they were so behind me.
“I’ve played T20 games where you get flogged around the park and the crowd boos you, so to have the crowd behind me like that was pretty special.”
On Sunday Boland became only the second Indigenous man to wear the baggy green after Jason Gillespie, who played in 71 Test matches from 1996 to 2006.
It was fitting, then, that he was awarded the Johnny Mullagh Medal - named after the Indigenous cricket great - as the player of the match.
In 2018, Boland linked up with an Aboriginal XI for a tour of England, to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the 1868 Aboriginal cricket tour to England.
The 32-year-old only learned he is an Indigenous Australian when he was in his 20s, as his family came to learn his grandfather was descended from the Gulidjan people.
Boland spoke of his appreciation for the roar when the Welcome to Country before the Test mentioned the significance of his presence in the team.
“It was huge,” he went on.
“I said before that me and my brother and about 16 or 17 of us in the Indigenous team went to England three or four years ago to commemorate that tour from 1868.
“We got to learn so much about that tour and what went on… to be presented this award is very humbling and it’s going to make my family very proud.”
Asked how he was becoming accustomed to his new celebrity, he laughed “please.”
“I find doing all of this media stuff a bit embarrassing, but I might as well soak it up because it might not happen ever again.”