Lyon and Cummins shared eight wickets between them on the final day in Lahore to script a historic win for Australia. ©AFP
Australia were only a wicket away now. Patrick Cummins had turned to Mitchell Swepson for the first time in many hours in Lahore. It was perhaps the Australian captain's attempt of orchestrating a poetic finish with a leg-spinner performing the final act in a series named after two of the best leg-spinners ever. That too at a time the cricket world continues to mourn the loss of the greatest leg-spinner of all time. Maybe it was just Cummins trying to give the most inexperienced member of his team a chance to be an indelible part of history.

Either way it wasn't to be. As Cummins walked across from his position at mid-off to hand Swepson's cap back, he had a quick glance at his vice-captain Steve Smith. Not much seemed to be said between the two. There was nothing to say. Almost involuntarily, Cummins had started rolling his shoulders and warming up already as they nodded towards each other. It was like in that moment, both he and his deputy had recognised that it was time.

Cummins had spoken repeatedly and untiringly about the need to play the long game to win in the subcontinent. He and his Australian team had played the longest game of their collective lives over the 15 long days leading up to this ultimate moment. They had waited. They had plotted. They had hung in there without dropping their guard. It had been a hard grind. It had been a treacherous climb. The days had been long and arduous. The pitches had been dry and arduous. But they'd kept believing in their leader's vision that if they did, glory beckoned. And here they were, ready to grasp it.

This now was the time to ink the final word on this wonderful chapter in Australian cricket history. And Cummins was their man. Cummins is always their man. Pakistan's last pair did survive six more deliveries against Nathan Lyon at the other end. It was only fair that they did. The final blow of this remarkable Test series had to be delivered by the man who'd played the most integral role in scripting this dramatic climax. And so he did, knocking out off and leg stumps and sending them cartwheeling a few meters on one of the slowest Test pitches in recent history. How he did it, didn't seem to matter. Not to the nine other Aussies who immediately jumped on their captain and let out loud roars that resonated around the iconic arena in Lahore. But they weren't ready to get into their celebratory huddle yet. The man who'd actually bowled them to victory on the final, like he has on so many occasions over a decade, was understandably taking a couple of extra seconds to join them from fine-leg.

If Cummins was the man who'd scripted this unforgettable journey for the Australian team in Pakistan, Lyon was the man who'd helped him pen down the ending. The relationship between a captain and his spinner on the final day of a Test is unlike any you find in cricket. It's based on a unique level of trust and faith. Over the last 14 months or so, it's only understandable if Lyon himself had at some level begun to question the trust and faith he had in himself to get the job done when his team needed him to the most, in the fourth innings with the opposition on the ropes.

The veteran off-spinner had left the stadium Karachi a week earlier looking more frustrated and annoyed with himself than probably ever before in his career. Pakistan had batted more overs than any team in five-day Test history to save the game under his watch. And there were times on Friday (March 25) when he was beginning to get a little anxious with proceedings in the middle. For a change, there was plenty on offer from the pitch here in Lahore. The rough spots were actually behaving or misbehaving the way they are expected to. But he still wasn't running through the Pakistanis the way he'd have liked or expected to. There were edges that carried to no one. There were edges that fell short of Smith at slip, David Warner at short-leg and Marnus Labuschagne at silly-point. At one point there were two in consecutive deliveries.

Lyon had given Australia two very important breakthroughs earlier in the day. He'd removed the obstinate Imam-Ul-Haq after having got the better of fellow old hand Azhar Ali in a rather controversial fashion. But Babar Azam wasn't done yet. There was an opportunity in the final over before the tea-break as the Pakistani captain bizarrely decided to launch himself at the off-spinner and hit out. But Travis Head running in from deep mid-wicket was a tad slow to react and the ball slipped through his fingers. As he does often, Lyon knocked the bails off at the end of the over to signal the tea-break even before the umpire could.

The final session didn't start too well for him either as he overpitched a delivery with the second new ball to Sajid Khan who drove him through the covers for a boundary. As he made the walk back to the fine-leg fence, where he'd spent his entire day while not bowling, Lyon kicked the ground. Maybe the setbacks over the last year or so were coming back to him. Before the start of his next over, he walked up to Cummins for a brief chat. We'll never know what was said but maybe it was just his captain reminding him about how they'd got to this point.

Almost on cue, Lyon had his man. He'd slowed down his pace and started getting a lot more dip and purchase on the final day. This was the Lyon of old. And this was a Lyon dismissal of old as Babar lunged forward to a length delivery, playing for the turn. But there was none. The ball skid through straight, catching his outside-edge. After a string of drops, Smith was ready on this occasion, his weight in the right place, his hands in a better place, low and near his left ankle. The catch was pouched. The match was too. Lyon let out a roar. So did his teammates. A couple of overs later he had his fifth wicket. And after having celebrated it like a man who knew he still had it, Lyon even obliged umpire Ahsan Raza in a cute moment by waving at his family sat in one of the upper tiers at the end he was bowling from. Lyon's patience had won in the end.

It kept with how Cummins had run his game plan all day long. Despite times when a wicket did seem elusive, he never tried to over-attack with fields and stuck to his slogan of staying patient and backing his plans. There was never an extra catching fielder when not needed. There was never an extra fielder on the boundary when not needed. And as the two stumps lay splayed across the square in Lahore, it worked just like he said it would.

The Australian team landed in Islamabad 26 days ago for the first time in 24 years with the hope of helping the world see Pakistan differently and making it more accessible to cricket. To help tread a path for world cricket back to Pakistan. They were here not merely as high-class cricketers but also as world-class ambassadors. Before the dust could settle on what they'd achieved, a couple of the Aussies were busy posing for selfies and signing balls for the otherwise partisan Pakistani fans who sat in the stand next to their dressing-room. A few minutes later, the senior lot were in the Pakistani dressing-room, holding court and enhancing new bonds and friendships. And eventually they'd not just won a million hearts, they were also taking home a trophy big enough to fit all of them in, the latest glow in the already glittering Patrick Cummins era.