Australian captain Pat Cummins put up a remarkable resilient display on Day 5 of the 1st Ashes Test against England at Edgbaston in Birmingham on Tuesday to lead his side to a nerve-wracking two-wicket win. Cummins remained unbeaten on 44 and put on 55 runs for the ninth wicket with Nathan Lyon, who scored 16 off 28 balls.
Chasing 281 at a raucous Edgbaston, the Australians reached the target inside the final hour for a two-wicket victory after opener Usman Khawaja hit a patient 65 and Cummins finished the job with an unbeaten 44 containing two sixes and four fours.
Cummins shared a match-winning ninth-wicket partnership of 55 with tailender Nathan Lyon (16 not out), hitting the winning boundary against Ollie Robinson — Harry Brook failed to stop the ball at the rope — as Australia reached 282-8. It disappointed the majority of a loud home crowd that sensed another memorable victory at the Birmingham ground after England’s two-run win in the second Ashes Test in 2005.
WATCH Pat Cummins hit winning runs against England in 1st Ashes Test…
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“Both teams spoke a lot about playing your own style,” Cummins said about triumphing over England’s high-stakes attacking approach under Ben Stokes. “And that’s the beauty of this series. Two contrasting styles, playing to our strengths and that made for great entertainment.”
Cummins smacked 5 sixes in the game overall, the most sixes hit by a captain in an Ashes Test Match. Percy Chapman previously hit three sixes at Lord’s in 1971. Australia chased a target of 281, the joint second-highest total chased at Edgbaston, along with South Africa who did the same in 2008. England tops the list with a total of 378 against India in 2022.
“We are, of course, absolutely devastated,” Stokes said. “The lads are in pieces up there. But if that’s (the tight match) not attracting people to the game we love, then I don’t know what will.”
Khawaja was voted player of the match and said ‘it was an unbelievable game’. “I watched Edgbaston 2005 on TV as a kid, I stayed up late,” Khawaja said. “I was there when Stokesy played that unbelievable innings at Headingley in the last Ashes (in England in 2019) but this has definitely got to be one of my favorite test matches I’ve ever played in.”
(with PTI inputs)
