Pat Cummins has produced a captain’s knock for the ages to lead Australia to a thrilling two-wicket win over England in an epic Ashes series opener at Edgbaston.
The skipper declared the triumph to be “the number one” moment of his career after his unbeaten 44 steered his side to a monumental victory on Tuesday.
Chasing 281 for victory, Australia had looked out of the Test when they slumped to 8-227 early in the final hour once the dismissals of Usman Khawaja and Alex Carey looked to have ruined their chances.
But Cummins then took charge, putting on a 55-run stand with Nathan Lyon to take Australia to the most thrilling victory with 4.3 overs left in the match.
“It was nail-biting stuff, with Cummins admitting: “When we got to maybe 16 to win and we needed two an over, I was pretty confident but it felt like almost from the first session of day one, it was 50-50 all the way along until about 15 minutes to go.”
“For me, it’s number one – the start of an Ashes series. Yeah, the number one.”
Cummins sealed victory when he guided an Ollie Robinson ball down to the third-man boundary and Harry Brook spilled it over the rope.
Lyon also finished not out on 16, in undoubtedly the most valuable innings of his long career.
“Nath was awesome, he was really chilled – he was pretty talkative out there. It helped me out and it helped him,” said Cummins.
After rain delayed the start of play by more than three hours on Tuesday, Australia’s winning run came at 7:21pm in the evening in Birmingham.
England were left to rue several missed chances, after Joe Root put down a tough chance off his own bowling with Cummins on six and Ben Stokes spilled an equally hard outfield catch, despite a spectacular effort, when Lyon was on one.
The match went some way to avenge Australia’s pain at the two-run loss to England at the same ground in 2005, and the misery of being on the end of Stokes’ batting miracle at Headingley in 2019.
It also went against Australia’s poor record in close games, with their last successful fourth-innings chase of beyond 250 coming in 2011 when Cummins hit Australia to victory on debut against South Africa.
And while the captain finished the job again on Tuesday, it was Khawaja’s 66 that broke the back of the chase for Australia despite the best efforts of Stuart Broad (3-64).
While nightwatchman Scott Boland (20), Travis Head (16) and Cameron Green (28) contributed and fell at the other end on day five, Khawaja remained resolute.
The opener’s century in the first innings held Australia’s response to England’s 8(dec)-393 together, and ensured the tourists would almost reach parity in their 386.
Once again, he barely offered a chance, accumulating singles without taking risks.
The 36-year-old faced 518 balls for the match, the most of any Australian in a Test this century, before he chopped on to a slow and wide ball from Ben Stokes.
“I’m not going to lie, I was absolutely s******g myself in the last five minutes,” Khawaja said.
“I have never felt like this after a Test. We have had some hard times here – I know it is only one Test.”
Khawaja’s approach came in stark contrast to that of England.
They changed the field almost by the minute on Tuesday in a bid to unsettle Australia, after delivering on their promise to play with fearlessness with the bat.
But, ultimately, England’s aggressive nature came back to bite them, declaring their first-innings after 78 overs and while eight wickets down on day one, giving away runs that would have been crucial on day five.
“Devastated that we lost, the lads are up there in absolute pieces,” Stokes said, but he reckoned he had no regrets about his declaration.
