If it was opener Usman Khawaja (65) who kept Australia on course for victory over England till tea on the fifth and final day in the first Ashes Test at Edgbaston, captain Pat Cummins ensured the job was completed.
The skipper, who’s the pace spearhead of his side, played an innings of his lifetime as his 44 not out off 73 balls and an unbroken 55-run stand for the ninth wicket with Nathan Lyon (16 not out) earned Australia a fascinating two-wicket win that secured them a 1-0 lead in this Ashes series.
This Test had a fair bit of resemblance with the unforgettable game at the same venue 18 years ago when England beat Australia by two runs, bowling them out for 279 when the Ricky Ponting-led side needed 282 to win.
The winning runs fittingly came off Cummins’ bat. He steered Ollie Robinson towards deep third man and got a boundary, thanks to a misfield from the fielder there, taking Australia to victory with 4.3 overs still left in the day.
England must have thought they had sealed the game when Joe Root, with his part-time off-spin, had keeper-batter Alex Carey caught and bowled. Till then, the Australian batters’ over-cautiousness on a surface hardly misbehaving even on the final day had almost made them pay for it, helping England on to the ascendancy.
Australia, chasing a victory target of 281, still needed 54 when Carey departed. England skipper Ben Stokes delayed taking the new ball and continued with part-timer Root.
But Cummins, having batted well in the first innings too, preferred to throw caution to the wind and chanced his arms successfully to deposit Root over long-off twice for a maximum. That’s when the tide gradually started to turn against England.
Stokes — the architect of Bazball with head coach Brendon McCullum — did take the new ball, but only after both Cummins and Lyon were well set. In between, he also shelved a tough chance at square leg to give Lyon a reprieve when Australia’s total was 244.
Maybe Stokes missed a trick by delaying taking the new ball. Also, he could have bowled a few overs before tea when the other English bowlers struggled to break the Khawaja-Cameron Green partnership that stitched an important 49 after off-spinner Moeen Ali had picked up Travis Head.
When Stokes finally came on to bowl, he struck in just his second over as the focused Khawaja, becoming the 13th cricketer to bat on all five days of a Test match, made one rare error to be out played-on. A little before that, Robinson had picked up Green.
Stokes’ knack of giving his team a breakthrough is known to all. Even in the first innings, he had dismissed the talismanic Steve Smith leg-before much against the run of play.
As for Stokes’ counterpart Cummins, he not just showed proper application but also guided Lyon excellently during their partnership which came in only 12 overs. Agreed, both Robinson and Broad lack the pace to trouble batsmen on flat decks, but credit has to be given to both Cummins and Lyon for not giving in to pressure and remaining firm on their goal.
The Cummins-Lyon stand also underlined how the recognised men in Australia’s batting line-up made the going tougher with their ultra-defensive approach, which almost cost the visitors the Test.
Chasing a victory target of 281, Australia began the rain-delayed fifth and final day on 107/3 and reached 183/5 at the tea interval, requiring 98 more to take the lead in the five-match series.
Earlier, Khawaja, following up with his magnificent century in the first innings, was a model of concentration as he calmly reached 56 from 159 balls at the tea interval. He was crucial to Australia weathering the early storm from the England pace duo of Broad and James Anderson.
The entire first session on Tuesday was washed out due to rain, which delayed the start on the final day until 2.15 pm local time (6.45 pm IST), with a minimum of 67 overs slotted.
Written with Reuters inputs