At the end of a final day packed with pressure and palpitations it was Australia who emerged victorious. The old fable of the tortoise and the hare just about held firm as they chased down 281 to beat England by two wickets and secure a 1-0 lead in this red-hot Ashes series. Those numbers tell little of the drama.
This was a famous victory for Pat Cummins and his world champions, the captain the hero when at 7.21pm and with four overs left – ice in his veins and a gutsy sidekick in Nathan Lyon – a guide to third man off Ollie Robinson was fumbled over the rope by Harry Brook. Reaching 282 for eight from 92.3 overs, it completed an epic chase that left nerves utterly shredded.
Cummins and Lyon had come together an hour earlier with England in the ascendancy and Ben Stokes, a constant source of energy for his side, eyeing up his 12th win as captain. Joe Root had somehow clung on to a bullet return catch off Alex Carey’s bat that left Australia 227 for eight, 54 runs short of their goal.
Edgbaston was in full voice at this stage, the Hollies Stand goading the tourists and their pockets of supporters with the kind of triumphalism that was positively ripe to turn red-faced.
Not that the conclusion was sour. Far from it. This fifth sellout crowd left with memories galore and a final twist to digest as over the course of 11 gripping overs under lights Cummins and Lyon repelled the second new ball and worked the gaps like a couple of pros. They sealed their country’s highest successful run chase since Cummins struck the winning blow of 310-run target in Johannesburg on his debut 12 years ago. Fifty caps later, the blue-eyed Blue Mountains boy has done it again.
The coup de grace this time was unreflective of a fielding display from England that was tigerish throughout; a contributing factor to the pressure cooker the ground had become. Once the valve was released with Brook’s fumble, Cummins enveloped Lyon in an almighty bear hug, the pair 44 and 16 not out respectively and the toast of an away dressing room that was bouncing.
The two teams soon shared smiles and handshakes, all combatants seeing the bigger picture of this classic Test finish.
Among them was Usman Khawaja, no doubt keen to raise a glass of ice-cold diet Coke to his lips once more. The opener was named player of the match, having followed his first innings 141 with a similarly adhesive 65 that kept Australia in the hunt. The 36-year-old, riding what has become a remarkable late crest in his career, batted on all five days, faced 518 balls and spent 796 minutes out in the middle. All in a thick cable-knit tank top.
On another day Khawaja’s demise might have been the moment that commanded the headlines. At 5.29pm, short of options before the second new ball’s arrival, Stokes brought himself on to bowl for the first time in the innings. Charging to the crease in defiance of that left knee injury, he sent down a smart slower ball that cannoned into the stumps off the inside edge. With Australia 209 for seven it appeared another case of Stokes bending the script to his will.
But that wickets column was deceptive all day, Australia’s deployment of a nightwatchman the previous evening – Scott Boland – creating the illusion. At 2.15pm, after morning rain, Boland had walked out alongside Khawaja, with the score 107 for three and needing 174 runs in 67 overs. It soon became clear Australia would be putting their supporters back home into a state of sleep-deprived delirium.
In the first hour 21 runs were chiselled off the target – a mere 13 from the bat – and Stuart Broad removing Boland for his third wicket of the innings. When Moeen Ali was thrown the ball in the 15th over of this opening session, removing the typically aggressive Travis Head for 16 with a ball that gripped and found the left-hander’s edge, Australia’s 143 for five did not quite reflect the depth to come.
It was a fine delivery in an otherwise forlorn showing from Moeen, that burst blister on his spinning finger leaving him a passenger in the main. Had the skin on that digit been hard and durable from regular first‑class cricket, not red and raw after a 33-over first innings straight out of Test retirement, Stokes would have been able to turn to a spinner with the best fourth‑innings strike-rate of any to claim more than 50 wickets.
This England team do not appear to do regrets, so to claim they will rue the SOS to Moeen would be false. Similarly, come the second Test at Lord’s next Wednesday they will not be turning back on the decision to restore Jonny Bairstow behind the stumps, even if three missed chances in Australia’s first innings – and an edge off Khawaja that flew between keeper and first slip late on day four – proved costly. That day one declaration? All part of the entertainment, said an unrepentant Stokes.
This final day certainly had it in spades, be it Robinson’s dramatic removal of Cameron Green for 28, bowled off the inside edge, the tension that built as Australia declined to take on Root’s bowling or the spectacular one‑handed effort from Stokes in the deep off Lyon that popped out of his grasp. With 36 runs to get at that stage, and Josh Hazlewood next man in at No 11, it would have been telling.
As it was, England met an Australian team prepared to meet fire with ice and a captain embodying this in Cummins. The tourists scored at 3.2 runs per over to the home side’s 4.61 and you have to go back to 1904, when England (2.30) beat Australia (3.81) at Melbourne, for the only time the difference was greater.
The tortoises lead 1-0 and this culture clash Ashes series is off to an incredible start.
