Australian media yesterday hailed Pat Cummins’ batting heroics as the final blow of a “rope-a-dope” strategy that delivered a thrilling two-wicket win over England in the first Ashes Test at Edgbaston.
In partnership with fellow tailender Nathan Lyon, captain Cummins struck an unbeaten 44 to give his side a 1-0 lead in the series on Tuesday, as they bid for a first Ashes campaign win in England in 22 years.
The Ashes holders were 209-7, still 72 runs shy of a victory target of 281, when fast-bowler Cummins came in to bat after first-innings century-maker Usman Khawaja fell for a painstaking 65.
Photo: AFP
After Alex Carey was out to leave Australia 227-8, the tourists still required another 54 more runs, but Cummins and Lyon’s unbroken stand of 55 saw Australia home in a match to rival the tension of England’s two-run win in a celebrated 2005 Ashes clash at Edgbaston.
Cummins, who finished on 44 not out, hit the winning boundary when he edged Ollie Robinson to third man where a diving Harry Brook knocked the ball over the rope.
Lyon, whose missed run out contributed to England’s stunning one-wicket win at Headingley in the drawn 2019 Ashes series in England, was 16 not out.
The Sydney Morning Herald said Cummins had been “infected by the spirit of Bazball,” the fearless brand of cricket that has brought England success under coach Brendon ‘Baz’ McCullum and captain Ben Stokes.
“Cummins has shown, both as a captain, but also a leader of the team over the past two years, that he is quite capable of taking a punch,” Daniel Brettig wrote in the paper.
His innings was a “late flurry of punches ... that might have been inspired by the way his opposite number Stokes had taken control of the Headingley epic in 2019.”
Many Australians stayed up late to take in the tense final sessions on screens, including Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who posted his congratulations on social media at 4:30am.
“Wow — brilliant win by Aussies — great partnership by Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon to bring it home,” he wrote on Twitter.
The Sydney Morning Herald’s chief cricket writer Malcolm Conn said Australia could thank Stokes for England’s aggressive day one declaration which gave the tourists time to push for victory even with rain on the final day.
“It was a brilliant Test match set up by England’s ultra-attacking approach, but Bazball might be in danger of pushing the boundaries of cricketing common sense too far,” he wrote.
The second Test starts at Lord’s next week.
“Where else would you want to be?” the Australian’s cricket columnist Gideon Haigh wrote. “Seven sleeps til Lord’s.”
The International Cricket Council (ICC) yesterday penalized Australia and England two World Test Championship points each and fined them 40 percent of their match fees for maintaining slow over rates during the Test.
They were ruled to be two overs short of the target after time allowances were taken into consideration, with match referee Andy Pycroft imposing the sanction.
The ICC said Cummins and Stokes pleaded guilty to the offense, and there was no need for a formal hearing.
Additional reporting by AFP
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