Pat Cummins Breaks Tailend Record To Script Thrilling Ashes Test Win At Edgbaston

 In a thrilling victory over England in the first Test match of Ashes 2023 at Edgbaston, Pat Cummins saved Australia not with the ball but with the bat. In the process, he and his partner-in-crime Nathan Lyon created several records1.

Between two boundaries involving Pat Cummins, Edgbaston played out an all-time Ashes classic, with Australia’s strikingly anti-Bazball methods triumphing over the razzmatazz of England’s approach. The game ebbed and flowed over the course of five days, with even rain playing a handy cameo that only heightened the intensity of the contest as it approached a nail-biting conclusion1.

Usman Khawaja was leading Australia’s charge towards the finish line and resisting England’s, but when he fell for 65 off a Ben Stokes leg-cutter with Australia still needing 72 for victory, it looked like things would fold quickly. Alex Carey soon hit one back to Joe Root, England’s seventh-choice bowler, and it was down to Cummins and Lyon to score 54 in around a hundred balls1.

Heading into this game, Cummins had not scored 35 or more in a Test innings since the 2018 Boxing Day Test against India. While he had been playing white-ball cameos lower down the order, including a scarcely believable 14-ball 50 in the IPL, his Test batting returns had fallen. It did not help that Australia dropped Mitchell Starc, who had recently scored 46 runs in the World Test Championship final against India. This had prompted Ollie Robinson to quip that once they get past Cummins, it would be “three No.11s” to get rid of. The odds were stacked heavily against Cummins and Australia. And yet, he prevailed1.

England probably erred in handing Root an over too many. Cummins made them pay, hitting two sixes to bring the equation down from a distant-looking 51 to a very much in-sight 37. He had also hit three sixes en route to 38 in the first innings – his first score in excess of 35 in Tests since December 2018. This took his tally of sixes to five in this Test, the most he has ever hit in a match in this format1.

Lyon provided him with able company at the other end, rotating strike over, defending good balls, and having a go at anything short. As the runs ticked by, the screws visibly started coming apart for England. The killer blow was Lyon’s picturesque lofted on-drive over mid-on, a shot any top-order batter would be proud of (and would hardly dare to attempt in a Test match). With three required, Cummins steered a back-of-length ball towards third man to officially bury the ghosts of Edgbaston 2005 once and for all1.

He finished with 44 not out – the highest score by a batter batting at No.9 or lower in a successful fourth-innings run-chase in Test history, bettering R Ashwin ’s 42 not out last year against Bangladesh1.