Pat Cummins heroics sees Australia edge England in Ashes thriller

Australian captain Pat Cummins has dug deep to score 44 runs of 73 balls to help Australia win a thriller at Edgbaston in the first Ashes test to leave England absolutely shattered. Australia looked to be heading for defeat after rain-impacted day 5 in Birmingham as they were 8-227 and needing 55 runs.

But encapsulating Australia's never-say-die attitude, Cummins and fellow bowler Nathan Lyon combined to chase down the 281-run target to record the nation's highest-ever fourth innings run chase against England since 1948.

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Cummins and Lyon chipped away at the total and scored the winning runs under floodlights at 7.21pm local time to deliver one of Australia's greatest ever test wins. Fans around the world were left absolutely stunned at the grit and determination from Australia's tail, which has come under scrutiny in recent weeks.

The Australian captain, who also took 4-63 in England's second innings, took off his helmet and tossed his bat in pure elation having sealed his greatest comeback win as captain. "It was nail-biting stuff," Cummins said after the epic run-chase.

"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."

Lyon also shared in Cummins jubilation after digging deep alongside his captain. “That’s special, bloody special,” Lyon told Channel Nine after the match.

“A bit lost for words really … pretty special. We had the belief. As a professional athlete, if you don’t believe, you might as well just go home. It’s going to be a thrilling series.”

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Cricket fans lost their minds at the victory and especially praised Cummins and Lyon for the sensational ninth wicket stand. Usman Khawaja also helped out in the second innings with a another important score of 65 to earn his player-of-the-match honours.

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.

with AAP

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