Ashes Test: Pat Cummins, Nathan Lyon put on 55 runs to give Australia victory

Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon pull off an incredible win for Australia in the dying moments of the fifth day of a match that squeezed every drop from the lemon.

Captain Pat Cummins and off spinner Nathan Lyon have pulled off an incredible victory for Australia in the dying moments of the fifth day of a match that squeezed every drop from the lemon.

The pair’s heroic and nerve-racking ninth wicket stand was revenge for the close loss here in 2005 when both were schoolboys and a reverse of the result at Headingley in 2019 when the pair were on the losing side.

On that most recent occasion Ben Stokes hit the winning runs off Cummins and Lyon missed a critical run out, this time it was the Australian skipper who ran the ball to the boundary at 7.20pm local time to complete the incredible win.

Coming together with the score at 8-227 and 271 needed for victory, he and Lyon put on 55 runs from 72 balls to give Australia a 1-0 lead in the series.

Cummins, 44no was the second highest scorer in the Australian innings. He swatted in the indoor nets ahead of play, having a long last gasp session with the coaches and it clearly worked.

Pat Cummins celebrates after scoring the winning runs to defeat England. Picture: Getty Images.

The captain and Lyon (16) had done the hard work with the ball to give themselves a chance on the fourth day and then found themselves left to win the match with the bat.

They proved up to a task where most of the more experienced batters had not.

When Harry Brook fumbled a ball on the boundary the game was won with 27 balls to spare. Australia was 8-282 in a game that had squeezed every drop from the lemon.

What a contest this was. What a stand the ninth wicket put on over those 64 anxious minutes as the lights came on and every single fan held their breath.

The Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was up at 4am tweeting and there will be many who got no sleep.

Wow - brilliant win by Aussies - great partnership by Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon to bring it home #Ashes23#ENGvsAUS 🏏

— Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) June 20, 2023

How could you sleep through that?

Surely people stayed up or were woken in the early hours by news that a Test for the ages was playing out late in the evening here at Edgbaston. If you didn’t hear the deafening noise when the first five wickets fell and England took the advantage, you must have heard that unnerving silence grow as Cummins and Lyon ninth inched toward the improbable victory.

The teams move to London but have some time off before the second Test begins next Wednesday at Lord’s.

Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon proved up to a task where most of the more experienced batters had not. Picture: Getty Images.

For all the talk of Bazzball’s helter-skelter cricket, the last day inched to its anxious conclusion in the timeless manner, the advantage seesawing between the two sides, the momentum shifting one way as a partnership built and then sharply the other when it was broken.

When push came to shove Ben Stokes pushed his fielders back, with three or four on the ropes through much of the day and six out when Cummins put on that last ditch stand with Lyon.

When it mattered Stokes proved too defensive.

With Cummins threatening to pull it out of the fire Stokes gifted him singles in an attempt to get at the other batsman – a tactic that saw Tim Paine widely criticised when the England captain got his side home at Headingley in 2019.

Every single ball was heart in mouth stuff by that stage. Joe Root took a return catch from Alex Carey that sent the fans into a frenzy. The game seemed done. Stokes peddled back and dropped Lyon on one in front of them that prompted a collective nervous breakdown.

With the less than 20 needed a hush descended in the crowd that had been so excruciatingly loud when victory seemed at hand.

The English attempted to raise voices and spirits but it couldn’t be sustained.

It was a fitting denouement to a match that had waxed and waned across five fascinating days. Both sides put on a show worth the price of admission and then some.

England, would have been worthy winners, they’d set the game up with an audacious first innings and an equally audacious declaration. Australia seemed from then on to be always making up ground, sometimes catching up but rarely gaining any advantage.

Things were set up beautifully for the last day.

Morning rain wiped out the first session and both sides stewed in their juices a little longer. The stands were full and vibrating with excitement by the time the teams took their places at 2.15pm.

Australia were 3-107, they needed 174 runs and were granted 67 overs in which to complete the task. They started, however, with David Warner, Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne already in the sheds,

The sun came out after lunch and conditions were far better for batting than they might have been. Usman Khawaja (34) was there with bat in hand, a phenomena witnessed on every day of this Test, and Scott Boland (13) at the other end.

Boland (20) was dismissed by Broad and Australia was 4-121 with 160 runs needed.

Travis Head, Cameron Green and Alex Carey had to conspire a way to do it with Khawaja – or without him.

Head (16) lasted just under 40 minutes before choking with his side 138 in arrears.

Cameron Green (28) put on a 49 run partnership with Khawaja but played on there were still 89 runs needed and one man left who knew how to hold a bat.

Carey joined Khawaja at the crease as England pressed home its advantage.

Pat Cummins (L) and Australia's Nathan Lyon pulled off a win for the ages. Picture: AFP.

The opener, who scored 141 in the first innings, had by now contributed over 200 runs to the team total. He has the calmest of demeanours and is rarely ruffled, but there was no doubt that he was now feeling the effects of such a long time at the crease and in the field.

Stokes, had not been bowled a ball in the first 68 overs of the inning, brought himself into the attack after Moeen failed to land one on the spot when given a chance from the pavilion end in the 77th.

The England captain, renowned for his ability to rise in critical moments, did, as he so often does. Khawaja, so patient for so long, played the last delivery of his second over onto his stumps and the game was now firmly in England’s favour.

Pat Cummins, who had spent a very long time practising at the nearby indoor nets in the morning, joined Carey with 72 runs needed.

Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon waited in the dressing room trying to convince themselves that they would meet the challenge if needed. No bowler relishes this situation no matter what they say.

When the new ball became available Stokes didn’t take it, trusting his gut that Joe Root, who’d picked up Moeen’s duties from the city end, was a better option with the old one.

And that trick too came off with Carey hitting one straight back to the part time bowler when he’d reached 20.

Australia was still 54 runs short of the total with only two tail end wickets between it and defeat.

The end was nigh.

Pat Cummins (L) and Nathan Lyon add runs on day five of the first Ashes cricket Test match. Picture: AFP.

Bazball seemed to take a bit of a back seat as the game settled into its traditional rhythms on the fifth day.

Predictions Stokes would keep the field up and challenge the Australians to take the game on proved unfounded as the England captain, quite sensibly, set about denying the batters scoring opportunities.

At times he had three and four men back on the ropes and while there were still constant meetings and tweakings of fields, this was cricket as we have known it for many a year.

Stokes, as he had done the night before, gave Moeen Ali cover on the straight boundary, a tactic he had resisted in Australia’s innings but come around to by the fourth evening.

The tactic paid dividends with Green and Head’s dismissals both coming as they attempted to break the shackles.

Green was squeezed until he offered an ambitious late cut to a delivery from Ollie Robinson soon after lunch.

With scoring options cut off he took a risk and paid the price.

Head had muddled to six from 19 deliveries before Moeen came into the attack for the first time. His first delivery, a long hop, was battered to mid wicket, his second cut wide of slips for another two and the third played a little streakily behind square for another boundary.

You could hear the off spinner creaking, you could imagine the wound on his spinning finger burning with each delivery. A spinner with an open wound on the finger is like a singer with a raw throat.

Moeen, however, found a way to hit a high note, pitching one that ripped off a length and caught the edge of Head’s bat. The South Australian as awkward on the back foot as he had been against the short ball from seamers,

Moeen did for Head in the end, but the plot was devised and the hard work by the seamers who, bowling a body line with fielders scattered to all parts of the leg side, weakened the South Australian

England had noted his lack of comfort against the short delivery and probed from the moment the last specialist batsman mad his way to the crease.

Nathan Lyon had said the previous night that he did not mind Robinson’s abuse of Khawaja when he dismissed the opener (on 141) in the first innings. It appears the unrepentant Englishman is, understandably, not that popular with all Australians.

In the first drink break, the bowler who was suspended for past racist indiscretions after his first Test, was dragged away from Khawaja by James Anderson.

England has a real problem with the Dukes ball which is not holding its shape and is the subject of multiple complaints by the bowling sides.

The home side even had one changed before a delivery was bowled in Australia’s second innings.