First Test, Australia v England: Aussies win vintage Ashes test, fit to be ranked with the very best

Pat Cummins celebrates after hitting the winning runs with teammate Nathan Lyon during day Five of Ashes 1st Test match between England and Australia at Edgbaston.

One has been batting poorly for years. The other does not think he can bat. Both had bowled themselves into the ground. Yet there they were, Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon, at the preposterous hour of 7pm, at the tailend of a tailend partnership, preparing, with astonishing aplomb, to win a match in which for most of its length Australia had barely clung on.

This fifth day of the Edgaston had for much of its length been the very opposite of the first, when boundaries had cascaded, and a festival atmosphere prevailed. But its arc was also completing: after multiple meetings of the Bazball executive, Ben Stokes had scattered his field, and Stuart Broad was trying to stir another patriotic roar from the Hollies Stand, albeit with tired arms.

Pat Cummins of Australia and Nathan Lyon celebrate.

Stokes wanted to attack Lyon, whom he had earlier dropped from a very difficult chance; Lyon was content to be attacked. He was beaten on the outside, twice; he was beaten on the inside, once; between times he drove a superb boundary. Cummins laced Robinson through the covers, one side of the desperate Pope, the other of the diving Crawley.

Broad next beat Cummins on the inside, but was worked away for a single, whereupon Lyon shovelled over mid-on – a shot of shut-eyed audacity that reduced the target to seven runs. A single reduced the target to a single blow. Cummins almost nicked a bouncer down leg, barely dug out a yorker from Robinson; facing Broad, Lyon took a lifter on the glove, then bunted a hook, both of which just eluded short leg.

Look, chances are you saw all this, and know what happened, so let me take you back a little in time. The morning had offered comfort only in the prospect of cricket defying our future machine overlords: AI cannot replace men with brooms in English cricket grounds; no algorithm will suffice to sweep rainwater from covers. The scene was a fit subject for LS Lowry or Clarice Beckett, except for the perpetual admonitions on the video screen: show respect, keep hydrating, drink responsibly, use bins, recycle your empties, watch your bags, keep breathing etc.

Pat Cummins of Australia and Nathan Lyon celebrate victory during day five.

The crowd outlasted the inundations, of rain and advice, and settled in at 2.15pm for a high-spirited day. Except that Australia’s approach to their adjusted target of 174 from 77 overs exhibited no compunction about using them to the last ball, and involved one big investment: in Usman we trust.

Australia’s most destructive batters of the last decade had been restricted to 80 runs in six hits in the Test, but their standard bearer of the last 18 months was still present, confronted here by the now-traditional fielding chevrons, the standard shuffling between over and round the wicket.

A fan of Australia after Australia defeated England at Edgbaston.

Khawaja, as we know, tackles batting as he tackles life, at a steady pace. But this made the day less of a run chase than a run stalk or even a run creep. Khawaja had lengthy periods becalmed, was occasionally guilty of indolence between wickets. His half century occupied 143 balls, and he was 55 balls in the 30s alone.

The commentators suspected him of that most heinous misdeed, batting without intent, and the Hollies Stand agreed. “Boring boring Aussies,’’ rang out the chant. “Boring boring Aussies.’’ Only occasionally, as they drew breath, did one hear the occasional lonely cry of “Aussie Aussie Aussie Oi Oi Oi.’’

Australia's Pat Cummins celebrates winning the first Ashes cricket Test match.

Khawaja’s partners came and went - the nightwatchman Boland, the counterpuncher Head, the prodigy Green - but without affecting his pace or his demeanour. His concentration recalled the South African Bruce Mitchell, who one day in a long innings looked up at his partner and said: “When did you come in?’’ Mitchell had lost track of who he was batting with three wickets earlier.

The grind took its toll on England too. Fields contracted and spread. Bowlers rested and returned. Moeen looked at his raw finger after every ball, as though trying hard not to think of a pink elephant - the pain of a spinning finger can no more be wished away than a toothache.

A knee is not much better, and Stokes spared his until the 70th over, but struck at once, Khawaja playing a tired shot to the tired cricket ball that stayed a little low. So concluded a microcosm of the contest: Bazball, 666 runs from 866 balls (4.63 runs per over) v Usball 206 from 518 balls (2.38 runs per over), strike rate bested by work rate.

With the second new ball pending, a gamble by Stokes on the old paid off, the fretful Carey offering Root a return catch as he tried to take advantage of the field being up. Then a counter blast from Cummins, successfully taking that advantage, by heaving two straight sixes. Engarde! Touche! Remember those forty-two fours and five sixes on Friday. What did they count for now?

England's captain Ben Stokes reacts after losing the first Ashes cricket Test match.

As observed, neither Cummins nor Lyon had anything like form to speak of coming into the match. But they had experience, and the sense, perhaps, of a bigger circle closing.

Four years ago, in the last great Ashes nipper at Headingley, Stokes poached the winning boundary from Cummins, Lyon having shambled in the field. Now, as Stokes looked on and Lyon ran for his life, Cummins slid a short ball to third man where overlapping England fielders fumbled the ball into the rope to end a vintage Ashes Test, fit to be ranked with the very best. Where else would you want to be? Seven sleeps til Lord’s.