Ashes 2023: Reactions as Pat Cummins helps Australia win first match – ‘Test cricket at its best’

Australia captain Pat Cummins led his side to a dramatic two-wicket win over England in the first Test at Edgbaston on Tuesday.

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.

And after Alex Carey was out to leave Australia 227-8, the tourists still required another 54 more runs.

But Cummins and Nathan 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.

Victory left World Test champions Australia 1-0 up in the five-match series as they bid for a first Ashes campaign win in England in 22 years.

Cummins had promised Australia would stick with their traditional game rather than get caught up in the hype surrounding England’s aggressive ‘Bazball’ approach.

Australia’s method was exemplified by player of the match Khawaja, with Cummins saying: “He showed composure in both innings, playing at his own pace, playing his own method and didn’t get caught up in anything else.”

This was just England’s third defeat in 14 Tests under captain Ben Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum.

England were left to rue a series of missed chances throughout the match, none more so than when Lyon was dropped on just two by Stokes at square leg, after the skipper failed to hold a one-handed diving chance from a pull off Stuart Broad as he hit the turf.

Here’s a look at the reactions to Australia’s win:

With text inputs from AFP