England v Australia recap: Day 5 of the first Ashes Test at Edgbaston
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After a big mopping up effort by the groundstaff after some torrential rainfall, both overnight and early morning in Edgbaston Australia finally resumed day five on 107-3 requiring 175 more to go 1-0 up in the series.
Usman Khawaja and nightwatchman Scott Boland were the batters in the middle with the task of scoring as many as they could without losing their wickets.
Well that they did, but they did it at a snail's pace. They had added 14 runs at just over one run per over when Boland (20) edged behind a back of a length ball in the corridor from Stuart Broad (121-4).
Travis Head joined Khawaja in the middle with a huge amount of responsibility on his shoulders. The pair continued to score at a painstakingly slow run rate, putting on 22 for the fifth wicket when Head (16) edged a rare big off-spinner from Moeen Ali to Joe Root at slip who didn’t have to move an inch (143-5).
That brought Cameron Green to the crease. He and Khawaja started to move things in earnest playing a few attacking shots that perhaps could have been played earlier on.
Having added 49 off 19.4 overs Green (28), in an attempt to chop a back of a length ball outside off from Ollie Robinson down to third man, instead chopped onto his stumps (192-6).
The nerves were kicking in as both sides smelled victory in the air and Australia’s last recognised batter Alex Carey joined Khawaja at number eight.
With the score on 209-6 Khawaja’s long vigil at the crease finally came to an end when he looked to run a length ball outside off off the bowling of Ben Stokes to the third man, only to play onto his stumps off the inside edge (209-7). It was a fantastic innings from Khawaja who added 64 more runs to his first innings 141.
However good Khawaja’s effort was, the lower order still had a massive job on their hands to win or save this Test. Pat Cummins joined Alex Carey.
Carey took it upon himself to score the majority of the required runs by playing attacking shots, while Cummins held up the other end. That they did to the tune of 18 runs before Carey smashed a length ball on off from Joe Root right back at him, only for Root to snatch the ball out of the air. A catch that had the Edgbaston crowd in raptures (227-8).
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Nathan Lyon joined Cummins with 65 runs still required. The new ball was taken, which spurred Cummins and Lyon to use the ball's hardness as they saw little in the way of lateral movement.
They chipped away at the deficit, prodding, nibbling and tipping but rarely driving. That paid off, as with ten overs left in the day, they only needed 16 runs for victory.
Those sixteen runs seemed like an age to score, but score them they did. It was a brilliant show of heart, desire and no small measure of skill that saw Lyon (16*) and especially skipper Cummins (44*) see their side over the line to take the match.
The amber nectar will be flowing tonight in the Aussies' hotel tonight, that is for sure and no one could deny them that.
Key pre-match stats
- The average first innings score across the last ten Edgbaston Tests is 296.
- The 20 teams to score at least 350 runs in the first innings of an Edgbaston Test have an almost undefeated record of W9, D10, L1.
- Joe Root’s Test average of 50.24 drops to 38.75 in games against Australia.
- Root fell four times to Scott Boland in the 2021/22 series in Australia at a head-to-head average of 9.75.
- Aussie opener David Warner is averaging just 13.33 from his last six innings.
- Stuart Broad has dismissed David Warner 14 times in 46 Test matches at a cost of 389 runs (ave-27.78).
- Zak Crawley (72 runs at 18.00), Ben Stokes (118 runs at 16.86) and Ollie Pope (52 runs at 13.00) all average fewer than 20 runs per wicket at Edgbaston.
- Steve Smith averages a mammoth 113.67 against the bowling of Moeen Ali in Test cricket at a rate of 4.38rpo, having been dismissed just three times in nearly 78 overs.
England v Australia XI
England: Ben Duckett, Zak Crawley, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (captain), Jonny Bairstow (wk), Moeen Ali, Stuart Broad, Ollie Robinson, James Anderson
Australia: David Warner, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith, Travis Head, Cameron Green, Alex Carey (wk), Pat Cummins (captain), Nathan Lyon, Scott Boland, Josh Hazlewood
Team news
England named their side on Wednesday, with Stuart Broad getting the nod over paceman Mark Wood after leading the attack in a 10-wicket win over Ireland at Lord's - a match where James Anderson and Ollie Robinson were rested with niggling injuries.
Australia have recalled Josh Hazlewood and dropped fellow paceman Mitchell Starc from their XI. Starc played in Australia's 209-run World Test Championship final win over India at The Oval last week, a match Hazlewood missed with side and Achilles injuries.
