History repeats itself at Edgbaston but this time, it was Australia who stunned the 'Bazballers' – England, winning an absolute humdinger by two wickets in the first of the five Tests in The Ashes 2023. The duo of Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon first shared eight wickets to bowl out England for 273 in the second innings and with the bat added a solid 55-run unbeaten partnership, piloting Australia to a memorable victory.
Speaking about the game, England won the toss and decided to bat first on the flat Edgbaston track. The openers got off to a blistering start before Josh Hazlewood provided the breakthrough, as Ben Duckett knicked one to the keeper after hitting a couple of boundaries. Zak Crawley and Ollie Pope then continued to keep the scoreboard ticking with aggressive cricket by adding 70 runs for the second wicket. Nathan Lyon then broke the solid partnership by trapping Pope in front and Scott Boland Joined the party soon, as Zak Crawley departed after scoring a good 61 off 73 balls. Harry Brook was dismissed for 32 in a rather bizarre fashion.
The duo of Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow set the tone for England with a 121-run stand for the sixth wicket, Bairstow smashed 78 runs at 100 strike rate while Joe Root registered his 30th Test ton. Root remained unbeaten on 118 that included 11 boundaries. At the close of day 1 Stokes came with a surprise declaration at 393/8 despite having an in-form Joe Root at one end.
Trailing by 393 runs, Australia lost the top batters cheaply at the start, as Stuart Broad and Ben Stokes rattled the top order with lethal bowling display. Travis Head and Usman Khawaja led the recovery with an 81-run stand for the fourth wicket, Head scored a counter-attacking half-century before Moeen Ali dismissed him for 50. Khawaja, however, kept the scoreboard ticking with a magnificent century and was ably supported by the likes of Cameron Green (38 off 68), Alex Carey (66 off 99) and skipper Pat Cummins (38 off 62). Usman Khawaja smacked 141 runs that included 17 boundaries helping Australia reduce the deficit margin to 7, as they were bowled out for 386.
England started the second innings after leading Australia by seven runs, the Bazball approach backfired for England in the second innings as Australian bowlers ran through the English batting unit. Most of the batters had starts but none had converted the starts to a big score. Handy contributions from Joe Root (46 off 55), Harry Brook (46 off 52) and Ben Stokes (43 off 66) helped them score 273, with the lead of 7 runs, Australia have been given the target of 281. Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon picked four wickets each for Australia.
Chasing 281, openers got off to a flier as David Warner scored a 57-ball 36 before edging the ball to the keeper against Ollie Robinson. Stuart Broad, then, bowled a lethal spell to dismantle both experienced Steven Smith and Marnus Labuschagne and Australia were once again left reeling at 89/3. Usman Khawaja yet again showed grit and scored a patient 65 off 197 before Ben Stokes cleaned him with a beauty, while all the other batters got starts but couldn’t convert it big, and they were in trouble yet again at 227/8 in the last hour of the game. With 53 runs to get in the last hour, the duo of Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon put on a tremendous show to take Australia over the line by two wickets.
Let us look at the stats and numbers from the first Ashes Test between England and Australia:
141 - Usman Khawaja registered his first century and highest score in England.
1000 - Cameron Green (1038) completed 1000 runs in Tests.
5 - Usman Khawaja now has five centuries as an opener in World Test Championship, the second most by an opener in World Test Championship. Rohit Sharma and Dimuth Karunaratne share the top spot with 6 centuries
2 - England Scored a total of 273, this is the second-highest total in Ashes without a single 50-plus score in an innings. Australia previously scored 279 at Edgbaston in 2005 which tops the list.
8208 - Warner has scored 8208 runs as an opener in Tests, which is the fifth most runs by an opener in Tests.
Most runs as an opener in Tests
11845 - Alastair Cook
9607 - Sunil Gavaskar
9030 - Graeme Smith
8625 - Matthew Hayden
8208 - David Warner
518 - The number of balls Usman Khawaja faced in the match was 518, the second most number of balls faced in a Test match at Edgbaston. Cook tops the list with 545 balls against India in 2011.
5 - Pat Cummins smacked 5 sixes in the game overall, the most sixes hit by a captain in an Ashes Test Match. Percy Chapman previously hit three sixes at Lord’s in 1971.
281 - Australia chased a target of 281, the joint second-highest total chased at Edgbaston, along with South Africa who did the same in 2008. England tops the list with a total of 378 against India in 2022.
9 - Alex Carey affected nine dismissals in this game, the joint most number of dismissals affected by a keeper in an Ashes Test. Carey shares the spot with Gil Langley, Rod Marsh, Ian Healy and Adam Gilchrist.
78 - England Declared the innings in 78 overs, the second least overs batted before the declaration at England. Pakistan previously batted 44.5 overs at Lords' in 1974 before the declaration.
55 - Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon recorded a partnership of 55, this is the second-highest ninth-wicket partnership for Australia in the fourth innings for a winning cause. Tibby Cotter and Gerry Hazlitt previously scored 56 runs for the ninth wicket, way back in 1907.
