ESPNcricinfo
Australia won an epic first Test by two wickets, to take a 1-0 lead over England at Edgbaston, an hour and six minutes after they seemed to have lost it.
Pat Cummins, their captain, back-cut Ollie Robinson’s short ball down towards the boundary directly in front of the travelling Australian supporters in their canary caps in Block 31 of Edgbaston South Stand.
Harry Brook sprawled to his right in a bid to cut it off at deep third, but the ball squirmed out of his grasp and into the boundary to clinch a two-wicket victory.
When Joe Root held an outrageous caught-and-bowled off Alex Carey, Australia still needed 54 more runs to win with Nathan Lyon – described by Robinson as the first of their “three No. 11s” – walking out to join Cummins. England were two wickets away from victory, and had a second new ball available.
But 12 overs later, Cummins and Lyon were still there. Cummins flogged Root for two sixes in the first over of the final hour to make a dent in the target and after surviving a spectacular effort by Ben Stokes at square leg when miscuing a hook, Lyon chipped Stuart Broad over mid-on to take the target down to single figures.
The Eric Hollies Stand roared England’s depleted attack on. Cummins dug out a yorker from Robinson and both batters wore short balls on the body. With three to win and 28 balls left, Cummins guided Robinson away to the rope, tossed his bat and helmet away, punched the air and lifted Lyon off his feet. It had echoes of the 2005 Test here – but this time, it was Australia who won by two.
Summarized scores: Australia 386 (Khawaja 141, Carey 66, Head 50) and 282 for 8 (Khawaja 65) beat England 393 for 8 declared (Root 118, Bairstow 78, Crawley 61, Lyon 4-149) and 273 (Cummins 4-63, Lyon 4-80) by two wickets