SCORE: Australia (386 and 8-282) have crushed England (8-393 declared and 273) by two wickets.
SUMMARY: Australia have earned an epic triumph after a pulsating finale to one of many nice Ashes Test matches, with captain Pat Cummins their final matchwinner. After three hours of hanging round within the rain and underneath heavy skies, this epic lastly bought underneath means with Australia needing 174 with seven wickets left – and it turned from a gradual burner right into a traditional to rival the 2005 epic at Edgbaston that England had nabbed by two wickets. England chipped away, Stuart Broad eliminating cussed nightwatchman Scott Boland for a Test-best 20, Moeen Ali, sore finger and all, having Travis Head snaffled at slip and Ollie Robinson bowling Cameron Green. When captain Ben Stokes then lastly induced an inside edge on to the stumps to finish Usman Khawaja’s stoic vigil and Joe Root, after two troublesome drops, took a superb caught and bowled to finish the counter-attack of Alex Carey, England appeared overwhelming favourites with eight down and 54 wanted. Cue Cummins, who smashed 14 off a Root over after Stokes delayed taking the brand new ball, and gritty Nathan Lyon, who survived what would have been an incredible one-handed catch from Stokes, as they defied the percentages to information Australia residence with a partnership of 55 with simply 4.3 overs left, and all 4 outcomes nonetheless attainable. Perhaps it is arrange one other collection for the ages.
PLAYER OF THE MOMENT: There have been 72 nonetheless wanted and solely three wickets left when Cummins got here to the wicket, just for the skipper to remind everybody he actually can bat a bit as he delivered the very definition of a captain’s innings, 44 not out off 73 balls, to drag off his fifth victory in opposition to England. Criticised for defensive ways earlier within the match, he had the final snigger with this knock following some nice second-innings bowling.
KEY MOMENT: Stokes appeared for one second as if he had pulled off one of many all-time nice one-handed catches to eliminate Lyon, who had miscued his hoik to leg of Stuart Broad however, for as soon as, the leaping, back-pedalling heroics of England’s Ashes Superman resulted in a spilled alternative. He appeared as if he knew how expensive it is likely to be.
STAT OF THE DAY: Usman Khawaja batted for 518 balls on this Test match, a document for any Australian this century, beating the 517 that Ricky Ponting confronted in opposition to India on the MCG in 2003. ‘UzBall’ was epic in its personal means – but it surely wasn’t fairly sufficient to tame Bazball.
QUOTE OF THE DAY: “It’s number one win of my career for me, absolutely … Both team spoke about their styles and that’s the beauty of this series. We’ll both play to our strengths. Don’t know which style is better but it makes for good entertainment.” – Cummins.
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
