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New Delhi, India
England and Australia produced a humdinger of a Test in Edgbaston, Birmingham before Pat Cummins & Co. edged past the hosts by two wickets on the final day, on Tuesday (June 20), of the Ashes 2023 opener. Opting to bat first, England rode on Joe Root's unbeaten 118 to declare their first innings at 393 for 8. In reply, Australia posted 386 all-out courtesy of Usman Khawaja's 141 before England set up a challenging 282-run target. The final day's play saw a delayed start before the game went down to the wire but Khawaja (65), Cummins (44 not out) and Nathan Lyon (16 not out) took the Aussies home.
While England's Bazball approach entertained one and all throughout the contest and kept viewers at the edge of their seat, English captain Ben Stokes' first-innings declaration became a talking point after they went down by two wickets on Tuesday evening.
'Not going to be looking back on this game as 'what ifs'
Stokes backed his declaration call decision on the opening day, made when a well-set Root was batting on 118 along with two wickets in hand. He said after the game, "If we were in the same position? Yeah. I would like to be 398 for 6 [sic] with 20 minutes left. That would be great."
"I could also turn it around and say, 'if we didn't declare, would we have got the excitement that we did at the end of day five?' I'm not a hundred per cent sure, but I'm not going to be looking back on this game as 'what ifs'... the reality is, we just didn't manage to get over the line," Stokes further added.
Despite England's early declaration on Day 1, they kept resorting to their exciting and aggressive style of cricket and were on top in most parts of the game. However, Cummins-led Australia never looked out of sorts and kept coming back before pulling off a heist in the final hour courtesy of an unbroken 55-run ninth-wicket stand between skipper Cummins and Lyon.
While one can point fingers at England's declaration, they did miss a chance to not dismiss Australia early in their first essay after reducing them to 220 for 5. Also, England should have ideally set a target beyond 300 but Cummins & Co. did well to dismiss them for 273.
The second Test commences on June 28 (Wednesday) at the iconic Lord's Cricket Stadium, London.