Australia captain Pat Cummins was elated to lead his side over the line in an Ashes nailbiter, four years after ending up on the wrong side of Ben Stokes’ Headingley miracle.
Cummins hit a match-clinching 44 not out during a nerve-jangling final session at Edgbaston, finishing off a chase of 281 in ice-cool fashion during a ninth-wicket stand of 55 with Nathan Lyon.
Both men had been in the thick of the action during another classic finish in 2019, when England skipper Stokes reeled off a heroic century alongside last man Jack Leach.
Lyon, who held firm for 16 not out, botched a run out that would have won that game for Australia and it was Cummins who conceded the winning runs when Stokes pummeled him through the covers.
In the afterglow of a two-wicket victory that will live long in the memory, Cummins embraced the chance to square the ledger.
“Yeah, I would be lying if I said it didn’t (cross my mind),” he said.
“We were on the other side of one in the last series here. When you’re on the other side it feels like one that’s got away and it really hurts.
“It’s a really happy dressing room in there. A lot of those guys were there at Headingley and to clinch one that was perhaps out of our grasp for a little while there is pretty satisfying.
“It’s about having that belief that anyone is a match-winner, you could be the one to step up and win it. When you’re in the backyard playing as a kid you wish to be in these moments, to be here in an Ashes series, that’s what you want and it’s great to be on the winning side.”
Neither side ever felt fully in control of a match that stayed remarkably even across five tightly-wound days, but England were the team who did most to propel things towards an exciting finish.
The combination of a stubborn pitch and time lost to rain would have killed the prospects of a result had the hosts not moved things forward with rapid run-scoring and a risky declaration on day one.
Cummins’ men were much more careful throughout and rode their caution all the way to the winning line, leaving a hollow ring to the chants of “boring, boring Aussies” that rang out from the Eric Hollies Stand.
“The fans were pretty noisy out on the hill. Win or lose we are pretty comfortable with how we go about it,” he said.
“We’ve been really good for the last 20 Test matches over two years. Winning is nice. We are at our best when we play at our own pace and tempo. We’re a stable team, we know what we need to be at our best and we’ll keep doing it.”
Cummins, whose mother Maria died earlier this year, was seen celebrating with his father Peter on the balcony and signed off with an emotional moment.
“Dad’s been here all week, I feel really lucky to have him here because it’s been a tough few months,” he said.
“Dad was here in 2019 with Mum, so having him here was really special. I went with him to see Bruce Springsteen (at Villa Park) on the first night as well. So, it’s been a good week.”
Babar's captain's innings leads Pakistan to victory as series drawn with New Zealand
Babar Azam top scored as he led his Pakistan team to a nine-run victory over New Zealand in Lahore that saw the five-game T20I series end in a draw.
Babar hit 69 runs off 44 balls before being bowled by Ben Sears, smashing six fours and two sixes to take his team to 123/3 at the time of his dismissal.
Fakhar Zaman (43 from 33) and Usman Khan (31 off 24) also chipped in with important innings as Pakistan ended on 178/5.
With a target of 179 to secure a 3-1 series victory, New Zealand's run chase faltered almost immediately as opener Tom Blundell was removed within the first over with his team having managed just five runs on the board.
Blundell's fellow opener Tim Seifert steadied the ship with a vital 52-run innings off 33 deliveries before being bowled by Usama Mir, but Shaheen Shah Afridi led the way for Pakistan, finishing with figures of 4-30 to stem the New Zealand run chase
Josh Clarkson's 38 off 26 set up a nervy conclusion, but Pakistan held on to avoid defeat in the T20 series as the teams share the spoils at two wins apiece after the first game was abandoned.
IPL: Fraser-McGurk leads the way as Capitals hold off Mumbai
Delhi Capitals withstood Mumbai Indian’s late surge and held on for a 10-run victory at Arun Jaitley Stadium.
Jake Fraser-McGurk top-scored with 84 – hitting 50 off just 15 balls – while Tristan Stubbs (48) and Shai Hope (41) also chipped in with important contributions as the Capitals set a target of 258.
Mukesh Kumar (3/59) and Rasikh Salam (3/34) did their best to halt Mumbai’s revival, but they turned up the pressure to require 25 runs from the final over.
However, despite Luke Wood and Piyush Chawla’s best efforts, Delhi held out for a second successive win.
Data debrief
Wood almost made amends after conceding 68 runs during the opening innings – the joint-most in the IPL this season, matching Reece Topley’s tally against Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Tilak Varma led Mumbai’s attempted revival with 63 for his sixth half-century in the IPL, though they have all come in defeats
Chase outdone by opposite number Paudel as West Indies A suffer four-wicket loss to Nepal
West Indies A’s tour of Nepal got off to an unfortunate start, after they suffered a four-wicket loss to their host in a high scoring opening fixture of their five-match Twenty20 series at the Tribhuvan University International Cricket Ground in Kirtipur, on Saturday.
Set a formidable 204 by West Indies A, Nepal’s thrilling victory, which was set up by a captain’s knock from Rohit Paudel, etched their names in the history books, as they successfully got to their target at 206-6 with two balls to spare.
Paudel smashed a 54-ball 112, including 10 fours and two sixes to see his team to a 1-0 lead in the series, which West Indies Head coach Darren Sammy said offers his team a chance to define roles and personnel more clearly for their ICC Men’s T20 World Cup squad.
However, the Caribbean side’s all-round effort was found wanting, as only captain Roston Chase (74), Alick Athanaze (47) and Keacy Carty (38) offered any resistance with the bat, while only Obed McCoy (2-34) and Matthew Forde (2-49) had some semblance of success with the ball.
Scores: West Indies A 204-5 (20 overs); Nepal 206-6 (19.4 overs)
Asked to take first strike, after losing the toss, West Indies A suffered an early blow, as they lost Johnson Charles (zero) off the last ball of the opening over, with 16 runs on the board. Andre Fletcher (13) stuck two sixes off five balls, before he too departed via the run-out route, leaving West Indies A at 43-2 in the fourth over.
However, Athanaze went about business, striking three sixes and five fours in a 25-ball knock, as he put on 43 for the third wicket with Chase, prior to his demise. From there, Chase and Carty added another 60 runs in a fourth-wicket stand that defined the innings.
Carty’s 38 off 26 balls, included two fours and three sixes, while Chase, who anchored the innings with a captain’s knock, struck nine fours and two sixes in his 46-ball 74. Kadeem Alleyne, on 14, and Keemo Paul, one, were left not out.
No Nepal bowler took more than one wicket.
With runs on the board, West Indies A would have felt confident of wrapping up a win, even more so, after Forde and McCoy combined to remove openers Anil Sah (five) and Kushal Bhurtel (16) to have Nepal at 38-2 in the fifth over.
West Indies remained in the ascendancy when Fletcher and Charles combined to run out Kushal Malla (16), leaving their host on the ropes at 82-3 at the halfway mark.
However, Paudel showed class, in not only reviving his team’s innings, but pushed them all the way with some aggressive stroke play, assisted by wayward bowling from West Indies A attack at times. Dipendra Singh Airee (24) offered support to his captain in getting Nepal across the line for a famous victory.
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