Australia beat England by two wickets in the first match of Ashes 2023 thanks to Usman Khawaja’s brilliant batting in both innings and captain Pat Cummins’ all-round performance. With this, the visiting team has taken a 1-0 lead in the series.
At one point in the third session of the fifth day, Australia had lost eight wickets chasing the target and still needed 54 runs. At such a time, captain Pat Cummins (44) batted well and shared a half-century partnership with Nathan Lyon (16). This partnership proved crucial and Australia registered a resounding victory.
England had earlier batted brilliantly in the first innings and declared the innings on the score of 393/8 on the very first day. Joe Root played a brilliant 118-run innings from his side. At the same time, Bairstow scored 78 runs. In the first innings, Nathan Lyon took 4 wickets for Australia.
In response, Australia scored 386 runs in the first innings. Usman Khawaja (141) played a brilliant century from his side. Apart from him, Alex Carey scored 66 and Head scored 50 runs. Stuart Broad and Robinson got 3-3 successes from England.
On the basis of the first innings, England got a lead of 7 runs. In such a situation, his goal was to bring Australia under pressure while getting a big lead. But his claim backfired. Actually, Australia dropped their first two wickets for 27 runs only. England could not recover after this. Root and Harry Brook played innings of 46, 46 runs but no batsman managed to score a half-century. England’s innings collapsed for 273 runs. Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon took 4-4 wickets for Australia.
In this way Australia got a target of 281 runs to win. Chasing the target, Australia started well and Warner added 61 runs for the first wicket with Khawaja. Meanwhile, Warner got out after scoring 36 runs. Shortly after that, Australia quickly lost the wickets of Labushen, Smith. This process did not stop here, but wickets were going continuously from one end.
But Khawaja, who scored a century in the first innings, stood firm. He scored a half-century and took the team past 200. Khawaja was dismissed for 65 as the seventh wicket. Australia’s eighth wicket fell on a total of 227. For a moment it seemed that the match might slip out of their hands but Pat Cummins’s understanding kept them in the match and eventually they won. By the way, England must have been regretting declaring the innings on the very first day itself.
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