"Good for Pat Cummins to be able to have his team play the way they want to play" - Mark Taylor on Australia's Ashes opener victory
Former Australia captain Mark Taylor lauded Pat Cummins for backing his tactics against England's 'Bazball' approach in the first Ashes Test that the visitors won by two wickets at Edgbaston in Birmingham.
The final day of the Ashes opener had quite a few twists and turns to ensure a contest that never turned in a particular direction. At stumps on Day 4, Australia were three down for 107 runs and needed another 174 runs to win, with seven wickets in hand, on the last day. However, they found themselves eight down for 227 before the final hour of the game.
An unbroken 55-run stand between skipper Cummins and Nathan Lyon for the ninth wicket changed the course of the game as Australia chased 281 in the dying minutes of a cliffhanger finish.
Cummins' wide-spread field placements to put a lid on England's scoring rate proved to be effective as the hosts follow their new aggressive approach in Test cricket.
Australia followed the opposite way of scoring runs — the traditional way — and majorly benefited from England's intensity against the run of play. Speaking to Nine's Wide World of Sports, Mark Taylor hailed Cummins for sticking to his own style of captaincy.
Taylor said:
"Very important for him. A lot of talk about the contrasting styles between Bazball and the Aussies. It was good for Pat Cummins to be able to have his team play the way they want to play. Not the way England and Manchester City want to play."
"I love the fact there is two different styles, it's great to watch. In a way it affirms both sides way of playing the game. We've had a Test match here separated by not much."
The former Australian captain further noted how Cummins and Lyon combined to pick up eight wickets on Day 4 as England were bowled out for 273 in the second innings.
"Great for Pat Cummins bowled us back in the match with Nathan Lyon yesterday. He and Nathan Lyon got us over the line today. Great victory for Pat Cummins but a great victory for the game of cricket."
"Usman Khawaja was superb in the match" - Mark Taylor
Australian opener Usman Khawaja averaged 17.78 in England ahead of the Birmingham Test of the current Ashes edition. However, the Pakistan-born batter changed his fortunes to extend his purple patch in red-ball cricket.
Khawaja scored 141 and 65 in the two innings of the match and frustrated England bowlers as he consumed a total of 518 deliveries, making him the first Australian to face more than 500 balls in a Test after Ricky Ponting in 2012 against India in Adelaide.
Khawaja also became the first Australian batter to hit a century and fifty in the same Test in England since Mark Taylor's 136 and 60 at Headingley in the 1989 Ashes. Effusing praise on Khawaja's tremendous performance in the Ashes opener, Taylor said:
"Khawaja was superb in the match. Batted on every day of the five days of this Test match, way back on late on day one to late here day five. It's been everything you can ask for in a Test match really."
He added:
"We talk about Test match cricket a lot that ebbs and flows. This one certainly did. It's five days of absolutely must-watch entertainment."
Australia will play the second Test against England on June 28 at Lord's in London. The visitors till then will enjoy a 1-0 lead in the five-Test Ashes series.