Australia returned to winning ways at their favourite hunting ground, the Gabba in Brisbane, to crush England by 9 wickets in the opening match of the Ashes 2021-22 series to take 1-0 lead in the series.
Pat Cummins kicked off his captaincy reign with a 5-wicket haul while left-handed batsman Travis Head scored a brilliant 152 in the first innings to set up Australia's huge victory, which was also marked by historic performances by spinner Nathan Lyon and debutant wicketkeeper Alex Carey.
It all began with England deciding to bat first on a rain-truncated opening day of the first Test of the Ashes 2021-22 series and struggling throughout the play. England were bowled out for just 147 in the first innings, with Pat Cummins returning with impressive figures of 13.1-3-38-5.
Australia's searing left-arm fast bowler Mitchell Starc set the ball rolling in the favour of his team when he knocked over England opener Rory Burns on the first ball of the series. It was for the first time since the Ashes 1936 that a wicket had fallen on the first ball of a series and it was indeed a spectacular one. Burns moved across wickets to find a ball moving back into him, twirling around his legs to crash into the wickets as Australia drew the first blood.
Joe Root was dismissed for a nine-ball duck by Josh Hazlewood who also accounted for England No 3 Dawid Malan (6), as the visitors were left reeling at 60/5 with Haseeb Hameed being the only bright spot in the top order. Hameed faced 75 balls to make 25 runs with three boundaries.
The pair of Ollie Pope and Jos Buttler added 52 runs for the sixth wicket to provide some respite to the English side but Australia were on a roll. Pope fell for a 79-ball 35 to Australia all-rounder Cameron Green, who bagged his maiden wicket in his career. Chris Woakes hit a few spectacular boundaries to make 21 from 24 balls which took England to as far as 147 in their first innings.
Australia made a shaky start when play resumed on the second day when they lost the left-handed opening batsman Marcus Harris for only 3, but the pair of David Warner and Marnus Labuschagne ensured that the hosts produced a strong reply after the early blow. Warner and Labuschagne added 156 runs for the second wicket from 254 balls to provide Australia a strong footing, putting them in the lead against England in the first innings.
Warner was unfortunate to have missed out on a deserving century as he fell for 94 from 176 balls with 11 fours and 2 sixes, and on the other end Labuschagne batted in his usual elements to make 74 from 117 balls with 6 fours and a couple of sixes.
While the likes of Steve Smith (12) and Green (0) failed to trouble the scorers, Head produced one of his best knocks in his fledgling career. The left-handed Head smashed the third quickest century in the history of Ashes series, from only 85 balls, to finish with a superb 152 from only 148 balls with the help of 14 boundaries and 4 sixes. Along with the remaining batsmen, among whom Starc made a 64-ball 35 with 5 boundaries, Head took Australia's total to 425 in the first innings, giving them a huge lead of 278 runs.
While England once again made a shaky start losing their openers without much contributions, it was the pair of Malan and Root that troubled Australia on the third day. In over two sessions, England got close to Australia's first innings lead as Malan and Root added 162 runs for the third wicket to provide their side a strong footing.
The ghosts of the loss to India last time around at the Gabba did come back to haunt Australia at one point in the third day when their star-studded bowling line-up failed to make inroads and Hazlewood struggled with an injury. But when play resumed on the fourth day with England still behind by 58 runs, veteran spinner Lyon took matters in his own hands after spending a lot of time in the wait of his record 400th wicket.
Lyon had Malan caught by Labuschagne at silly point for 82 which was his 400th wicket in Test cricket, which helped him join an exclusive club of only two bowlers — Shane Warne and then Madurai — to have taken 400 or more wickets for Australia in Test cricket. Lyon went on to take three more wickets to return with an impressive spell of 34-5-91-4 whereas Cummins and Green took a couple of wickets each. The other bowlers and Starc and Hazlewood took one wicket apiece as England were bowled out for 297 after they had reached to 220/2 at the close of play on the third day.
For a batsman who has been in red-hot form in Test cricket this year, Root fell for 89 to Green in the second essay for England and a collapse was well underway. None of the remaining English batsmen could provide any form of resistance, with Carey making a world record of collecting most catches for a wicketkeeper on Test debut, with three catches in the first innings and five in the second.
Warner, who scored a brilliant 94 in the first innings, had taken a blow to his ribs and could not come out to bat to finish the formalities for Australia in the second innings. The pair of Harris and Carey knocked off the majority of runs in the second innings, but the former was dismissed by England seamer Ollie Robinson. Harris was not out on nine in the company of Labuschagne when Australia reached 20/1 to clinch a 9-wicket victory at the Gabba and take a crucial lead in the Ashes series.
Devarchit Varma is a cricket writer and journalist with an experience of more than a decade, having worked at Hindustan Times (newspaper) and CricketCountry (website). Along with covering international and domestic cricket, he has also interviewed several current and former top players such as Rohit Sharma, Steve Smith, Dale Steyn, Michael Hussey, Jacques Kallis, Brendon McCullum, Shane Watson, Lasith Malinga and many more. He has also worked in other beats as a journalist in Bollywood (Reliance BigOye) and IT (SiliconIndia) industries.
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