Cricfry

Steve Smith is a modern-day great batsman. What a player. Treat to watch.

Test cricket-Check
Batting Masterclass- Check
Bowling with Heart- Check
Thrill-Check
Rain-Check
I can not recall that there was anything that is possible for a full of thriller test was missing from the opening test match of the high octane The ASHES series. It all started with Crawley creaming the 1st ball of the match for FOUR of Cummins. Joe Root smashing yet another test match century at home. Bazball takes charge and the hosts declare their 1st innings for 393/8 in just 78 overs(Surprised many). Aus starts their innings and Stuart Broad gets his bunny (Warner) cheaply and gets Labuchagne on the very next ball. Steve Smith also fell to Ben Stokes to send the visitors on the back foot. Meanwhile, Usman Khwaja watched all this from the other end and joined hands with Travis Head to pull things back. Moen Ali makes an impact on his return to get rid of Head as he departs straight after his fifty. Khwaja and Carey looked solid in the middle and the former scored a ton to give the Aussies an edge. Carey also scored some shots before scoring 66 runs. Skipper Cummins also played a cameo and added vital runs, in the end, to give just a seven-run lead to the hosts. England started poorly in the second innings as they lost both the openers for 27 runs. Joe Root and Olie Pope added 50 runs before Pope was castled with an unplayable yorker by Cummins. Cameo from the middle order helped the hosts to post a 282 runs target for the Aussies. The visitors started the chase in style as both the openers added 61 runs for the 1st wicket. Rain interrupts and play resumes and England send back Labuchagne and Smith before night watchman Boland makes an entry. Here comes the 5th day of the first test, 1st session washed out and when play resumes, Australia lost Boland early and was followed by Travis Head. Khwaja and Green adds some important runs before Green was chopped on. Khwaja scores fifty and looked solid before the skipper Stokes bowls his first over of the 2nd innings and gets the big fish. Australia needed 72 runs before Cummins makes his way in, he loses Carey. and as the rest is history. England was smelling the victory but skipper Pat Cummins had some other plans as he shattered England's plan to repeat 2005's heroics. Smashed 44 runs on the final day of the test to take 1-0 lead in the 2023 Ashes.
Key Moments-
Usman Khwaja bats on all 5 days
Root overtakes Labuchagne to become numero uno in tests
Crawley Smashes 1st ball for four
Joe Root reverse laps 1st ball on day 4
Lyon takes 8 wickets in the match
Green takes a couple of brilliant catches