Ashes Stat Attack: Australia pull off their highest successful chase in 75 years

NEW DELHI: In what was an amazing advertisement for Test cricket, Australia managed to pull a 2 wicket victory out of the jaws of defeat in the first Ashes Test vs England. Led ably by their skipper Pat Cummins, who remained ice cold in the face of incredible pressure and Nathan Lyon, who gave Cummins great support, the Aussies had the last laugh after a stage where it looked like England would win comfortably.
Incredibly, this marked the first time since 1992 that England failed to win a Test match after taking 8 wickets in the fourth innings.
Aussie opener Usman Khawaja also became just the 13th batter in Test history to bat on all 5 days of a five-day Test match.
Overall, there are some amazing stats that have emerged after what is being called 'one of the best Ashes Tests ever played'.

TimesofIndia.com here takes a look at some of the most incredible statistics after Australia's tenacious 2 wicket win that gave them a 1-0 lead in the series:
# Australia have chased 281 in the Edgbaston Test - their biggest successful chase in the fourth innings in the Ashes Test in 75 years and their fourth highest in the fourth innings overall in the Ashes. The highest remains 404 for three at Leeds in 1948, thanks mainly to Arthur Morris (182) and Sir Donald Bradman (173 not out).
# The last instance when Australia had chased a 250-plus total was against South Africa at Johannesburg in November 2011 - 310 for eight off 86.5 overs.
# For the fifth time, England have lost a Test match after taking eight wickets in the fourth innings. The last instance being against Pakistan at Lord's in 1992.
# England posted 393 for eight wickets declared - the second highest by any team on the first day of the Test match since the second World War in the Ashes behind their 407 in the 2005 Edgbaston Test - a Test won by them by two runs.
# England batted for 78 overs before declaring. It is the shortest declared innings on the opening day of the Ashes Test and the fourth shortest in Test annals on the first day of a Test match. In the 1974 Lord's Test against England, Pakistan (130/9) declared after 44.5 overs.
# Ben Stokes has declared the innings for the fourth time in Tests while batting for less than 100 overs - all four instances in 2023 - twice against New Zealand and once each against Ireland and Australia
# 407 runs on the first day of the 2023 Edgbaston Test - England (393/8d) & Australia (14/0) - are the joint second-highest on the opening day in an Ashes Test since the World War II next only to the 427 in the 2001 Edgbaston Test - England (294) and Australia (133/2). England scored 407 on the first day at Edgbaston in 2005.
# With his splendid unbeaten hundred (118 not out off 152 balls) in the first Test, Joe Root enjoys an impressive average of 107.80, while aggregating 539, including two hundreds and three fifties, in seven innings this year - the sequence of scores being 14 & 57 at Mount Maunganui; 153 not out & 95 at Wellington - vs New Zealand; 56 vs Ireland at Lord's and 118 not out & 46 vs Australia at Edgbaston.
# Root is the only player to maintain an average of 100-plus apart from recording strike rate of 75-plus (78.45) in Tests this year.
# Between March 2022 and June 2023, Root has managed 1568 runs, including seven hundreds and five fifties, at an average of 62.72 in 17 Tests, at a strike rate of 70.00.
# Root is one of five England batters who have posted six successive innings of fifty-plus in Tests. Between July 27, 2014 and April 25, 2015, he had managed 606 runs in six innings at an average of 151.50, including two hundreds and four fifties - the sequence of scores being 56 at Southampton; 77 at Manchester & 149 not out at The Oval - all three vs India and 83 & 59 at North Sound & 182 not out at St.George's - all vs West Indies.
# Root's 30th Test hundred is his eighteenth in Tests at home, extending his England record. His tally of 30 centuries is exceeded only by Alastair Cook (33) for England.
# Since posting 130 at Nottingham in 2015, Root has recorded his first Ashes hundred.
# Root, for the first time, has registered back to back hundreds in Test innings at Edgbaston - 142 not out vs India in 2022 and 118 not out vs Australia in 2023. His only other hundred at this venue remains 136 vs West Indies in 2017.
# Pat Cummins has become the sixth Australian captain to register 80 runs and capture four wickets in the same Test match - 38 & 44 not out and 4 for 63 (second innings). Bobby Simpson remains the only Australian captain to accomplish the feat four times. George Giffen and Allan Border achieved the distinction twice while Warwick Armstrong and Richie Benaud once each.
# Usman Khawaja (141 & 65), by batting on all five days in the Edgbaston Test, has accomplished a rare feat. He is just the second Australian batter after Kim Hughes (117 & 84 vs England at Lord's in 1980) to achieve the distinction.
# In all, Khawaja has become the 13th player to bat on each day of a five-day Test match. Apart from the two Australians, the other eleven in the distinguished list are four Englishmen - Geoff Boycott, Allan Lamb, Andrew Flintoff & Rory Burns; three Indians - M.L.Jaisimha (the first to do so in Test annals), Ravi Shastri & Cheteshwar Pujara; three West Indians - Adrian Griffith; Kraigg Brathwaite & Tagenarine Chanderpaul and a lone South African Alviro Petersen.
# In the Bulawayo Test against Zimbabwe in February this year, Kraigg Brathwaite (182 & 25) and Tagenarine Chanderpaul (207 not out & 15) became the first pair ever to bat on all five days of the Test.
# Khawaja has batted 796 minutes in the Edgbaston Test - the second longest an Australian player has batted in a Test match. Mark Taylor (334 not out and 92) had batted 938 minutes vs Pakistan at Peshawar in October 1998.
# For the fifth time in a Test match, Usman Khawaja (206 - 141 & 65 not out) has amassed 200-plus runs in a Test match - twice each against England & Pakistan and once against the West Indies. His best ever remains 238 (137 & 101 not out) vs England at Sydney in January 2022.
# Khawaja has become the first Australian opener to notch up a hundred and a fifty in an Ashes Test in England for over 34 years. Matthew Hayden was the last Australian batter to perform the feat in England - 136 & 60 at Leeds in 1989.
# Khawaja has been adjudged the Man of the Match for the fifth time in Tests -his first against England. For the first time in his career, he has received two MOM awards in a calendar year - the first being for scoring 195 not out vs South Africa at Sydney in January.
Stats Courtesy: Rajesh Kumar