England's light dimmed by Cummins the solar panel
Australia captain Pat Cummins has had differing relationships with his national coaches over the years. Darren Lehmann once said he’d be happy for him to marry one of his daughters. Justin Langer called Cummins, and others, “cowards”, although that was amid the fetid acrimony of his departure from the Baggy Green fold. It’s hard to gauge the relationship he has with current boss, Andrew MacDonald, because the latter tends to talk quite sparingly. When he does it’s with assurance and candour, but it’s not likely to ever involve wedding suggestions or media turf wars.
For all Australia’s apparent willingness to fight Bazball fire with sensible fire precautions, the ethos of the side Cummins and MacDonald have created is not that dissimilar to the one sought by Stokes and McCullum. This great piece by Nic Savage details the laidback, headspace-clearing vibe sought by the pair, even if entertainment, unlike for England, remains a secondary aim to pragmatism. And amid the electricity of Edgbaston on Tuesday evening, it was ultimately the Australian captain’s cricketing intelligence, less ostentatious though no less vivid than Stokes’s, that clawed his team home.
Cummins has always been a compelling batsman, able to give it the long handle as well as plonk down on it. A large amount of balls seemed to hit the upper half of his blade, almost the splice, when he played defensively on the front foot to England’s quicks as Australia crept to victory. Even on a pitch as weary as Edgbaston’s against England’s wounded and less than Exocet attack, Cummins still showed a certain discreet bravery to get forward to back of a length stuff, of which there was plenty. Absorb, absorb.
The long handle bit was on display when Root was given another over after prising out Carey in his previous one, one which few people bar Stokes thought he should even be bowling given the new ball was available. Australia still needed 54 with two wickets left at this point. Root’s hitherto excellent spell was brutally ended as Cummins clubbed two sixes into one of his favourite T20 spots, over long off. He hit the first like a heroic village farmhand, almost Dhoni-style from quite close to his hastily cleared leg and nearly off his crease. He hit the second like a heroic village farmhand who’d just noticed the farmer’s - or, Darren Lehmann’s, why not - attractive daughter watching. It had all of his hulking bosh but with a higher, straighter elbow, a bit of panache to go with the strength.
In Australia’s first innings, it was tempting to see their 9, 10, 11 collapsing to short stuff as an elaborate bluff, trying to con England into maintaining a tactic they have only successfully executed approximately three times in the last ten years. Here, although they commenced their familiar barrage when the new ball was taken, it appeared to have more guile behind it, if only perhaps because of Stokes’s continued chin-stroking field innovations. The lethargy of the pitch actually seemed to help the ploy, Lyon almost having too much time for a hook which Stokes just failed to grab one-handed over his head, presumably leaving Nasser Hussain speechless. That was that for the often compulsive hooker, though. Lyon’s two subsequent fours came from balls pitched up in his arch, a bit of maturity which matched his greying little goatee*. *GOATee.
This calmness hasn’t always been a hallmark of Lyon’s batting. In tense situations he’s often a one man production of Psycho, and he’s been doing it ever since his current skipper made his debut in a two-wicket win in Johannesburg in 2012. In that match, Lyon didn’t have to bat as 18-year-old Cummins got Australia home but the camera constantly panned to him sat cowering in the dressing room, a fever dream in a cricket helmet. It speaks highly of someone so affected by nerves to have achieved all he has, and especially his efforts today when his bowler’s end gibbers at Headingley four years ago must surely have been jangling around his head.
For all the zen of McCullum, who sat motionless bar chewing on a balcony sofa through it all, it was England who lost their nerve a little in the final session. Ollie Pope ducked at short leg when he need to stand tall which, however much his potential has been increasingly fulfilled, could still quite possibly be a metaphor for his series. Zak Crawley might not always blunt the new ball, but the ire he attracts has often provided useful cover when other members of the side haven’t quite justified their own stellar billing either. That drop by Stokes was also highly gettable and uncharacteristic, though by that stage he had bowled so much and so valiantly that his his entire body must have felt as blistered as Moeen’s finger. Crawley himself also made a fumble, the ball ricocheting off his rather less wizened body for four in an admittedly very bold attempt to make the save.
That was the second of the three Cummins three fours to the off side in his winning partnership with Lyon. This was to an over-pitched delivery by Robinson, but the other two were to short balls banged in too weak and wide. As stated, though, these were the exceptions, unlike so often with England’s short pitched stuff at the end of an innings. Here the opposition would have to score runs rather than gleefully bag them at England’s self-defeating casino for tailenders. So, of course, Cummins did score them that way, with sense and structure. In truth, he absorbed the pressure of this absurd sporting fresco of a contest from its outset to conclusion. From his initial fields to his batting both knocks to his cunning - if slightly match fee threatening - use of himself to bowl so many overs, in his own time, this match was all about absorption.
Cummins, the noted eco warrior, has decided the way to counter Bazball’s blazing light is by turning Australia into a cricketing solar panel.