Headingley redemption for Cummins and co at Edgbaston

This Australian team were not thinking back as far as 2005 during their gripping two-wicket win at Edgbaston, but captain Pat Cummins admitted the gut-wrenching defeat to England four years ago at Headingley came into their minds as they won a Test that appeared to have escaped them.

Cummins and Nathan Lyon, who forged the matchwinning stand of 55 in 12 overs, were central protagonists on that heady day in Leeds when Ben Stokes' epic won the day when Australia seemed certain winners. This time, in the field, Stokes could not quite conjure two more wickets having seemingly put England on the path to victory when he had Usman Khawaja dragging on for a grinding 65 off 197 balls.

When Alex Carey fell 18 runs later, brilliantly caught and bowled by Joe Root, it left only Cummins, Lyon and Josh Hazlewood to defy England's push.

"We've been on the other side of it in the last series," Cummins said. "What a wonderful Test match, really hard fought and it's one of those when you are on the wrong side of it, it really hurts, feels like one that got away. [It's a] pretty happy dressing room in there at the moment to be 1-0 up and a lot of those guys were at Headingley so we feel like we clinched one that perhaps was out of our grasp for a little while. Pretty satisfying."

The Test match, decided with 4.3 overs remaining, was captivating from start to finish with neither side able to claim outright dominance for significant periods. England made the aggressive moves, scoring at five an over on the opening day before declaring before stumps, but Khawaja's eight-hour 141 ensured Australia stayed level on first innings.

Cummins picked out keeping England to 273 in their second innings as the key moment, believing 281 was a target Australia "should" have been able to chase, although for large parts of the final innings, it generally felt they were one wicket down too many to be comfortable. Cummins himself really started to believe when he and Lyon brought the runs required under 20.

"Probably when we got down to 10 or so, or maybe 16, needed two runs an over, we felt pretty confident," he said. "Felt like from almost the first session of day one it was 50-50 the whole way along. It never swung too far one way or the other. Reckon that was the same until with about 15 or 20 minutes to go."

The performance of Australia's lower order came just two days after Ollie Robinson had said that they had "three No. 11s", referring to Lyon, Hazlewood and Scott Boland after England ruffled them with the short ball in the first innings.

This time, Boland played an important role as nightwatchman, seeing out a fired-up Stuart Broad on the fourth evening, while Lyon was able to withstand England's quicks and even produced a classy off-drive although he almost fell to a stunning catch from Stokes in the deep with 37 needed.

Cummins, whose own batting has faded from earlier in his Test career, said he had not heard Robinson's comments but praised the other bowlers for how they adapted.

"It's something we all practice," he said. "Nath puts a lot of time into his batting. We all have pretty strong plans. Even the adjustment from the first innings, [we] got a couple of bumpers and everyone went out there with pretty clear plans."

Cummins' tactics in the field came in for scrutiny during the game as he opted for defensive settings for large periods, although it was something the team had flagged in the build-up, while other than Travis Head in the first innings and, significantly, the match-winning stand, their runs came at a much steadier tempo.

"Think win or lose, we are pretty comfortable with how we go about it," he said. "We've been really good for the last 20 Tests. We are at our best when we play at our own pace. Think that wicket being quite slow probably slowed down that tempo at times, but we saw someone like Ussie [Khawaja], the way he managed to negotiate his way through an innings was pretty special."

When victory was secured, with Cummins as animated as he has been in the middle upon hitting the winning runs, he was able to celebrate with his father, Peter, in the dressing room. Earlier this year, Cummins left the tour of India to be with his seriously ill mother, Maria, who passed away a short while later. This tour, which began with the World Test Championship final, marked Cummins' return to the field.

"Dad's been here all week, feel really lucky to have him here," he said. "It's been a tough few months. My brother's been here as well. Dad was here in 2019 with Mum, so having him here is just really special. Went with him to Bruce Springsteen on the first night as well, so it's been a good week."