Cricket News By TODAYLIVESCORE.INFO - Cummins takes five on captaincy debut as England fold for 147. Cummins became the eighth Australian skipper to take a five-wicket haul.
Cummins became the eighth Australian skipper to take a five-wicket haul.
Well, this seems easy.
Pat Cummins enjoyed a dream start to life as Australia Test captain, becoming the eighth Australian skipper to take a fifer as England were rolled over for 147 inside two sessions of the Ashes opener at the Gabba in Brisbane. Cummins finished with 5 for 38 and was ably supported by his pace partners, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc, who grabbed two wickets each as the hosts continued to land the punches through the second session.
England, whose decision to bat blew up in the face in the opening session, found little respite in the second despite the sun peaking out from behind the clouds for the briefest of times. Haseeb Hameed's stoic resistance was ended in the first over post Lunch as Cummins drew him out on length and found his edge with the slightest of away movement.
The only period of England resistance followed that early setback as Jos Buttler joined Ollie Pope at 60 for 5 and brought much-needed enterprise to the middle. Unafraid to drive on the up and over cover, Buttler moved quickly to a run-a-ball 20. Pope and Buttler put on 52 for the sixth wicket before Mitchell Starc, bowling his longest spell of the day, got one to angle across the latter and forced him to nick one from the off-stump line for a well-made 39. The partnership ended, Australia ran through the England line-up with all-rounder Cameron Green scalping his maiden Test wicket along the way with the wicket of Pope (35).
Cummins added the wickets of Ollie Robinson and Mark Wood before dismissing Woakes to get his first Ashes five-fer.
Earlier in the morning, Joe Root left out Stuart Broad in favour of spinner Jack Leach and elected to bat on a surface with appreciable lateral movement. His decision blew up rather emphatically when Rory Burns was bowled with the first ball of the series, for the first time in an Ashes since 1936. Hazlewood produced a top spell, conceding only three runs from his seven overs and returning the wickets of Dawid Malan and Joe Root. Cummins reeled in the other big fish, Ben Stokes, to leave the visitors tottering at 29 for 4, a position they never recovered from.
Brief scores:England 147 (Jos Buttler 39; Pat Cummins 5-38, Mitchell Starc 2-35) vs Australia.
