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Australia’s chase against England fell to the wire in the first Ashes Test at Edgbaston – with Nathan Lyon and Pat Cummins having to anchor the final part of the innings as Australia had only two wickets left. It was at that moment that Lyon felt the nerves of having to face an English attack. Referee Marias Erasmus made things worse for him.
Marias (Erasmus) the referee said ‘Oh, that’s a bit similar to Headingley’, isn’t it? I said, “Well, thanks Marias… That’s one way to calm my nerves. No, it was very quiet. Every time the bowlers tend to bat, we try to lighten each other’s mood a bit, try to make each other smile and relax. Pat played a very nice role with me personally. But yeah, thanks Marias, I wasn’t even thinking about Headingley up until that point. We still need about 30 times and then … what to do! Leon said.
In that Test match at Headingley in 2019, England beat Australia by one wicket – despite succumbing to a first innings score of 67.
There was also Ben Stokes lbw’s appeal which was rejected and Australia had none left. After the Edgbaston Test, captain Pat Cummins said he took the Headingley Test in the back of his mind.
“Yeah, I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t (think of Headingley). We were on the other side of the last series… It’s one of those series when you’re on the other side of it it really hurts (and) feels like it got away.”
“A lot of those guys were there at Headingley. After Australia had the first Test, we felt like we had grabbed one that was out of our reach for a little while,” Cummins said.
Cummins also talked about how Lyon trained his hitting before the Ashes.
“It’s something we all do. Nath (Leon) puts a lot of time into it when he gets home too; he puts in a lot of time hitting it, even adjusting from the first rounds, when we got a couple of bumpers and everyone went in there with a clear plan.”
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