The much-awaited Ashes series between England and Australia commenced on Friday (June 16). The opening day of the series was no less than a rollercoaster ride as England continued their Bazball approach with the bat. The signs of it were shown on the first delivery itself from opener Zak Crawley. The series got underway with a first-ball four with Crawley smashing a wide delivery from Pat Cummins through the covers.
The crowd and even the England camp were in awe of such a brilliant start to the series. The previous Ashes had started with a first-ball wicket as Mitchell Starc castled Rory Burns around his legs off the first ball. But this time around, it was a complete turnaround for the England team who have been playing some terrific cricket over the last 12 months.
Interestingly, the first-ball four was a record in the Ashes as it last happened a massive 29 years ago back in 1994. The last instance of an Ashes series starting with a first-ball four happened in the 1994-95 season with the batter being Australia's Michael Slater. Slater smashed the opening ball of the series to boundary off Phil DeFreitas at the Gabba.
Interestingly, Slater was also the last batter to start an Ashes Test match with a four and this had happened way back in 2001. This means, Crawlery rewrote a couple of feats with his first-ball four at Edgbaston on Friday.
As far as the match is concerned, it expectedly moved at a faster pace with England smashing 393 runs in their first innings off just 78 overs. Ben Stokes had a surprise in store for everyone as he decided to declare the innings and ask Australia to bat the tricky 20 minutes before stumps. However, the visiting openers did well to keep England at bay and end the day on 14/0 in four overs.
