“Cummins has shown, both as a captain but also a leader of the team over the past two years, that he is quite capable of taking a punch,” Daniel Brettig wrote in the paper.

His innings was a “late flurry of punches … that might have been inspired by the way his opposite number Stokes had taken control of the Headingley epic in 2019.”

Many Australians stayed up very late to take in the tense final sessions on screens, including Prime Minister Anthony Albanese who posted his congratulations on social media at 4:30 am (1830 GMT).

“Wow – brilliant win by Aussies – great partnership by Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon to bring it home,” he tweeted.

The Sydney Morning Herald’s chief cricket writer Malcolm Conn said Australia could thank Stokes for England’s aggressive day one declaration which gave the tourists time to push for victory even with rain on the final day.

“It was a brilliant test match set up by England’s ultra-attacking approach, but Bazball might be in danger of pushing the boundaries of cricketing common sense too far,” he wrote.

The second test starts at Lord’s next week.

The Australian’s cricket columnist Gideon Haigh savoured one of the “very best” test matches in Ashes cricket, the game’s oldest and most famous rivalry.

“Where else would you want to be?” he wrote. “Seven sleeps til Lord’s.”

England looked favourites when Cummins came to the crease, but the skipper added 18 runs alongside Alex Carey and then played the decisive part in the match-winning stand with Nathan Lyon as the opening match of the Ashes went down to the wire.

Rain washed out the whole first session to compress the day’s play, with Australia resuming on 107/3 and all results still possible when play did start on a cloudy afternoon.

Needing 174 to win, Usman Khawaja and Scott Boland made England sweat for the early breakthrough before Stuart Broad lured the edge from the nightwatchman. Boland’s 20 was his highest Test score to-date.

Australia bided their time, with Travis Head seeing off a spell of short-pitched bowling.

But Moeen Ali, who struggled throughout the day with a finger injury, produced a superb delivery to tie Head up in knots, with Joe Root taking a sharp catch at first slip.

The tourists were well-placed, five wickets down, at tea. But England did get a glimmer of hope when Cameron Green’s 66-ball vigil came to an end when he chopped an Ollie Robinson ball onto his stumps to depart for 28.

And Khawaja’s defiant 197-ball 65 came to an end in the same fashion when he was undone by a slower ball from England captain Stokes.

England delayed taking the new ball, and the decision paid off in style when part-time spinner Root clung on to a sharp caught and bowled chance (his third such tricky opportunity) to remove Alex Carey for 20 with Australia still requiring 54 runs to win.

Tension was high as England tried everything to get the remaining wickets they needed. But Cummins and Lyon held their nerve to wrap up a famous victory. – Reuters/ICC