Australia’s Khawaja reins in ‘Little Uzzie’ to set up Ashes run chase

Khawaja conceded it was a ‘mind-tussle’ at instances when he wished to shift gears and speed up the scoring charge by enjoying his pictures however remained cautious to keep away from placing stress on the decrease order.
| Photo Credit: SHAUN BOTTERILL/Getty Images

Australia opener Usman Khawaja stated he needed to rein within the little boy inside him who was telling him to chop free within the second innings run-chase in its nervy two-wicket win over England within the first take a look at of the Ashes.

Khawaja’s endurance in Edgbaston, the place he spent near 800 minutes on the crease, was duly rewarded after he scored 141 and 65 within the two innings respectively, incomes him the person of the match award as Australia went 1-0 up within the collection.

READ MORE: Aussies deflate England’s Bazball, however Stokes defiant

The 36-year-old conceded it was a ‘mind-tussle’ at instances when he wished to shift gears and speed up the scoring charge by enjoying his pictures however remained cautious to keep away from placing stress on the decrease order.

“As a youngster I had to bat a long time to score runs. I was little, I didn’t have too many shots, so I learnt how to bat a long time from a young age,” Khawaja advised reporters.

“(Day five) was tough because I just wanted to take it deep. Little Uzzie inside of me was saying, ‘You can expand now, you can get into second or third gear now’. But I was like, ‘No, no, take it deep, take it as far deep as you can’.

“I knew if we could get into that last hour and had less than 100 runs, we could get it. But if we lost too many wickets early that was game over for us… I kept fighting with myself (saying), ‘Just build partnerships with your team mates’.”

From a crew’s perspective, Khawaja stated Australia’s victory was “by far my favourite match ever in my life”, trumping his excessive rating of 195 not out towards South Africa earlier this 12 months at Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG).

“SCG was special, unexpected. My career was over in my head, I’ve said it a million times but it was. Hard to beat that from an individual point of view,” he stated.

“This game, the way it ebbed and flowed, the way they came out and the way we counter-attacked, it looked like we’d lost the game with an hour to go. To come back and win, by far my favourite game of all time.”