The Cricketer looks at the main talking points from day one of the fifth Ashes Test between England and Australia at the Kia Oval
Having won the toss for the first time in the series, Australia were threatening to throw away their big chance with the new ball in favourable conditions.
Following a maiden in the opening over, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc were uncharacteristically wayward.
England reached 41 for 0 at the end of the eighth over, leading Cummins to turn to himself to extract a breakthrough. He immediately caught the edge of Ben Duckett - David Warner put it down - but there was an immediate change in the flow of the contest.
Mitch Marsh would eventually remove the Nottinghamshire left-hander but Cummins produced in the lucky 13th over, squaring up the leading batting in the series coming into the fifth Test, Zak Crawley, and Steve Smith duly did the rest.
Cummins' bowling changes were successful and significant all day. Hazlewood, Starc and Todd Murphy all struck early into their spells. Though dropped catches - there were five across England's first innings - undermined their good work - the captain hauled Australia back into the contest with skill and invention.
It was a tricky day for Pat Cummins to navigate (DANIEL LEAL/AFP via Getty Images)
You would have been forgiven for wondering for how much longer Moeen Ali would continue batting after he picked up a groin injury running a single during the 30th over of England's first innings on day one.
The allrounder has already been forced to miss a Test after suffering a blister on his finger during his return at Edgbaston, forcing him out of the defeat at Lord's. So he wasn't about to give in here.
Indeed, the injury appeared to galvanise Moeen and from the next ball he faced he produced the outstanding individual moment of the day.
Only on 11 from 38 balls, the Chennai Super Kings man stepped across his crease, took on a Pat Cummins delivery right in the slot and handsomely flicked it towards Archbishop Tenison's School for six.
It was a shot out of character with the situation. An impinged Moeen had begun his innings slowly, soaking up deliveries, and the groin issue (which prevented him from bowling) was unlikely to make things any easier.
Moeen had taken a pill for the pain but wasn't about to wait around to find out what might happen, and took the game to Australia with some lavish strokeplay.
Moeen Ali heaves Pat Cummins for six (Ryan Pierse/ Getty Images)
Such is the ludicrous scheduling of this series - five Tests crammed into 46 days - there is a sleepy feel around this match.
From the capacity crowd (the last time a Test was hosted on this ground, the Queen died) to both sets of players, to members of the media, it has been a gruelling summer and we're not even at the end of July.
Perhaps the most galling element was the atmosphere, or lack thereof, generated by the paying spectators.
For many, this will be their only sight of Test cricket this summer, and for perhaps more their first experience of men's Ashes cricket. And yet it took deep into the final hour of play for noise levels to surge above the sedate - mainly due to Mark Wood accepting autograph requests between deliveries - and it accurately summed up the feeling around this Test.
It isn't that an Ashes Test isn't important, far from it, it is that a fifth in the space of six weeks is finally starting to take its toll. On everyone.
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