A thump to the covers, and there stood Benjamin Andrew Stokes with his arm aloft, roaring in delight. He’d just pulled off a miracle.
Only Stokes could. He’d done it six weeks ago at Lord’s in the World Cup final, and now he’s done it again in Leeds.
England were lost when they were bowled out for 67 on the second day. A target of 359 also looked out of reach. The grind of Joe Root and Joe Denly kept hopes alive, but they were diminished as one after another English batsman kept coming and going.
Stokes was the only constant. He has been throughout the summer. Be it the World Cup or the first couple of Test matches, it’s been the summer of Stokes. With the bat he’s almost carried the entire English batting line-up.
(Gareth Copley/Getty Images)
Six weeks ago he was at the bearer of all the pressure, all the tension. But Stokes soaked it all up and led England to a tie twice, which eventually helped them lift the World Cup title. It was redemption for Stokes. Three years ago he was at the receiving end of a heartbreaking final result, conceding four successive sixes to Carlos Brathwaite in the final over of the T20 World Cup.
Stokes couldn’t have picked a better place and a better occasion to redeem himself. And a month and a half later, here he is saving the Ashes, keeping the series alive, all by himself.
When he walked out to bat on the third evening he was doing so for survival. Root and Denly had revived hopes with a fighting 136-run stand. They fought hard, battled with everything they had and helped England recover from 2-15. Stokes walked in at 3-141 with Josh Hazlewood in the middle of an excellent spell.
However, the 28-year-old all-rounder fought. He played 50 deliveries to survive the day; he’d scored just two runs. On the fourth morning he took 17 deliveries to get his first run of the day. He batted 73 balls for three runs before he got his first boundary. England had lost Root by then, but Jonny Bairstow’s arrival got Stokes up and running as well. The duo put on 86 runs for the fifth wicket and got the chase back on track.
However, they had a disastrous hour after lunch that derailed the chase. They lost four wickets in no time, which meant everything was on Stokes again, just as it has been for most of the summer. And he didn’t disappoint.
He did lose Jofra Archer to a needless slog and Stuart Broad to a brutal yorker from James Pattinson, but he had Jack Leach for company. The equation demanded 73 runs without the loss of a wicket. The urn hung by a thread. Australia sniffed they were almost at the finish line – but only almost.
Ben Stokes started to open his shoulders. Every shot in his armoury came out. The slog, the switch hit, the inside-out swat, the scoop, the cuts and the pulls – everything was unleashed. He batted like a man possessed. He didn’t want to give up; he wanted to take it run by run, over by over, bowler by bowler.
He treated Australia’s best bowler in this Test, Josh Hazlewood, with disdain. He smashed Nathan Lyon out of the attack at one point. Pat Cummins faced the brunt too. He played unbelievable shots and kept inching closer. Leach at the other end kept blunting out the last one or two deliveries he faced in the over.
Stokes had everything going his way. He was dropped by Marcus Harris at third man. Australia unnecessarily wasted a review against Leach, which they could’ve used when Stokes failed to lay bat on a sweep against Nathan Lyon. The replays showed three reds with two runs to get. A ball earlier Leach survived a runout as Lyon fumbled.
Stokes finished it off when he got back the strike next over. He erupted, Leach erupted – everyone in the stands at Headingley erupted. Stokes had done the unthinkable, near impossible. Nasser Hussain nailed it in the broadcast: “The Ashes is well and truly alive because of one cricketer, and that cricketer is Benjamin Stokes!”
Yes, it was Stokes again. The Ashes, which hung by a thread when Jack Leach joined him in the middle, was now revived. Stokes has done it all summer; he did it throughout the World Cup, he did it in that World Cup final and now he’s done it to keep England’s Ashes hopes alive.
That unbeaten 135, which included 11 fours and eight sixes, will go down in history as one of the best by an Englishman. In fact it may well go down as one of the best fourth innings knocks ever played.
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