The third Test at Headingley had everything you could want in a sporting contest.
The match ended with England claiming the most unlikely come-from-behind victory just two days after English Test cricket had supposedly hit rock bottom.
Depending on which side of fence you sit, you would have felt myriad emotions after the final ball was bowled. As an Australian fan, the feelings of shock, disappointment and anger prevailed as the greatest sporting injustice has just occurred. As an English fan, you felt the exact opposite emotions of elation, excitement, relief and pure joy.
Yet there can be no argument – no matter which country you support, you have just witnessed four days of the purist sporting drama imaginable.
At stumps on Day 2 after being bowled out for a meagre 67, English pundits and ex-English cricketers were demanding wholesale changes to the way cricket is to be governed in England. Conversely, Australian critics were praising the plans put in place by Justin Langer and Cricket Australia as the Aussies closed in on that elusive Ashes victory on English soil. Australia had almost come full circle since the South Africa ball-tampering debacle 18 months earlier.
England resumed Day 4 on 3/156 requiring a record chase of 359 to level the series at 1-1. At this point England still held hope, but when Joe Root fell to Nathan Lyon early in the day it seemed an Australian victory was matter of when not if.
After a fleeting revival led by Jonny Bairstow, England lost five quick wickets after the lunch break, which saw them staring down the barrel of an Ashes defeat. All that stood between Australia retaining the coveted urn is Ben Stokes and Jack Leach. England still required 73 runs to win, which was more than their entire first innings.
Moments like these separate Test match cricket from other sports. The previous three and half days that were dominated by Australia would count for nothing if they couldn’t pick up the last wicket.
A stark contrast of images sums up the situation nicely. At one end, Ben Stokes crouching down over his bat exhausted trying to muster up all his energy for one last push to the finish line. At the other, Jack Leach diligently cleaning his glasses as if nothing else in the world mattered more to him at the time.
(AP Photo/Jon Super)
Two very different characters indeed, but both have vital roles to play. Stokes’ heroics are self explanatory. It takes sublime skill, immense physical stamina and supreme mental fortitude to achieve what he did.
However, Jack Leach’s heroics – whilst less glamorous – should not be understated. It takes discipline, courage and determination to not throw your wicket away under such pressure, three traits that Leach showed in spades when he made 92 as a nightwatchman only a month ago against Ireland at Lord’s.
Fast forward until only two runs are required for an English victory. It seems an injustice to skip past the previous 70 runs England made to get to this situation but to go through each shot blow by blow would take an eternity, you could fill a whole book such was the drama.
By this point of the match the result seemed a forgone conclusion, Stokes has taken England to the brink of a famous victory, surely now there is no way England can throw this away now. Or is there?
With two balls remaining in Nathan Lyon’s over, England manage to dodge a massive bullet. As Leach takes off for a single only to be sent back to the non-striker’s end by Stokes, he looks sure to be short of his ground and in that split second every Australian fan has flashbacks to the 1999 World Cup semi-final.
Only this time, Nathan Lyon fails to take the ball cleanly and remove the bails and Jack Leach manages to scramble to safety. Crisis avoided and still two runs required to win.
(AP Photo/Jon Super)
The very next ball, the cricket gods once again smile upon England as Stokes is adjudicated not out by umpire Joel Wilson following a huge LBW appeal from the Australians after attempting a powerful sweep shot off Nathan Lyon.
In real time it looked out and the subsequent replays confirm that it should have been. Australian fans are outraged and social media platforms erupt in cries of injustice, but this injustice could have been avoided had Australia not squandered their last review an over earlier.
Australian fans immediately look to place blame, but who do you blame? Umpire Joel Wilson or Australian skipper Tim Paine? Ultimately it doesn’t matter. It can’t be undone. Besides, everyone must regain focus as England still require two runs to win.
While this is all going on, Ben Stokes can’t manage to get the single at the end of the over to maintain strike, leaving Jack Leach a whole over of Pat Cummins to see out. With two runs to needed to claim a miraculous victory, Leach manages to get in behind a Cummins short ball aimed at his ribs and turn it around the corner for a single.
Leach had come to the crease with the score at 286 and now 72 runs later gets off the mark to level the scores. Testament to how well Ben Stokes has handled the situation, Leach only managed to face 17 balls in the time Stokes has bought the deficit down from 72 runs to 0. Ben Stokes would finish unbeaten on 135 – an innings that including eight sixes.
Scores are now level, and for England, a tie is just not going to cut it. They have come this far and to fall at the final hurdle would be as bad as a loss. For Australia, whilst a tie is not the ideal result, it would help them maintain the 1-0 lead in the series.
Pat Cummins charges in to bowl in the hope of producing one more piece of brilliance, but it was not to be. Stokes emphatically delivers the knockout blow a with a well timed swat to the cover boundary and pandemonium erupts at Headingley. The image of Ben Stokes standing arms raised above the head bat in hand will long remain in the memory of English and Australian fans alike, for very different reasons.
(Photo by Gareth Copley/Getty Images)
It’s past 1.00am on the east coast of Australia, and after witnessing that epic contest sleep is going to be hard to come by. Better get the kettle on then – a cup of English breakfast tea to help process everything that has just occurred and to calm the nerves.
The series is now tied one Test apiece, but what could have been? What if Lyon had taken that throw cleanly, what if Australia hadn’t wasted their last review, what if, what it, what if.
As much as this blown opportunity eats away at every losing fan’s core, you must also acknowledge that the innings you’ve just seen from Ben Stokes is right up there with the best ever played. As an Australian fan, as much as you want to feel cheated and upset, you aren’t giving England and Stokes the credit they deserve.
After all, Australia didn’t play poorly. England just played better and sometimes you need to tip your cap and acknowledge the beauty of the contest.
Somewhere on the other side of the world, Leeds pubs and bars are filled with English fans revelling in victory, ordering another round of lagers, debating which of Ben Stokes’ sixes was their favourite. Their night is only just beginning, and if you ask them, they don’t give two hoots about Lyon’s missed run out or Joel Wilson’s wrong LBW decision.
And why would they? They’ve just witnessed cricket’s equivalent of the great escape. The conversation is more likely to revolve around where Ben Stokes’ innings rates among the greatest ever played. Only two days ago it was the darkest day in English Test cricket history, but they say it is always darkest before the dawn.
You probably couldn’t imagine that the World Cup final would be topped for drama and excitement. Yet here we are six weeks later and you could quite easily make an argument that the third Ashes Test at Headingley might be the best Test ever played.
This is why we love Test match cricket. Over the course of five days, you can be taken on an emotional roller coaster. Your allegiance defines how you tell the story and what memories you take from the game. The result reads England win by one wicket, but we know it’s not as simple as that. In Test match cricket, the journey is very much as important as the destination.
Not every Test match is going to be as eventful and evoke such raw emotion as the one just gone. But knowing that the next Test has the ability to produce something just as special is what keeps us coming back for more and what makes Test cricket the greatest game of them all.
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