England has won one of the most incredible games of cricket ever seen, beating Australia by one wicket in an astonishing third Ashes Test in Leeds.
Chasing 359 for victory, England looked dead and buried when it lost its ninth wicket on 286 – still 73 runs shy of victory. But Ben Stokes played the most amazing innings of his career – and one of the greatest knocks in Test history – smashing eight sixes in an unbeaten 135 to single-handedly win the game and send the Headingley crowd into pandemonium.
By chasing 359, it’s the highest score England has ever chased in the fourth innings to win a Test match. Its previous best came 91 years ago when it chased down 332 against Australia in Melbourne in 1928.
Making the result even more remarkable is England was bowled out for 67 in its first innings.
Stokes and No. 11 Jack Leach put on 76 runs for the final wicket to steal the win from under Australia's nose. Remarkably, Leach contributed just one run to a partnership that will be remembered forever.
It was the second-highest 10th wicket partnership ever in a successful Test run chase.
"Walking off there at the end when the whole of Headingley was standing up and celebrating was a very special moment.” Stokes said.
“It was something I had to try to take in because moments like that don’t come along very often.
“It was just an amazing game to be a part of, to be there at the end and still keep our Ashes hopes alive was a pretty special feeling.
Stokes reached triple figures with a swatted boundary through mid-wicket off Josh Hazlewood then smashed consecutive sixes as England scored 19 from the over.
A target that seemed impossible dropped down to below 20 and while Stokes was doing all the damage, Leach was standing solid by his side, defending resolutely on the rare instances he actually got on strike.
Stokes was dropped at third man by Marcus Harris, then pumped two boundaries off Pat Cummins to bring the equation down to nine runs to win.
That became eight and Australia wasted a review for an LBW shout on Leach when Cummins’ delivery clearly pitched outside leg stump.
Stokes then launched Nathan Lyon down the ground for six and England needed two runs for victory.
Australia butchered a chance to win the match at the death. A huge mix-up saw Leach stranded at the other end of the pitch and Cummins threw the ball to Lyon at the bowler's end but the off-spinner failed to catch the ball. Had he collected it, Leach would have been metres out of his ground but thanks to Lyon's fumble he survived.
Lyon and his teammates then thought they had Stokes LBW but umpire Joel Wilson kept his finger down. Hawkeye showed the ball was crashing into the stumps but because of the earlier review off Cummins, Tim Paine had no way of challenging the decision.
Facing Cummins, Leached turned a ball off his hip for a single to tie the scores up. Stokes then slapped a boundary through the covers for four to seal the most incredible win in England’s history.
Paine said Stokes was simply unstoppable.
"To be honest it is a really difficult period of time to captain. I don’t think anyone has done it perfectly. I certainly didn’t. I don’t claim to have," Paine said.
“But when a guy is going like that, you bring the field up and he’s hitting them for four or six anyway.
"That’s Test cricket. Ben Stokes was playing out of his skin. He managed to do things that you normally wouldn’t and you’ve got to give him credit.”
In commentary, former England captain David Gower said Stokes’ herculean effort was “the most extraordinary performance I’ve seen by anyone, ever”, and it’s hard to argue with him.
Australia was 99 per cent of the way towards taking an unassailable 2-0 lead in the series and retaining the Ashes but Stokes had other ideas, single-handedly levelling things up at 1-1 going into the fourth Test in Manchester.
Beginning the day at 3/156, England arrived full of hope and the stands were packed before the first ball was even bowled as fans desperate to see something special streamed into the ground with optimism in their hearts but they were dealt an early blow when captain Joe Root fell for 77 after adding just two his overnight score.
The England captain tried to whip Lyon through the leg side but got an inside edge onto his pad and the ball spat over the top of Paine. Fielding at first slip, David Warner had barely any time to react after seeing the ball late but dived full stretch to his left to take an absolute screamer.
The Aussies took the second new ball and hoped that would help them break the game open but instead it proved a blessing for England. Hazlewood was too full and James Pattinson was either too straight or too wide and the fast bowling duo leaked runs at a rapid rate as Stokes and Jonny Bairstow took full advantage.
The pair scored 48 runs in seven overs and the momentum shifted in England’s favour as the home side became the favourite with the bookmakers. A miracle win was on the cards as England went to lunch at 4/238.
But after the break the pendulum swung back in Australia’s favour. Bairstow slashed a short, wide delivery from Hazlewood to Marnus Labuschagne at second slip and was out for 36 then Stokes burned Jos Buttler, running him out for a single.
Chris Woakes went for the same score when, after surviving a bouncer barrage, he punched Hazlewood to Matthew Wade at mid-off.
Jofra Archer came in and tried to swing England out of trouble, taking on short balls and swiping Lyon across the line. But on 15 he went for one slog too many, picking out Travis Head in the deep as the South Australian completed a smart catch to silence the fans in the Western Terrace.
Next over Pattinson trapped Stuart Broad LBW for a duck and the fat lady was warming up her vocal chords.
But she didn’t bank on Stokes. To be fair, nobody did. After winning a World Cup off his own bat, the all-rounder enhanced his hero status by doing it again in the whites.
Joined by Leach, Stokes farmed the strike, turning down singles early in the over as he sought out boundaries. England’s ninth wicket fell with the hosts needing 73 runs for victory but that figure dropped to 50 with what was, at the time, the most ridiculous moment of the day.
Lyon was bowling slow and wide to try and induce a mis-hit into the leg side so Stokes outsmarted the off-spinner, playing an astonishing reverse sweep for a massive six that sent the crowd absolutely bananas.
Then Stokes one-upped himself by moving across his stumps, crouching down and ramping Cummins for six over the keeper’s head.
The boundaries kept coming and there was nothing the Aussies could do to stem the bleeding as we witnessed one of the greatest Test matches in the history of cricket.
