Third Test was the referendum on Test cricket that had no loser

Ben Stokes raises his arms in triumph after hitting the winning runs. Picture: Getty Images

Every modern Test match is a quiet referendum on the format’s future, and referendums don’t always turn out as you expect or hope. Yet here was a referendum that, just for a change, had no loser. Nobody who played, watched, described or officiated in this Third Test could feel anything other than honoured to have been part of it.

On Thursday, Ben Stokes bowled nine expensive overs. On Friday, he was caught from a ball he almost could not reach. Yet Test match cricket offers the cumulative drama of second chances — at Birmingham, Steve Smith had linked his second chance with his first.

Stokes’ influence on this match began with Australia nearly 200 runs ahead and three wickets down, when he seized the ball from the Rugby Stand End. Twenty-four overs he bowled off the reel but for four deliveries from Jofra Archer, keeping England in touch with a game, and an Ashes series, that had been accelerating into the distance. And yesterday … well, perhaps you’ve heard.

Man of the match Ben Stokes takes a moment in the dressing room his glorious innings to win the Third Test at Headingley. Picture: Getty Images

There has been some worthwhile and watchable Ashes cricket in this last decade and a bit. But what the premium Test match brand has wanted for is a genuinely close result, the nipper of Trent Bridge 2013 being the solitary exception. It’s not too early to call this series a classic.

Cricketers are, almost always, also cricket lovers. You could hear the lingering excitement in Tim Paine’s voice afterwards as he saluted an “amazing” game of cricket, a “bloody exciting” advertisement of the long format, and a rival player who “plays the way you would like to play”.

It’s not stretching things to say that England enjoyed most of fortune’s favours in this match. The visitors were deprived of their best batsman, forced to bat and to bowl in the tougher conditions. 67 all out in bright sunlight on an unmarked surface? Of the hosts it remains an indictment.

But the last day was utterly, cruelly, wonderfully fair, with times when the Ashes must have seemed close enough for Paine to sniff. David Warner’s sixth catch in the match, left hand bandaged around the bruising for the earlier five, was seemingly the most important: with Joe Root’s wicket, one end was open through which Australia might pour.

To that stage, England had carried on their painstaking care of the previous evening, having added four from five overs. Half an hour in, Stokes had scored 3 from 73 deliveries, had the stem guard knocked from his helmet by Josh Hazlewood, replaced his gloves and had a drink.

With the advent of the second new ball and the industry that Bairstow at his best lends innings, Stokes opened out. The pair added a run a ball for ten overs without appreciable risk.

When Lyon resumed, looking to repeat his last day coup at Birmingham, he quietly removed the bails on the non-striker’s stumps and swapped them. Umpire Joel Wilson looked on understandingly at the twitch of superstition, but there was no further joy for Australia before lunch, by which time England had winnowed their target away to 121.

Fans in Headingley’s Western Terrace celebrate England’s Third Test victory. Picture: Getty Images

The stakes thereafter rose with every over. When Bairstow reviewed a caught behind decision against him, he brandished his bat and arm like a missionary a crucifix; when he edged to Marnus Labuschagne at slip, he tipped his bat upside down in ceremonial surrender.

There ensued many breaks, for drinks, gloves, injuries, a replacement bat, which for once added to the scene, as one peered down on individuals: the frustration of James Pattinson as his rhythm faltered from the Kirkstall Lane End; the insouciance of Jofra Archer in wearing his chunky chronometer while batting; the cheek of Marcus Harris sitting on the fence chatting to the crowd when Australia needed a wicket to win. We know the players so little; perhaps, by these vignettes, we get an impression of them. That’s Test cricket also.

Stokes allowed very little to intrude. He has few mannerisms, just a profound oaken strength. He hardly acknowledged his fifty; he would offer only a belated wave for his hundred. Involved in the misunderstanding that cost Jos Buttler his wicket, he nervelessly cut two boundaries off Lyon.

There was a roar as England’s target shrank to double figures. With each run, spectators on the Western Terrace rose and fell like organ stops. Stokes exuded no superfluous effort. Everything was harnessed to his batting.

As the Australians commenced to lop off England’s tail, in fact, Stokes’ energy surged. Hits started soaring over fielders who could be scattered no further and who could leap no higher. With Jack Leach stoically scoreless, Stokes unfurled strokes of skill and subtlety, down the ground with a straight bat, over square leg with a straight bat, over point and fine leg with a reversed bat. The pace bowlers who had cut England to pieces 48 hours earlier were treated with disdain. Hazlewood had given away 2.3 an over on Friday; now his last over went for 19.

Australian off-spinner Nathan Lyon pleads for the wicket of Ben Stokes. Picture: Getty Images

Paine turned at last to Lyon. The spinner had earlier in the day passed Dennis Lillee’s Australian wicket-taking tally. Now he looked small, vulnerable, the sun shining off his pate, his chiaroscuro features tight. He bowled a respectable over. The ball spun out of the rough to slip, defeated two attempted reverse sweeps.

But in Lyon’s next, with eight to win, Stokes hit a straight six — mis-hit, actually, but no matter, for the batsman’s conviction carried the ball well into what Richie Benaud called the “confectionary stand”.

In years to come, Australians will cast back on the run out they then missed, and the review they did not have — maybe Englishmen will too. But I’m not sure they will worry long. Even in this age, obsessed with precision and quantity, the rational and logical, there remains in cricket an abiding belief in the rub of the green, which Stokes had by then mightily earned. What a cricketer. And what a Test match.