The knock that changed a nation
JACK Leach stood at the nonstriker's end polishing steam off his glasses.
The tailender had the best seat in the Headingley house for what Michael Vaughan declared “the best Test innings ever played”, and even he was struggling to see what was unfolding before him.
Who could blame him? At the other end stood Ben Stokes, tattooed biceps bulging through his Test shirt, delivering a raucous Leeds crowd catching practice, much to the misery of Australia’s world-class attack.
Stokes cut Patrick Cummins to the rope to seal England’s greatest ever Test victory, rolling his follow through into a mighty fist pump as Leach charged over to embrace him.
Stokes finished unbeaten on 135 (219), but that doesn’t tell half of the story.
When the bespectacled Leach joined Stokes at the crease England was 9/286, still 73 runs short of keeping the Ashes series alive.
England, skittled for an embarrassing 67 just two days earlier, had never previously chased more than 330 in a fourth innings.
In fact, no team had been skittled for less than 70 and gone on to win a Test match since 1888.
But Stokes, 28, was about to tear up the history books. He did it in vastly different gears, scoring three runs from his first 73 balls and then 74 from his last 42, when Leach was at the crease.
He couldn’t bear to watch when Leach faced 17 balls, remaining unbeaten on one run.
“Those will be the most important balls Jack Leach has ever faced, or will ever face in his Test career,” Stokes said.
Nobody could bear to look away when Stokes was on stage.
If Stokes wasn’t wearing whites you would’ve believed this was a T20 game. It was white-ball batting masquerading as a Test innings.
Stokes blasted 17 runs off a Josh Hazlewood over and 13 off a Nathan Lyon over, both bowlers conceding a pair of
sixes. The unlikely target zoomed into a likely target in a matter of minutes.
In total, Stokes crunched eight sixes when no other player cleared the Headingley ropes.
There were switch-hits and scoops, slog-sweeps and powerful off-drives. A mis-hit would’ve meant game over, and series over, but Stokes just kept on flushing them.
“I got my pitching wedge distance quite good on a few occasions, especially that last (six) which just managed to go over (Marnus Labuschagne’s) head,” Stokes said.
There was no celebration for Stokes’ 50, and no celebration for his 100. Why would there be?
“I looked at the bigger picture,” Stokes said. “There was still a lot of runs to get. Personal milestones, especially in that situation, mean absolutely nothing.”
It was only when England roared within 10 runs of its greatest ever Test victory that Stokes felt the nerves.
Would he keep going the tonk? Or play it safe? Stokes wanted to finish it against the quicks, and tipped his hat to Tim Paine’s captaincy, as he reintroduced Nathan Lyon.
“Everybody was out on the boundary, it was a pitch that was very helpful for spin bowling and I was trying to attack the first half of the over, every over, when Jack came in.
“It was a good ploy from him,” Stokes said. “I wasn’t quite sure whether to keep on going like I was, or to try to win it in ones and twos. But I got us to that point from playing in a certain way so I just kept on going.”
No cricket crowd has engaged in a game quite like this. Every block from Leach was met with the same standing ovation as the powerful blasts from Stokes.
It was quite literally the knock that stopped the nation, with cricket matches at Taunton and Southampton stalled so they could witness Stokes’ moment of greatness.
Captain Joe Root said Stokes’ knock would “change people’s perceptions of Test cricket”.
It was too much for teammate Jos Buttler, who covered his face with his shirt, and then told Stuart Broad to quieten down when the big bowler started screaming his support of every Stokes slog.
It was also markedly similar to six weeks ago, the day Stokes broke New Zealand hearts with a World Cup final innings that prompted captain Eoin Morgan to label the brutal all-rounder “superhuman”.
Root simply said Stokes was a “freak”. More aptly, this bloke boasts a brazen blend of jaw-dropping ability and mental fortitude.
At both the World Cup final and the Ashes epic Stokes was the last man standing, and he refused to sit down, dragging his tailenders along for the journey of their lives.