Much to lament in hit-and-miss ending

AUSTRALIA will lament its costly misses on day five at Headingley.

It started with the fielding, where the Aussies seemed rattled.

Marcus Harris, at third man, dropped a top edge off Ben Stokes with England needing 17 runs to win.

Stokes also nudged twos when he should have been limited to singles.

“I wouldn’t say we were rattled,’’ skipper Tim Paine said yesterday. “No doubt there was pressure, that’s Test cricket, and it was close, tight, the crowd was loud, that was as hard as it gets for a touring side.

“Today, we missed a few and a guy played out of his skin to take a Test match away. That can happen. That’s OK.”

MISSED RUN-OUT

PAINE had to pick Nathan Lyon off the ground after Stokes hit the winning four.

The over before, with two needed to win, Lyon, who was bowling, fumbled a throw from Pat Cummins after Stokes deflected the ball to him at short third man, with England No.11 Jack Leach stranded in the middle of the pitch.

All Lyon had to do was take the ball and smash the stumps, and Australia would have retained the Ashes.

“Gazza (Lyon) is obviously extremely disappointed, but no one’s perfect, people make mistakes and that happens,’’ Paine said. “

REVIEW GAMBLE

PAINE’S gamble on a decision review cost his team badly.

He reviewed a half-hearted lbw shout from Cummins on a ball that pitched outside leg stump.

Then, with Australia out of reviews, Lyon had a plumb lbw shout turned down in another error by umpire Joel Wilson.

Stokes would have been out for 131, giving Australia a onerun victory.

Paine said the Cummins review was a “dabble” and he wouldn’t look at replays of the Lyon ball. “I don’t think I’ve got a referral correct the whole series, so I can’t sit here and bag the umpires,” Paine said.

MEN ON BOUNDARY

FROM the moment Leach joined Stokes, with 73 needed to win, Paine sent all bar one slip to the boundary when Stokes was on strike.

It only encouraged Stokes to keep swinging, and he didn’t take any of the singles on offer.

It showed a lack of intent to get Stokes out, and a lack of ideas how to.

THE BAD BOWLING

THE bowlers had no answer to Stokes. Josh Hazlewood got hit for back-to-back sixes and Cummins got slapped over the fence, too. Stokes smashed his final 74 runs off 42 balls, and Paine said if he had his time over again, he would have talked to his bowlers more about their mindset. “At times when the field gets spread, they go a bit defensive,” he said.