One couldn’t watch, the other could barely see!
How Ben Stokes performed the second Miracle of Headingley (with a little help from Jack Leach...)
Long after Headingley had emptied, an animated figure out in the middle was taking teammates through what he saw as the crucial few seconds of an extraordinary day.
The figure was not Ben Stokes, who had just entered folklore with an unbeaten 135. It was Jack Leach, England’s no 11, who had described himself as a ‘ village cricketer’ on account of his bald head and spectacles, but was not far from folklore status himself.
Re- enacting the single he pinched to level the scores, he scampered from the Kirkstall Lane End with a thrill that spoke for a nation. A simple, touching scene; the calm after the storm.
When Leach joined Stokes at 3.17pm on the fourth afternoon, England’s hopes had, by any sensible measure, turned to dust. Bowled out in their first innings for 67, they had just lost five for 41 in their second. To keep the Ashes alive, they needed 73 to win (or 72 to tie). And they were chasing 359, which was 27 more than they had ever managed to win a Test.
England could clutch at two straws. one was Stokes, who six weeks earlier had bent the World Cup final to his will. The other was Headingley, forever associated in the English psyche — and possibly the Australian one — with the summer of ’81. Ian Botham was in the commentary box this time, but in spirit he was out there, too, doubtless urging Stokes to ‘give it some humpty’, as he had graham Dilley all those summers ago.
Leach had recently made 92 as nightwatchman against Ireland, but he was no Dilley. Stokes, on 61, knew it was up to him and, for most of the 17 deliveries his partner negotiated, he rested helplessly on his haunches, staring at the turf. Leach was having trouble focusing, wiping sweat from his glasses. one batsman couldn’t watch, the other could barely see. It did not have the makings of a miracle.
Stokes launched nathan Lyon straight for six, and repeated the dose in his next over, before playing an outrageous reverse mow into the Western Terrace. He scooped Pat Cummins for six more, then pulled the previously unhittable Josh Hazlewood through midwicket, reaching an Ashes hundred for the second Sunday in succession. Stokes did not raise his bat: his eye was on the bigger prize.
England needed 33. Stokes paddled a low full toss from Hazlewood for six, then pulled the next ball for yet another. With 17 required, Stokes made his first mistake, miscuing Cummins towards third man: Marcus Harris ran in, but spilled a tumbling catch — shades of Simon Jones at Edgbaston in 2005.
Australia’s wound was instantly salted: a pull for four, then a majestic back-foot force down the ground. nine wanted. Countless anecdotes over the next few days would reveal that the country had come to a standstill. After Stokes pushed a single to long-off, Cummins had two balls at Leach.
The first was a harmless bouncer, but the second struck the pad, prompting a discussion that would cost Australia the Test. Cummins thought Leach had edged a ball that pitched in line; Tim Paine hadn’t seen an edge, but reckoned it pitched outside leg. Somehow, this added up to a review. But Paine was right — and Australia were out of challenges.
Stokes carried on. Another straight six off Lyon just cleared Marnus Labuschagne at long-off: two needed, Headingley delirious.
The field came in — and the protagonists panicked. After failing to force Lyon through the covers, Stokes played a reverse sweep, but picked out Cummins at short third man. Leach hared out of the traps, Stokes sent him back, Cummins threw gently to the nonstriker’s end. Leach was yards out, but Lyon, the stumps at his mercy, the Ashes in his grasp, dropped the ball. A clanger for the ages.
next ball, Stokes missed a sweep, and Lyon — sensing immediate redemption, but with Australia out of reviews — bellowed for leg-before. Umpire Joel Wilson shook his head; Hawk- Eye suggested he should have nodded, though Stokes later disputed the accuracy of the technology.
Amid the chaos, it went almost unnoticed that, for the first time, Leach would begin an over on strike. Third ball, he tucked Cummins off his hip, and was called through for the single he later relived in the gathering gloom. The scores were level for as long as it took Stokes to hammer the next delivery through the covers.
Headingley erupted, Stokes arched his back, letting out a primal roar, and the batsmen embraced. Stokes called it the best kiss of his life. one by one, the Australians half-hugged him, too stunned to go the whole hog, but conscious they had witnessed one of the greatest innings. England’s last pair had added 76 in 62 balls, and Stokes had made 74. It was 1-1. The series was alive. The temptation was to regard everything that came before as a sideshow, yet it was far from that. on an opening day limited by showers to 52 overs, and played out under lights and louring cloud, Australia were put in by Joe Root and dismissed for 179. Jofra Archer, in his first firstclass game at Headingley, removed Harris (who had replaced Cameron Bancroft), and Stuart Broad strangled Usman Khawaja down leg. But after a couple of breaks for the weather, David Warner and Labuschagne (Steve Smith had failed to recover from concussion) exploited some horrible stuff from Chris Woakes and Stokes to put on 111 in 23 overs.
England yearned for inspiration. Archer, bowling within himself, he later said, because the conditions required accuracy rather than hostility, had Warner caught behind for 61, his only score in the series above 11. Broad trimmed Travis Head’s off bail, before Archer bowled Matthew Wade round his legs via thigh pad, both for ducks.
The innings deteriorated with the light, Labuschagne’s vigil ending when he missed a Stokes full toss. Archer pocketed six for 45 — England’s best Ashes figures at Leeds since 1981, when Bob Willis, that other maker of Headingley miracles, took eight for 43.
Friday dawned bright, like a joke at Australia’s expense. Yet shortly before lunch, England were 45 for six, victims of Hazlewood’s metronomics and their own wretchedness. no one played a worse shot than Stokes, who edged a nearwide from James Pattinson to slip, where Warner held the third of his six catches in the game.
Woakes fell first ball after the break, and England were soon rumbled for 67, their lowest total at Headingley — and their lowest anywhere against Australia since 1948, when they made 52 at the oval in Sir Don Bradman’s last Test. Hazlewood gobbled up five for 30, and Australia led by 112. not for the last time in the game, they had one hand on the Ashes.
Broad got rid of Warner cheaply again (a record 45th Test wicket at
Headingley, passing Fred Trueman) and Leach bowled Harris with his first delivery, a beauty that spun back through the lefthander’s gate. But Root spilled Labuschagne on 14 at slip off Stokes, who later had him caught behind off a no-ball on 35, then dropped by Jonny Bairstow on 42. Meanwhile, Archer limped off mid-over with cramp. By stumps, Australia were 171 for six, leading by 283, which felt like plenty.
Interrupted only by Archer’s incomplete over, Stokes bowled 15 on the trot, but he wasn’t finished. By the time Australia were dismissed for 246 on the third morning (not before Labuschagne was reprieved for the fourth time, by Bairstow off Broad on 60), Stokes had three for 56 from 24.2 more- or-less unbroken overs. It was heroic, but no one believed it would make any odds.
Rory Burns and Jason Roy came and went with the score on 15, hastening thoughts of a threeday finish; Joe Denly, whose first-innings 12 was still England’s best score of the Test, did not suggest permanence. But bit by bit, the mood changed. Denly shelved the flashy drives, and Root, having avoided a third successive duck, went in search of mislaid Test tempo. After a stand of 126 encompassing 53 overs — nearly twice as long as their entire first innings — Denly was bounced out by Hazlewood.
Enter Stokes, for an innings in three acts. From his first 73 balls, spanning the third evening and fourth morning, he scored three singles — like Geoffrey Boycott, only more dogged.
By the time Stokes eased Lyon through midwicket, Root had gone for 77, charging Lyon but edging on to his pad and falling to another superb slip catch by Warner. Against the second new ball, Stokes batted normally, while Bairstow counter-attacked. At lunch, England needed 121 runs, Australia six wickets.
Perhaps the prospect of more Headingley magic spooked the English. Bairstow carved to slip, Jos Buttler fell to a dodgy call by Stokes, and Woakes drove straight to short extra. Archer butchered three fours before launching Lyon straight to deep midwicket, and it was 286 for nine when Pattinson trapped Broad. Out walked Leach.
The middle phase of Stokes’s innings had produced 58 runs off 101 balls, but his last 74 came from 45. Only two players had scored more for England in a victorious fourth innings chase: Mark Butcher made an unbeaten 173 in another mad Ashes win at Headingley, in 2001, and Jack Brown 140 at Melbourne in 1895. Stokes’s total of eight sixes beat Kevin Pietersen’s Ashes record of seven, at the Oval in 2005.
The question was whether 2019 could go on to rival that summer. As the sun set, it was a possibility no one dared discount.