THE ASHES ENGLAND PULL OFF MIRACULOUS
(^48) DAILY MIRROR MONDAY 26.08.2019
DM1ST
The king of all he
surveyed, Ben
could not believe
what he had done
BY NEIL SQUIRES
IT was almost an hour after the
end of the greatest Test run
chase in England’s history and
still no one was leaving
Headingley.
They did not want the spell to
break.
When you have just been part of a
sporting miracle, real life can wait.
Ben Stokes probably felt the same
way as he stood on the outfield, still
in his pads. He had just played an
innings to rank with any in the long
history of English cricket.
As he took in the scene and drank
in the ovation from all around, the
king of all he surveyed, he looked
dazed.
It was as if he could not believe
what he had just done either.
Surely there can be nothing to top
it in his career?
Yet with Stokes who knows?
It was only six weeks ago that he
performed another otherworldly act
at Lord’s to help England win the
World Cup. He is the man who
makes the extraordinary routine.
On the same suburban Leeds turf
where Ian Botham made 149 not out
in the original making of the Miracle
of Headingley, Stokes produced
something even better in the sequel.
Not in numbers maybe but in
context. Stokes was under
intolerable pressure with everything
- the game, the series, the Ashes –on
the line yesterday and yet he held up.
More than that, he grew. Into a
monster Australia couldn’t stop.
His match-winning innings of 135
not out was actually two innings in
one – a patient defensive scene-
setter and then an attacking
avalanche.
No one who witnessed it will ever
forget it. Or the back-to-front Test
that logic forgot.
The first three days
had been dramatic
enough but yesterday
had to go down as
one of the most
gripping, stomach-
churning, thrilling
and ultimately
ecstatic in the long
history of Test cricket.
From the moment
the first ball was
delivered at 11am, a
packed-out ground
was entranced.
The place was as
taut as a sumo
wrestler’s bungee
rope as England
made their uneven
way towards the un-
likely victory target. Forward
defensives received the same
tumultuous applause as boundaries,
every landmark greeted with a
standing ovation. Yet all the time
wickets were draining away and re-
alistic hope with it.
When No.11 Jack Leach shuffled
out with 73 runs needed, it had all
but gone. England were one nick
away from defeat, one edge away
from the Ashes staying Down Under.
Perched on such a precarioustightrope with no safety net Stokes
made up his mind. If he was going
down, he was going down blazing.
And so it began. The range of
strokeplay was breathtaking, the
hard-run twos to keep the strike even
more so for a batsman approaching
his fifth hour at the crease.
The reverse sweep off Nathan
Lyon into the West Stand was
astonishing, so too the ramp shot for
six off Pat Cummins – the savage
assault on the superb Josh Hazle-
wood which brought
19 runs in an over
even more so.
Suddenly the target
was hurtling into
view. It was on... and
it was mayhem.
“It was absolutely
deafening,” said Stokes
(left, celebrating his
winning boundary).
“They were
absolutely fantastic.
They were cheering
every dot ball, every
boundary – even
when there was
nothing to cheer
about they were
cheering.
“I hope the fans
understand howmuch that influences us in the game.
It gives you that extra drive to really
push through when you are tired at
the end. The noise and the
atmosphere gives you that extra level
of adrenaline. You almost want to do
it for them.”
In the England dressing room,
players stayed glued to the same
seats, prisoners of superstition,
reluctant to risk being the one to
‘lose’ the game. In the stands similar
rituals were being performed.
There was chaos with the near
run-out, luck with the drops in the
deep and the lbw escape but with
hysteria gripping Headingley
somehow the precious last wicket
remained intact.
Stokes absorbed all the madness.
How he kept his mind clear in the
hubbub to close out the game, how
he thought through when to stick
and when to twist only he will know.
The man who had bowled 24
successive overs unchanged
to keep England in the Test
in Australia’s second
innings decided he was
the man to win it.
And when Stokes
makes up his mind to
do something –
however impossible – it
gets done.