Daily Mail - 27.08.2019

Daily Mail, Tuesday, August 27, 2019

75

legends Flintoff and Botham

Jack Leach, England’s

new cult hero, puts on...

QUITE A SPECTACLE

The man who played the role of

Clark Kent to Ben Stokes’s Super-

man could be seen back on the

headingley outfield four hours

after the drama that changed his

life re-enacting the most important

single he will ever score.

It was the only run Jack Leach

managed in the 17 balls he faced

while helping Stokes make the 73

england needed to complete one

of the greatest Test victories and

there he was relishing showing his

team-mates how it was done.

Only in cricket could a nudged

single off his hip by a No 11 off

the world’s No 1-ranked bowler

in Pat Cummins to level the scores

in the third Test mean so much.

And only in cricket could there be

such an unlikely batting hero as

england’s latest ‘bank clerk who

went to war’ in the form of the

admirable and likeable Leach.

The sight of Leach polishing the

glasses he wears to bat before each

delivery he faced from Australia’s

ferocious fast bowlers will go down

as an Ashes image for the ages and

his explanation for it will be

familiar to any club cricketer faced

with a similar predicament.

‘I just had to make sure they were

clean every time I was facing up

because I would really regret it if

they had been smudged,’ said a

man who may look more at home

on the village green but who is

proving absolutely to belong at the

highest level.

‘If I’d got out they would have

zoomed in on the glasses and said

“he doesn’t clean them”. It was hot.

Then I just had to stay calm out

there and do the job at hand. I felt

good and I was really focused on

what I needed to do.’

No doubt with the help of the

most famous specs in cricket. They

are becoming Leach’s trademark.

By Sunday night Test sponsors

Specsavers had, after being urged

on by Stokes, offered him free

glasses for life while by yesterday

even ‘Jack Leach’s Glasses Cloth’

had its own Twitter account.

The irony is that Leach, who has

had to overcome so many hurdles

to reach the top, has now twice

made an impact with the bat this

summer rather than the left-arm

spin bowling he was picked to pro-

duce when he replaced Moeen Ali.

First came the 92 as nightwatch-

man against Ireland that earned

Leach the player of the match

award at Lord’s and now this

perfect supporting role in one of

the all-time great passages of play

in the enduring spectacle, so to

speak, of Ashes cricket.

‘This is better than Lord’s,’

confirmed Leach of an innings that

brought him 91 fewer runs. ‘Walk-

ing out with 73 needed, I don’t

know if you really believe you can

do it. You just break it down a little

bit at a time.

‘I just wanted to do my job

because Ben was saying he would

face four or five balls each over. I

got on with it and the target just

seemed to go down quite quickly.

Suddenly it was eight to win and it

was like “oh my God”.’

Leach never looked anything but

secure when he did face even

though Stokes for one could not

bear to watch him against Cum-

mins, Josh hazlewood and com-

pany, looking down and turning

away when he was at the non-strik-

er’s end. ‘he did put me off a little

bit,’ smiled Leach afterwards.

But clearly the after effects of the

nasty blow to the head from Sur-

rey’s Morne Morkel that concussed

Leach when he was playing for

Somerset last year and hindered

his batting thereafter are gone.

‘I’d rather not have had to do

anything with the bat,’ said Leach.

‘I have more to offer with the ball

and hopefully I’ll show that in the

next couple of games. The last cou-

ple of times I’ve spoken to the

media it’s been for my batting

which is mad! I want to be helping

the team with the ball primarily

and I’m looking forward to bring-

ing my best to Old Trafford.’

his best with the bat at heading-

ley has already earned him cult hero

status for the rest of his career

however successful he becomes as a

Test spinner. ‘That’s nice but I don’t

know what it is,’ he smiled. ‘I’m just

enjoying playing for england.’

By PAUL NEWMAN

Cricket Correspondent

THE ASHES

The special one: Leach re-enacts his crucial run at Headingley

Sight to savour: Leach cleans

his glasses on Sunday GETTY IMAGES

or works as hard at his

game as Stokes and it can

only be hoped that will

stand him in good stead

and that he is sensible with

the franchise commitments

he takes on. As Botham

said, he will be in demand

all over the world now.

And it is to be hoped that

england never burden him with

the captaincy that weighed so

heavily on the shoulders of Botham

and Flintoff even though Stokes is

the ultimate team man and has

the respect of everyone in the eng-

land side. Captaincy would be too

much.

It is not that he would not be up

to it tactically. he may lack cap-

taincy experience but the intelli-

gence with which he approached

england’s near-impossible run

chase and went through the gears

on Sunday was quite remarkable.

It is more that it is too much to

expect a key all-rounder to captain

any side and Stokes is the type to

want to do everything himself.

Flintoff bowled himself into the

ground when he was captain and

Stokes would be so desperate to

lead by example that he could

end up burning out.

he is regarded highly enough

within the team to be a successor

to Root when his time is up —

which looked to be arriving wor-

ryingly quickly when he was star-

ing at an eighth successive Ashes

Test loss. everyone in the eng-

land camp loves Stokes and no

one turned against him after his

infamous night out in Bristol.

There was far more bad feeling

towards Alex hales who was out

with Stokes that night and who

went on to a fail a drugs test on

the eve of the World Cup.

‘he has the heart of a lion and

would do anything for this team,’

said Stuart Broad at headingley.

‘he is the ultimate team man.’

That selfless personality was

summed up by Stokes’s refusal to

celebrate either his 50 or his cen-

tury on Sunday, an acknowledge-

ment that his job was not done.

Stokes’s stunning summer will

delight the loyal family that ral-

lied around him in his hour of

need. he is very much a chip off

the old block of his tough rugby

league playing father Ged, while

Ben’s seven-year-old son Layton

appears to have all the gusto of

his dad. During england’s tour of

the West Indies last winter I was

chatting with coach Trevor

Bayliss, who adores Stokes, and

Layton walked past with his nan,

stopped, looked up at me and

said: ‘My daddy is the best crick-

eter in the world.’

Botham followed his hundred at

headingley in 1981 with another,

better one at Old Trafford later in

the Ashes. If Stokes does the same

in the fourth Test next month and

england win the Ashes, then

Layton might just be spot on.

Bad loser: how one Aussie

newspaper took the defeat

n THE MIRACLE of

Headingley could have

been very different had

Australia still had a

review and challenged

Joel Wilson’s not out

decision when Ben

Stokes missed a sweep

off Nathan Lyon with just

two needed. Yet even

though HawkEye would

have overturned the call,

Stokes said: ‘I have seen the

DRS which shows up three

reds. But DRS has got that

completely wrong as it

flicked my front pad first and

didn’t spin. I cannot believe

it was out. As soon as it hit

me I thought it was sliding

down leg.’

Wally Mason, sports editor of

The Australian, thought

otherwise: ‘Stokes was out so

his heroics should not count.’

Sorry Wally, this was not

only one of the greatest Test

innings, but it was also a

totally legitimate one.

PAUL NEWMAN

GETTY IMAGES

CAREER BATTING

TEST AVERAGE

CAREER BOWLING

TEST AVERAGE

33.54

28.40

Fired up: Botham at

Leeds in 1981 GETTY IMAGES