It was the 4th day of the 3rd Ashes Test at Headingley. With 350 odd runs required for England to keep the series alive, people and pundits had already written them off. Everyone knew it would have taken a serious miracle for them to stay in the hunt, let alone win the game.
England looked scratchy as their 4th wicket fell at just 159 runs, still 200 away from the target. It would have taken a heroic innings for them to cross the line. Just over a month after their unbelievable final victory at the World Cup, Ben Stokes found himself in the middle of it all, with the series hanging by a thread and England staring down the barrel of defeat. The hosts wanted him to do something similar if they were to keep the series alive. And boy, did he deliver.
With wickets falling at the other end, Ben Stokes kept going at his ferocious best against some of the top bowlers that Australia had. Some of the shots that he played in his innings were mind boggling to say the least. But it all seemed like it would go to waste because of the fall of wickets at the other end. 9 down, still 73 to get, England looked all but done. Jack Leach walked in, and nobody could have expected what was about to happen.
Ben Stokes went full-throttle as he marched past 100. No celebration after getting to his 100, knew the job was still half done. Played some outrageous shots, and backed it up with some clever cricket with Jack Leach at the other end. The game went right down to the wire. Dropped catches, missed run-outs, wrong umpiring calls, it was all happening out there in the middle at Headingley.
2 were required, and tail-ender Leach was at strike. He was still to get off the mark in their partnership of 70+, and all that was required of him was a single, easily the most important single of his career. And he delivered. Stokes finished it off with a backfoot punch through covers, and the crowd erupted as they witnessed possibly the best test innings ever played in the history of the sport. That 135*, and the entire test match will be edged in every Cricket fan’s memory for the years to come. This Ashes Series has truly lived up to it’s hype.
-Vibhor Dubey
The Average Cricketer 