The Ashes are alive to the sound of a Yorkshire roar
Ashes Day 14: Headingley, Yorkshire.
Ashes Day 14: Headingley, Yorkshire.
Sunday 9th July 2023
Australia 263 all out and 224 all out
England 237 all out and 254–7
England win by 3 wickets
For the record, I predicted an England victory by 4 wickets but far more shamefully, I gave up on them at the fall of Jonny Bairstow’s wicket when they still needed a far away 80 runs for victory with only 4 wickets in hand.
But that’s getting far, far too ahead of ourselves as usual.
Here’s how yet another incredible day of Test Match cricket transpired:
The tale of the tape was a simple affair: Commencing this 4th day on 27–0, England needed a further 224 runs for victory to keep The Ashes alive whilst Australia sought 10 wickets for a 3–0 lead and an Ashes series win on English soil.
Duckett lbw bowled Starc (23)
The 28 year old from Orpington in Kent ended day 3 on 18 not out and was the dominant scorer as both he and Zak Crawley navigated their way through a 20 minute period of no-win cricket last evening. Adding just 5 runs this morning, he rather “fell over” in the cricketing vernacular, trapping himself in front of his stumps for an easy on-field decision from the umpire to give him out LBW (Leg Before Wicket) and the DRS review couldn’t save him. England had lost their first wicket of the morning still requiring a further 209 runs to win.
Ali bowled Starc (5)
Rescued from international retirement by captain Ben Stokes, Moeen Ali requested to bat at number 3 this morning in order to take the attack to the Australian bowlers and by my way of crooked thinking to also relieve the pressure of Harry Brook to face a newer ball and a fresher Aussie attack. Whatever the reasonings, Mitchell Starc roared in once more and smashed his leg stump clean out of the ground. At 60–2, England were still 191 runs away from victory but of more immediate concern was the brilliance of the left-arm fast bowler from Baulkham Hills near Sydney. Starc had grabbed 2 wickets in England’s 1st innings for the cost of just 59 runs and within 45 minutes or so of this morning’s session he’d already matched that feat in spades and was far and away Australia’s most potent attacking weapon.
Drinks Break 82–2: England need 170 runs to win
After an hour’s play England had scored 55 runs for the cost of 2 wickets and opening batsman Zak Crawley had taken his overnight not out score of 9 to 40 at the break. Circumspect, playing correct, upright, unhurried cricket, the 25 year old from Bromley in Kent whom I have long championed as a real star of the present and future had batted responsibly, within himself and without any rash shots or scares whatsoever. Alongside ex captain Joe Root (7 not out), both were playing the situation rather than the opposition or indeed trying to smash and crash their way to quick runs and more importantly, England were now heavy favourites for victory.
Crawley caught Carey bowled Marsh (44)
As is so often the case, a scheduled break in play results in a wicket but I rather felt he was “set-up” and fell into the trap set by Mitchell Marsh. The ball before, Crawley had caressed a beautiful cover drive for an exquisite boundary 4 but Marsh’s follow up delivery was a little wider, tempting Crawley into a more expansive drive he thinly edged through to wicket-keeper Alex Carey and the tables had turned once more, England were 93–3 and still a long distance away from the 158 runs still required for victory.
Root caught Carey bowled Cummins (21)
The killer blow of the morning session that tipped the balance of power once more in favour of Australia. The ex England captain looked set and indeed intent upon taking his country to a famous win on his home ground before he was, disappointingly, and in the cricketing vernacular once more, “strangled” down the leg side for a simple catch to Alex Carey and Australia had a prized scalp so near to the Lunch Break.
Lunch Break 153–4: England need 98 runs to win
Following Root’s dismissal, England still required a further 120 runs for victory and they rested at the break with local born Yorkshireman Harry Brook 40 not out alongside his captain Ben Stokes on 7. In the extended morning session of 2 hours and 20 minutes the home side had reduced their runs required target by 126 runs for the loss of 4 top order wickets and with the runs needed for victory now in just double digits, were slight favourites once more in yet another topsy-turvy game that so epitomises this entire Ashes series.
Stokes caught Carey bowled Starc (13)
All hopes for a repeat of his heroics from Headingley in 2019 were dashed in just the 2nd over after the break as Stokes followed Root earlier with a tame edge down the leg side easily, and gleefully, snaffled by Carey for his 3rd catch of the innings and a deserved 3rd wicket for his left-arm fast bowler. At 161–5, England still required 90 runs to win but with 5 top order and prized wickets down, Australia now only needed 5 more wickets for victory themselves.
10 runs later, this would be just 4 wickets.
Bairstow bowled Starc (5)
English hopes now rested on the shoulders of two Yorkshiremen. Whilst Harry Brook remained steadfast, unruffled, and crucially not out, Bairstow was tentative and after a streaky inside edged boundary 4 whistling past his stumps, soon after he “dragged on” a Starc delivery into his stumps, and received a similar sarcastic “send-off” he’d afforded Steve Smith 2 days ago. The fall of Bairstow’s wicket left England still needing 80 runs for victory and with more than an air of resignation, I gave up!
Australia just needed 4 more wickets to win The Ashes.
Drinks Break 214–6: England need 37 runs to win
Remarkably at the afternoon break for drinks, Harry Brook and Chris Woakes had established a partnership of 43 runs and hope was springing eternal once more.
Brook caught Cummins bowled Starc (75)
At 230–6 and with now just 21 runs needed for victory, Brook tried an inelegant swipe at a short pitched delivery from Starc that he limply clubbed skyward. As Starc himself ran for the catch he collided with his skipper Pat Cummins, but Cummins held onto the catch for Starc’s 5th wicket of the innings. Brook’s 75 came from just 93 balls received but this was of no consolation whatsoever for the 24 year old from Keighley in Yorkshire as he trudged disconsolately back to the Pavilion leaving his team 21 runs short of a desperately needed win.
Enter Mark “Woody” Wood, a favourite player of your favourite cricket correspondent for many years and for whom the very dictionary definition of “heart and soul” applies. In spades. With Chris Woakes still unbeaten and not out at the other end, Wood clubbed a towering boundary 6 from the bowling of Pat Cummins before a majestic boundary 4 from the bowling of tormentor in chief Mitchell Starc before rotating the strike back to Woakes who added a boundary 4 before recording another, and the final runs that will be forever etched against his name and another famous England win set against yet another spine chilling Headingley roar.
It may well have been the pessimist in me, but I couldn’t see how England could win this game at the fall of Jonny Bairstow’s wicket and still 80 runs needed for a famous, and series saving, triumph. But boy did they, and The Ashes series as a whole, need it. At 3–0, The Ashes were in the hands of Pat Cummins and his incredible Australian team of World Champions. At 2–1, they still hold sway entering the 4th Test Match at Old Trafford in 10 days time, but England, and The Ashes, are alive.
I have long contended that this series will end 3–2 and after 3 narrow, nail biting wins I see no reason to change my mind. After 5 mid July Manchester days in the future, England have to win to set-up a frankly ludicrous one-off Test Match at The Oval for the destination of The Ashes, and whether they do so or not, I can only foresee this match following the pattern here and the rest of the series with a titanic struggle and a close run victory.
By the 23rd July and the end of the 4th Test Match I will have seen Tom Cruise endeavour to save the world in yet another impossible mission as well as watching Cillian Murphy lamenting that he’s a “destroyer of worlds” in Christopher Nolan’s eagerly anticipated blockbuster Oppenheimer. I may well have walked along the canals and waterways of central England, chasing the sun and seeking the pot of gold at the end of a rain streaked rainbow too. Who knows.
This Summer of 2023 is just getting underway, and England are still alive and well in The Ashes.
Praise be.
See you in a few days!
Thanks for reading. My daily recaps from days 1 and 2 of this 3rd Ashes Test Match are linked below, together with a combined article on Saturday’s rain affected day in both the Men’s and Ladies pursuit of their respective Summer cricketing triumphs:
Marsh the centurion as butter-fingers England rue missed chances
Ashes Day 11: Headingley, Yorkshire.medium.com
Ashes in the balance after 2 remarkable days at Headingley
Ashes Day 12: Headingley, Yorkshire.medium.com