Woakes, Wood and Brook maintain England’s Ashes hopes alive

England 237 (Stokes 80, Cummins 6-91) and 254 for 7 (Brook 75, Starc 5-78) beat Australia 263 (Marsh 118, Wood 5-34) and 224 (Head 77) by three wickets

Brook and Woakes added 59 for the seventh wicket, England’s highest partnership of the match, earlier than Starc’s fifth wicket – Brook top-edging to cowl – gave Australia one other sniff. But Wood, whose five-wicket haul within the first innings set the sport up for England, joined Woakes and iced the run chase.

Then, with scores tied, Woakes opened the face and scythed Starc via level for 4, holding his arms aloft in celebration earlier than embracing Wood. The pair’s all-round exploits during the last 4 days have stored England alive within the collection: they’re two-one down heading into the fourth Test at Old Trafford on July 19.

There is a nine-day break earlier than the beginning of that Test, one for which each groups will likely be grateful after one other exhausting, exhilarating day which noticed each groups let management of the sport slip from their grasp. Australia have been behind for a lot of the sport nevertheless it took till Brook’s partnership with Woakes for England to say their dominance on the chase. Even then, there was a twist – nevertheless it got here late sufficient for them to scrape house.

England wanted an additional 224 runs to win firstly of the fourth day however misplaced a wicket within the fifth over of the morning: Ben Duckett was smashed on the shin by Starc, falling over to the off facet. His overview couldn’t save him, with ball-tracking projecting that the ball would have crashed into his leg stump.

Unexpectedly, it was Moeen Ali who walked out at No. 3, after Brook had deputised for the injured Ollie Pope in that function within the first innings. The experiment didn’t final lengthy – Starc ripped out Moeen’s leg stump with a 90mph/144kph rocket – however gave the phantasm of extending England’s batting line-up and crucially, allowed Brook to return to No. 5.

Joe Root traded boundaries with Zak Crawley both facet of drinks however by no means settled, and a change of ball within the nineteenth over introduced a wicket within the twentieth. Crawley crunched Mitchell Marsh via the off facet with a trademark cowl drive, however Marsh’s subsequent ball was a fraction shorter and drew the surface edge.

Brook performed positively from the outset, spanking Scott Boland via cover-point for consecutive boundaries, however his stand with Root was a short one. Cummins dug one in brief, angling down the leg facet, which Root tried to tug however gloved via to Alex Carey. It was not Cummins’ finest ball however prolonged his exceptional dominance in his head-to-head battle with Root.

Stokes, no stranger to a Headingley run chase, calmly labored his first ball away via the leg facet for 4 however was strangled down the leg facet within the second over after lunch, flicking Starc via to Carey to fall for simply 13. Starc smiled wryly, exerting his appreciable affect on a second successive Test.

Bairstow joined Brook, who had reached 42 after a handful of false pictures early in his innings, however didn’t final lengthy. He inside-edged his sixth ball for 4, previous his leg stump, then chopped his eighth onto his center stump, overwhelmed by Starc’s motion again into him; after 78 on the opening day of the collection, Bairstow has added 63 runs throughout his subsequent 5 innings.

Australia sensed a gap. They have been 4 wickets away and Woakes hardly exuded calm early on, usually taking part in and lacking and selecting up boundaries by way of each edges of the bat. But with Cummins reluctant to introduce Todd Murphy – who bowled solely two overs on the final day – Australia have been reliant on their three primary seamers.

Brook introduced up a 67-ball half-century, his second in successive Tests, however each batters continued to maintain Australia’s fielders , notably when going through the brief ball. Top-edges looped up tantalisingly with out going at hand, and ball usually beat bat earlier than the drinks break.

Brook crunched boundaries away via level off Cummins and the lesser-spotted Murphy, however was rushed by Starc’s brief ball and spooned a catch to cowl by way of the highest edge, trudging off with 21 runs nonetheless required. But It took England solely 14 balls to knock them off.

Murphy’s sensible parry on the midwicket boundary denied Woakes a sure boundary, however Wood – fuelled by adrenaline – took on Cummins’ bouncer and swiped him into the Football Stand for six. When Wood crunched Starc via cowl, England have been shut; when Woakes slashed him via level, they’d their first Ashes win in 4 years.