Stokes rides to England’s rescue once more to maintain Test within the stability
B
en Stokes produced yet one more memorable Ashes innings to maintain English heads above the water within the must-win Third Test at Headingley.
Just 5 days on from his heroic effort of 155 in defeat at Lord’s, Stokes belted 80 off 108 balls to tug England to inside 26 runs of Australia’s first innings complete of 263 and maintain the Test within the stability.
The house facet had been 142 for seven at lunch, however Mark Wood adopted his good day one five-for with the ball with an entertaining cameo with the bat, smashing 24 off simply 8 deliveries earlier than changing into considered one of Pat Cummins’ six victims within the innings.
From there, Stokes let unfastened in a knock that evoked reminiscences not solely of Lord’s every week in the past however of his 2019 epic on this very floor. Struggling with a glute damage in addition to his dodgy knee, the all-rounder took the autumn of England’s eighth wicket as cue to speed up, shifting from 28 to his ultimate rating of 80 in simply 40 balls, all however six of these runs coming in boundaries.
Stokes took a selected liking to Todd Murphy, hammering the sequence debutant down the bottom for a number of of his 5 sixes earlier than ultimately holing out to provide the spinner the comfort of his first Ashes wicket.
Earlier, the house facet had resumed on 68 for 3, with Yorkshire pair Jonny Bairstow and Joe Root on the crease and seeking to make amends for expensive drops within the discipline on the primary day. Instead, each had been dismissed contained in the opening half-hour.
Root succumbed to only the second ball of the morning, edging Cummins to David Warner at slip with out including to his in a single day rating of 19, earlier than Bairstow was snaffled by Steve Smith after slashing in ugly trend at a large supply from Mitchell Starc.
Bairstow had dropped Travis Head on 9 on day one, whereas Root put down Mitchell Marsh on 12 earlier than that pair went on to share a fifth-wicket partnership of 155. While England proceed to be wasteful within the discipline, Australia have been excellent, the entire prime 5 snaffled both behind the stumps or within the cordon and all ten English wickets out caught.
England opted towards a like-for-like alternative for injured batter Ollie Pope, leaving all-rounders Stokes and Moeen Ali to begin the rebuild from No6 and No7. Stokes survived an lbw assessment off Scott Boland by the pores and skin of his enamel after which required common remedy from England’s physios, however the pair appeared to have steadied the ship in a partnership of 44.
Just as calm appeared to have been restored, nonetheless, the spinner picked up England’s Lord’s penchant for mind-boggling dismissals to the short-ball, getting away with a skied top-edge solely to be pouched enjoying the very same pull shot two balls earlier, Cummins claiming his fourth wicket of the innings.
Australia focused Woakes with the short-ball and the seamer was struck on the pinnacle however responded in good trend, nailing Cummins over midwicket for six, solely to feather behind off Starc to what proved the ultimate ball earlier than lunch.