At Headingley, batters win by three wickets in a nail-biting run chase.
England’s most significant partnership of the game, 59 runs between Brook and Woakes for the seventh wicket
The Ashes remain in existence. England’s batters secured a three-wicket victory at Headingley in a nail-biting run chase after Harry Brook scored 75 on his home field. Chris Woakes and Mark Wood then helped the team reach the finish line. Australia struck frequently on the fourth day, leaving England in severe difficulty at 171 for 6, when a victory would have given them their first Ashes triumph away from home since 2001. Ben Stokes and Jonny Bairstow, the middle-order powerhouse, were among the two wickets Mitchell Starc claimed on each side of lunch.
England’s most significant partnership of the game, 59 runs between Brook and Woakes for the seventh wicket, came before Starc’s fifth wicket, Brook top-edging to cover, gave Australia another chance. However, Wood joined Woakes and ended the run chase after picking up five wickets in the first innings to set up England for victory. To reduce the number of players needed to just one, Wood hooked Pat Cummins over the fine leg for six, then cleared his front leg to smash Starc through cover. Alex Carey could not hold on after racing back towards the boundary rope and diving at full stretch onto his front with four to win after surviving a top-edged swipe from Starc. As soon as the scores were knotted, Woakes opened the face and scythed Starc through for a four-point play, raising his arms in celebration before embracing Wood. England is still in the series despite being down two games to one going into the fourth Test on July 19 at Old Trafford, thanks to the duo’s all-around performance over the previous four days. Before that Test begins, there will be a nine-day respite, which both teams will appreciate after another exhausting yet thrilling day in which they let the game slip from their grip. Long stretches of the match saw Australia trail, but when Brook teamed up with Woakes, England began to demonstrate their superiority in the pursuit. Even at that point, there was a twist, but it materialized too late for them to make it home.
At the start of the fourth day, England needed 224 more runs to win, but they lost a wicket in the fifth over of the morning when Ben Duckett was struck on the shin by Starc and fell over to the off side. His review could have been more effective since ball tracking predicted the ball would hit his leg stump. Unexpectedly, Moeen Ali departed the field at No. 3, where Brook had filled in for the injured Ollie Pope in the first innings. The experiment was short-lived (Starc ripped out Moeen’s leg stump with a 90 mph/144 kph rocket), but it provided the impression that England’s batting lineup was more extended. Most importantly, it allowed Brook to return to the No. 5 position.
A ball change in the 19th over resulted in a wicket in the 20th, but Joe Root and Zak Crawley continued to trade boundaries on either side of the drinks interval. Mitchell Marsh was smashed through the offside by Crawley’s signature cover drive, but Marsh’s next ball was a bit shorter and dragged the outside edge. Brook started well, beating Scott Boland via cover-point for back-to-back goals, but his partnership with Root could have been more lived. Root tried to grab one Cummins had shoved in short and angled down the leg side, but he gloved it through to Alex Carey. Even if it wasn’t his most incredible shot, Cummins outperformed Root in their head-to-head matchup. In the second over following lunch, Stokes, experienced in a Headingley run chase, was choked down the leg side, flicking Starc through to Carey to fall for just 13. Starc grinned wryly as he significantly influenced a second straight Test. Although he did not stick around for long, Bairstow joined Brook, who reached 42 after a few false starts in his innings. After scoring 78 on the first day of the series, Bairstow contributed 63 runs throughout his next five innings. He inside-edged his sixth ball for four over his leg stump and then chopped his eighth onto his middle stump, defeated by Starc’s movement back into him.
Australia perceived a chance. They were four wickets away, and Woakes didn’t precisely project composure initially, frequently playing and missing and picking up boundaries with both bat edges. But because Cummins was hesitant to use Todd Murphy, who only bowled two overs on the last day, Australia was forced to rely on its three primary seamers. Brook reached his second consecutive half-century in 67 balls, but both batsmen kept Australia’s fielders on their toes, especially when they were up against the short ball. Before the break for beverages, the top edges looped up tantalizingly without going to hand, and the ball frequently beat the bat. With 21 runs still needed, Brook smashed boundaries through point off both Cummins and the less-noticed Murphy but was hurried by Starc’s short ball and spooned a catch to cover via the top edge. But England knocked them off in just 14 balls. Woakes was denied a likely boundary by Murphy’s stunning deflection at midwicket, but Wood, fired up by adrenaline, took on Cummins’ bouncer and swiped him into the Football Stand for six. England was on the verge of winning the Ashes when Woakes slashed Starc through point after Wood had crunched him through cover.
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