England sneak home, another Ashes classic at Headingley

England cricket has a new hero after their fastest bowler Mark Wood guided them to a rollicking three-wicket win amid high drama at Headingley to defy a gallant Australia and keep the Ashes series alive.

It might have been Chris Woakes who hit the winning runs – a boundary carved through the off side off the last ball of the 50th over – but it was the 24-run partnership he forged for the eighth wicket with Wood, the star of both England's bowling innings in this Test, that stemmed Australia's barnstorming finish.

It represented a personal triumph for the England pair who were both playing their first Tests due to injury and selection decisions, and reprised the team's memorable triumph at the same ground four years earlier that also breathed life into another memorable Ashes battle.

Prophetically, England seamer Stuart Broad – next man into bat as Starc scythed through England's middle-order to claim 5-78 in a heroic performance of his own – had claimed at day's beginning his team would chase the 251 needed as if it was a 50-over match.

Under that scenario, England's last-ball triumph showed they paced their pursuit to the letter but there were times during a see-sawing afternoon of compelling cricket they seemed to have got it wrong.

For the third time in as many matches of a quite extraordinary series, the Test went down to the wire with Australia picking up key wickets at crucial moments but ultimately paying the price for a couple of costly collapses in both their batting innings.

Starc's removal of the trio who had underpinned England's famous fourth-innings chases over the past year – Ben Stokes (13) and Jonny Bairstow (5) – coupled with Cummins' continued stranglehold over Joe Root (21) saw Australia edge in front at various times during the afternoon.

But as was the case four years ago, their final chance was a top-edge pull shot from Wood that should have flown to Scott Boland at third but was instead chased down by keeper Alex Carey who made a desperate but ultimately unsuccessful dive to the delight of the delirious crowd.

It proved the final act of resistance before England celebrated the win that keeps alive the boast made after Lord's they planned to become just the second team in Ashes history – after Australia in 1936-37 – to claim the Ashes after losing the first two Tests.

While Stokes was England's saviour four years ago, today it was Yorkshire local Harry Brook who fell for 75 from 93 balls, and with victory just 21 runs away.

In scoring a single to take his score to 47 and England within 80 runs of remaining in the Ashes contest, Brook brought up 1000 Test runs,reaching the milestone in fewer balls faced than any player to have come before (since deliveries began being recorded).

At just 24 years and in his 10th Test, Brook became the senior player upon whom England would rely to get them home when Stokes and Bairstow departed in the space of two overs with their team still 80 runs shy of victory.

When drinks were taken just after 3pm on Sunday afternoon, there was just 37 runs separating England from their first Ashes Test win in almost four years, with Australia still four wickets away from their first Ashes series win on enemy turf since 2001.

An over later, the difference was reduced to 30 as Brook lathered a cut between two fielders positioned on the off-side boundary to raise a 50-run stand for the seventh-wicket off just 61 balls.

It was at that moment Cummins turned to his 22-year-old off-spinner Todd Murphy playing in his maiden Ashes Test and whose only previous over of the innings – the one immediately prior to lunch – had cost seven runs.

That meant young spinner was operating from the Kirkstall Lane End in tandem with Cummins as England closed in on what had not-so-long-before seemed an unlikely win on a sunny Sunday afternoon, a replay of events from four years earlier with Brook playing the part of Stokes.

Perhaps spooked by that haunting rehash of history, Cummins devolved bowling responsibility to Starc and it proved an inspired decision.

With England 21 runs away and seemingly on track for another pulsating Headingley moment, Brook tried to muscle a short ball from Starc and top-edged a catch to mid-off where Cummins held his ground and the chance despite being buffeted by Starc who couldn't hear his captain's call.

Brook cut a dejected figure as he departed Headingley to a standing ovation, and the spin experiment was duly shelved as Cummins took over from Murphy with 19 needed.

Image Id: D459CC2EB1924542A1EEF0DD633D2894 Image Caption: Cummins hangs on to dismiss Brook despite a collision with Starc // Getty

The margin might have been cut by four when Woakes smoked a pull shot through mid-wicket that seemed destined for the fence only for Murphy to pull off a stunning save, leaping over the rope to knock the ball back to teammate Marnus Labuschagne and keep England to a single.

As it turned out, that was the best result for the home team as Wood – who had bludgeoned 24 from just eight deliveries in igniting England's resurgence in the first innings – climbed into the first short ball he received from Cummins and sent it into the concourse seats in the Howard Stand.

The game was then in England's hands with just 11 needed and three wickets up their sleeves as Starc started the 50th over, and Wood unerringly punched the first ball through a vacant cover region before Starc followed up with a bouncer so short it was eventually deemed a wide.

Another two bunted to cover brought the Test within a boundary of England's grasp when Wood's next heave yielded a top edge that eluded Carey's desperate dive.

But by that stage, it would have taken a miracle for Australia to pluck a win, and that is clearly England's domain on their most hallowed patch.

While Wood was rightly crowned player of the match and Brook won the hearts of the Yorkshire crowd, Woakes played a vital role after flashing frantically and unsuccessfully at the first ball he faced.

But the swing bowling specialist, who hauled England back into the game with a couple of crucial wickets when play finally resumed amid Saturday's rain, then found the boundary three times from the next 17.

Image Id: 02CC908321F1407FA8C3B77CA65583B1 Image Caption: Player of the match Wood celebrates with Woakes after he hit the winning runs // Getty

Many of those runs were coming from the usually parsimonious bowling of Scott Boland whose barely believable Test bowling average coming into the 2023 Ashes had blown out beyond 115 for the series by midway through today.

In fairness to Boland, he came close to drawing an error several times during the tense final hour as did Cummins who was getting the ball to climb off a length from the Howard Stand End albeit without luck.

On three occasions in as many overs, Cummins found the shoulder of the fending bats of Brook and Woakes only for the chances to fly safely into gaps in the far-flung field – two of them between the slips and another that looped lazily to the vacant point region.

Ominously, things quite literally seemed to be falling in England's favour.

For a period shortly before lunch, it seemed likely that local lads Root and Brook would be the ones who took England to victory, a hasty re-write of a script that usually enshrines Stokes as the incumbent hero.

After a nervy start to his knock, Root had settled into stride but played second fiddle to his junior partner who looked a different player to the one rendered clueless by the new ball when batting at three in England's first innings.

The Yorkshire pair put on 38 off 56 deliveries for the fourth wicket, of which Brook contributed 28 having signalled his intention by notching his first boundary by driving Boland in the air and just beyond the bowler's outstretched left hand.

When Cummins replaced Boland, Brook helped himself to consecutive boundaries – driven through covers then lashed square behind point – as the target dropped below 150.

However, as has been the case throughout this ever-oscillating series, no sooner had England established an ascendancy than their opponents landed another decisive blow.

This time it was the wicket of Root against the run of play, his attempted pull of a short ball from Cummins brushing the batter's glove on way through to Carey who was again exemplary behind the stumps until that desperate final act.

After dominating Australia's bowlers at Edgbaston where he finished 118no when Stokes prematurely declared on him, Root has failed to reach 50 in his five subsequent innings with Cummins claiming his scalp in the past three.

While the Headingley faithful were suddenly silenced by such an unforeseen turn of events, Root's departure only paved the way for the entry of another hero as Stokes took to the arena where he had achieved cricket immortality four years earlier.

The initial signs were history was destined to repeat when the England skipper effortlessly flicked the first ball he received from his opposite number to the mid-wicket rope.

Already hobbled by a chronically damaged left knee and the hip injury he sustained when batting on Friday, Stokes was felled by a brutish ball from Boland that leapt from a length and smacked him amidships.

The wounded-again warrior spent some time on his hands and knees before struggling to his feet to resume the fight, adding another boundary when he contemptuously smacked Starc through the covers to reduce the victory mark to 90.

Next ball, however, the whole notion of 2019 revisited was cast aside when Stokes flicked lazily at a ball the left-arm fast bowler speared down leg side and umpire Kumar Dharmasena took so long to raise his finger it seemed inevitable the England matchwinner would immediately review.

Instead, he simply threw back his head, clutched his bat in the single hand with which he was expected to carry his team across the line and left the field to a shocked silence that only lifted when another Yorkshire favourite, Jonny Bairstow, hustled to the crease.

Image Id: 9A250FC9AB4E45C98C241BB3CE9F0EA2 Image Caption: Stokes throws his bat in the air after being dismissed // Getty

But Bairstow was far from the assured presence his skipper portrayed, pulling away with bowlers on approach, driving loosely to fielders and inside-edging Boland perilously close to his stumps before his flighty nine-ball knocked ended in fairly predictable fashion.

With Starc angling across him, Bairstow threw his hands at an ambitious drive that speared off the inside of his bat and crashed into leg stump to the delight of his rivals who – channelling Bairstow's send-off to Steve Smith a day earlier – chirped 'see ya Jonny'.

Stokes said on match-eve the reason for elevating Brook was to get Bairstow to number five and into game earlier because of his effectiveness in run chases over the past year.

But curiously, the decision to promote Moeen and the captain himself – thereby relinquishing the embattled 'keeper to seven – meant Bairstow's arrival into the contest came later than in preceding Tests.

After apocalyptic rain hammered Leeds on Saturday evening, Sunday's play had begun under light cloud and a cloying humidity that might have owed as much to consequences that hung as heavily over Headingley as the vaporising moisture.

If Australia were stem England's oncoming charge, early wickets loomed as a key but when Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins began their bowling stints with the ball five overs old, the fields deployed more closely resembled the middle overs of an ODI than the opening salvo of a Test.

As a consequence, undefeated openers Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett were able to ease themselves into the morning by safely bunting balls square of the wicket and running singles to deep point and distant square leg.

After a dozen runs dribbled from the first three overs, the gap at square leg was plugged with one of three slips removed and the day's first breakthrough soon followed.

With Duckett walking across his crease to try and access the leg side, he was pinned in front by Starc with the batter's review only confirming the ball would have smashed into leg, meaning both teams were down to two available off-field appeals with Australia having burned one Saturday evening.

The wicket brought the first sign of 'Bazball' wackiness, with allrounder Moeen Ali – summoned from Test cricket retirement at series start after two years out of the game – elevated from seven where he batted in the first innings where he batted in the first innings.

The 36-year-old has been utilised at first-drop six previous times in his career with an average of 14.50 and a solitary half-century, but his elevation in such a crucial run chase suggested England's experiment with middle-order freewheeler Harry Brook at three is over.

That average slipped further, to 13.1, after the experiment proved a 15-ball failure when Starc speared a full ball through Moeen's airy drive that sent leg stump flying and the Australia fans in the crowd celebrating.

Despite Broad's pre-play claim England would approach their task as if a 50-over game, it took five overs before the fist boundary was scored – an educated edge past gully by Crawley off Starc – and the next came three overs later, with four byes coming from a Cummins bouncer that soared over 'keeper Carey.

If that was a manifestation of the pressure being felt by the visitors, so too was Root's initial offering which saw England's best batter flash skittishly at the first ball he faced from Starc that narrowly missed the edge of his beseeching bat.

But in Starc's next over, the former England skipper reverted to type with a more compact and authoritative punch through cover that raced to the boundary and brought his home fans to their feet.

After an hour's play, the hosts had settled and reduced the target to 170 for the loss of just two wickets having scored at marginally above four an over across the day's first 13 overs.

But a change of ball in the first over after refreshments brought another shift in the day's plot.

Having played his most fluent stroke of the day – a sumptuous drive through extra cover for four off Mitchell Marsh – but immediately tried to reprise his triumph and paid the price.

Marsh marginally pulled back his length and got the replacement ball to shape away as Crawley's bottom hand came off the bat and it took the edge near the shoulder of his blade.

It was the second time in the Test Marsh had removed England's risk-taking opener and, perhaps more instructively, the third time in his past four innings that Crawley has passed 30 but failed to reach 50.

At 3-93 and still 158 runs from glory, England fans were searching for any fleeting sign that providence would prevail.

It came when Brook strode on to his home ground to join fellow Yorkshireman Root, at the same time brilliant sunshine engulfed Headingley, warming the faithful and divining that, somehow, someone would arrive to fulfil the home team's destiny.

2023 Qantas Ashes Tour of the UK

First Test: Australia won by two wickets

Second Test: Australia won by 43 runs

Third Test: England won by three wickets

Fourth Test: Wednesday July 19-Sunday July 23, Old Trafford

Fifth Test: Thursday July 27-Monday 31, The Oval

Australia squad: Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey (wk), Cameron Green, Marcus Harris, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis (wk), Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitch Marsh, Todd Murphy, Michael Neser, Matthew Renshaw, Steve Smith (vc), Mitchell Starc, David Warner

England squad: Ben Stokes (c), Rehan Ahmed, James Anderson, Jonathan Bairstow, Stuart Broad, Harry Brook, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Dan Lawrence, Jack Leach, Ollie Pope, Matthew Potts, Ollie Robinson, Joe Root, Josh Tongue, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood