England keep Ashes alive with thrilling win of their own

The Ashes are alive.

England arrived on Day 4 needing 224 runs to maintain their hopes in the series, they left winners by three wickets – Headingley serving up another nail-biter in cricket’s oldest contest.

In a series of nerve-shreddingly close battles this was one more, no fan of either side ever allowed to get too optimistic about their prospects of victory before the opposition struck a blow back in response.

This was a rally worthy of any seen at Wimbledon over the past week, the balance of power traded increasingly franticly from one side to the other.

England’s openers picked up where they had left off the night before, Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett plundering runs at will in the opening exchanges. Crucially for Australia however, they almost exclusively limited England to singles not boundaries, the combination of alert fielding and a wet outfield preventing the damage done from being too great.

On another day, in another reality, this Test could have been won by Mitchell Starc. He made the first breakthrough removing Duckett and proved a constant danger to English hopes.

With Duckett gone, England pressed the ‘Bazball’ button and Moeen Ali was promoted to number three. As a method of thrashing some quick, pressure-easing runs, it did not succeed – Starc flattening his leg stump for just 5 – however it did allow Harry Brook to slot back in at his preferred number five spot and from there he did more to help England on Day 4 than perhaps any other.

The pattern of play soon became well established: any time England looked to have found the partnership that would take them to victory, Australia struck back with a wicket. Every apparent winning forehand down the line countered with a vicious cross-court backhand.

At lunch England were narrowly ahead, yes Pat Cummins had once again removed Joe Root, but with under a hundred needed, six wickets in hand, and captain, leader, Headingley legend, Ben Stokes at the crease surely they would see this one home.

Starc though had other ideas. In his first over after the break, he had Stokes strangled down the leg side, the increasingly boisterous Western Terrace reduced to near total silence. In his second he got Jonny Bairstow, dragging the ball onto his stumps for just 5 to cap off a fairly miserable home Test for England’s wicketkeeper.

Suddenly England needed 80 with just four remaining wickets, their Ashes hopes dwindling, the nightmare prospect of a 5-0 home series whitewash inquisitively popping its head into view.

After a lightning start to Test cricket, Harry Brook has had a slightly underwhelming series, guilty of a few soft dismissals when well set. Fortunately for England he fired just when they really needed him.

He did however needed someone to stay with him at the other end. Enter Chris Roger Woakes, ever-dependable and quietly having a superb game on his recall to the side.

Woakes had taken six vital wickets across two innings with the ball, suddenly at Headingley, that site of famous batting performances by allrounders, England desperately needed him to give them another.

His start did very little to settle English nerves in the crowd, lucky not to nick his first ball behind as he flashed and missed wildly with a drive to Starc, by the time he had finished however he had the whole ground roaring and on their feet.

There were more nervous moments, this after all was a deadly Australian attack pressing for their first Ashes win on English soil for more than 20 years, but gradually Brook and Woakes brought the target down.

Australia gambled by bringing on Todd Murphy but Brook was in no mood to see it pay off. He lasered a cut shot to boundary for four and suddenly England needed just 24, the seventh wicket partnership up to 56 – England’s best of the innings.

Inevitably thought there was one more twist, of course it was Starc the man to provide it. Brook was looking to finish things in a hurry, he only managed to smear the ball up in the air, Cummins still managing to take the catch despite being clattered into by the bowler also running in to claim it.

Suddenly things were looking ominous for England again, Starc had five wickets in the innings, Australia needed just three more, those 24 runs needed twice as daunting as they had been only moments before.

This though has been Mark Wood’s Test, blighted by injuries he has been making up for lost time these past few days in Leeds and he was clearly in no mood to let this one slip away.

With 18 needed, he hooked Cummins extravagantly for six into the Football Stand, the roar from the crowd louder than any heard so far in the Test, matched an over later when he gloriously blasted Starc for four through the covers.

The shot saw off a 92 mph delivery aimed straight at his stumps, Starc had thrown everything he had at him and he drilled it to the fence. It was the final blow from which Australia could not recover and six deliveries later with the scores level Woakes carved the winning runs away for four more.

England have been on the wrong end of two thrilling defeats so far in this series, here they just about managed to hand out one of their own. A fascinating series remains alive and seemingly only getting progressively more exciting. See you in Manchester.