In Ashes 2019, England won the third test match in a thriller encounter with the help of Stokes’s heroics and leveled the series with 1-1. At one point of the game, Australians were so much into the game that it seemed like dead-rubber match but the incredible century knock by Ben Stokes led England to a highest-chase win in the history. England needed 359 runs to win the test match and they achieved the impossible with the loss of 9 wickets.
In Day 1, England decided to bowl first and with the help of movement in pitch, took two early wickets in the first hour. But after that David Warner, who was out of form during the first two matches built a 111-runs partnership with Marnus Labuschagne, who was the replacement of Steven Smith. Once Warner got out in the score of 61(7 fours), Labuschagne never found a companion to take off the scorecard. He scored 74 runs (10 fours) and Australia got all out at 179. Against the fierce pace of Jofra Archer, no Australian Batsman was able to survive and hence Archer took the fifer (with figures 6-45) in his second match only.
In Day 2, when England started their batting, Aussies Pacers didn’t let anyone settle and only Joe Denly was able to achieve the two-digit score. With Hazlewood, picking 5 wickets and Cummins, scalping 3 – England got bundled out at 67 and Australia had the important lead of 112 runs in their account.
In Australia’s second inning, once again Labuschagne took the initiative and had some crucial partnerships of 45, 66, 51 runs with Head(25 runs, 3x4s), Wade(33 runs, 6x4s) and Pattinson(20 runs, 2x4s) respectively. With the help of Labuschagne’s knock of 80 (8x4s), Australia reached the score of 246 and set the target of 359 runs for England to win and level up the series. In this inning, Stokes took 3 wickets and Archer-Broad got 2 wickets each.
When England came to bat, the pressure of getting the target of 350+ score was extreme and also in the history of cricket, England never achieved this much of target. In the course of 15 runs only, England lost both openers but after that Root and Denly took the charge with the partnership of 126 runs. Once again Hazlewood was brought up by Paine and he gave the breakthrough with the wicket of Joe Denly.
In Day 4, Root and Stokes continued to play but sooner, Lyon got the wicket of Root at the score of 77. After that, Bairstow came into the crease and accompanied Stokes with the run chase. Just when the England was in better condition, Aussies got 3 wickets in a quick succession and the score was 261-7. Stokes had one tiny, hopeful partnership with Archer but again Australians took 2 quick wickets. The score of England was 286-9 when Leach reached on the pitch and they still needed 73 tough runs to win. But then the magical show of Stokes happened and it was just the matter of time, when the history got created. Stokes and Leach added 75 runs, out of which only 1 run was made by Leach but importantly, he played 17 odd balls without getting out.
Stokes remained unbeaten at 135 and helped England to level up the series with the historic win. Also most importantly, the winner of Ashes 2019 is still unpredictable with the two matches left. Now, both teams will meet in Manchester for the fourth Test Match which starts on 4th September.
Neeraj's Blog 