25.08.19


Looking at the facts of this Test in the future, you would think that they were crazy and wonder how on earth we achieved them. England’s first innings of the 3rdTest at Headlingley left me worrying away my hopes of going to watch the fourth day of the Ashes in a cafĂ© in the Netherlands as the fall of wickets never stopped and we found ourselves all out for 67, which is less than half of what Ben Stokes managed to achieve in our second innings staggeringly.

 In fact I had not had a massive amount of time to build up to this series-deciding match, I was only given two weeks to look forward to it, having been surprised with the tickets on my birthday. I was anxiously checking up on the score of the Test in the first three days non-stop, whether I found myself watching Feyenoord or Hull City, which with WiFi in football stadiums was quite the struggle. At the end of the third day Joe Root had been solid the whole innings and Ben Stokes had faced 50 balls and was only on 2 not out, but that was of no concern to me as at least I knew I was going to be watching some cricket! 
Before the cricket had even started the next day I felt satisfied that if we had left Headingley then, I would have still had an incredible day. Jofra Archer had already walked right past us, through the crowds to get the pitch, and then the one and only Alistair Cook also happened to be roaming in and amongst the crowd and we had snapped up, no pun intended, the picture opportunity with England’s leading Test run scorer. 

I have to admit by the time the actual cricket had begun I did not feel overly optimistic and would have taken only seeing about twenty overs. Even though Root was lost relatively early in the day, Bairstow and Stokes were seeming to be a very stable partnership going into lunch which did leave me with more confidence, but Bairstow hasn’t particularly been one for sticking around for too long this series. Once he was out not too long into the afternoon session I still wasn’t as downhearted as I could have been, feeling hopeful for both Buttler and Woakes, both of whom got 1, Buttler to a grave miscommunication and I don’t even remember how Woakes got out but I’m sure it won’t have been too dignified. And now was the turn of Jofra Archer at the crease. I challenge anybody to find something more stressful than watch him bat because you never know whether he is going to choose to hit it for six (spoiler alert: this did not work once again) or actually block it, which always received a huge cheer from the crowd. For some reason he decided he could become the new Ben Stokes and save us, even though without his bowling we would not even have been in with a chance at the match, but never mind I guess, cheers for the couple of fours!


 I would not recommend leaving to go and fill a water bottle in the middle of a match, as for me this resulted in the loss of two wickets, Jofra Archer to a catch on the boundary and Stuart Broad to lbw. I now thought I wasn’t even going to see the end of the game as I still had not got to the front of the water fountain queue and I was finally relieved to be back in my seat for what I thought was the impending conclusion. Being honest I had spent some of the day questioning the relevance of Jack Leach with my friend and being confused as to what he actually brought to the team. Rest assured I will never speak of Jack Leach with any kind of negative adjective again and am instead very pleased with his new lifetime supply of Specsavers glasses. So there the two stood, with the target to reach still of 73. We all sat nervously wondering how many balls Jack Leach could block and the answer was all 14. As the sixes started to rack up for Stokes and Leach started to get his glasses cloth out the whole crowd was starting to believe that this could actually be done, but in everyone’s mind was the worry that one ball ends the whole game. And after that wasted review from Paine, which the Australians might say was fairly costly, oops, those last few sixes from Stokes came one after the other, each receiving a standing ovation of cheers from the crowd as well as that one run from Leach.


Then came that last ball and I did not even realise until after the match it had gone for four, I just knew it was enough to get that last one run.  I can honestly say I have never shouted so loud in my entire life because we had done it, the impossible, and I could not believe what I was witnessing. So thanks Mum for getting those tickets for one of the most incredible days of English Test cricket in history, you picked a pretty good one.


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