The Ashes Revisited

Test cricket is the oldest, purest and arguably the best form of the game. Despite its merits, test cricket is not as popular as the formats of the game. This is mainly due to the fact that even ardent fans do not have time to sit and watch thirty-five hours of play across five days. That is why test cricket often needs an advertisement every now and then to rejuvenate the format and spark an interest in the minds of fans.

The Ashes, played between the Poms and the Aussies, are definitely the premium test series and has been ever since its inception one hundred and thirty-eight years ago. It is not only cricket’s but one of sports’ finest and oldest rivalries. But after head-turning performances from Ian Botham and Bob Willis in 1981, the Ashes were quite bland with either side dominating the series. In fact, England didn’t win even a single series between 1989 and 2005.

Let us revisit the 2005 Ashes series. England were a young, inexperienced side under a new captain, Michael Vaughan. The Aussie legends, on the other hand, were being led by the World Cup winning captain, Ricky Ponting. It seemed as if the Brits’ barren patch was set to continue. In the first match, after a low scoring first innings, Australia dominated their opponents and won by more than 200 runs. Could an inexperienced English side ever counter this?

Before the second match in Edgbaston, Glenn McGrath, the leading Australian quickie, ruptured his ankle. This led to Australia fielding Michael Kasprowicz instead of the fast bowling legend. England took full advantage of the situation at hand and scored over four hundred runs in the first innings. The resilient men from down under weren’t going to give up without a fight. An extremely well fought test finally came down to the wire. Australia needed three runs to win whereas England needed one wicket. As fans of both teams held their breath, Andrew Flintoff gave a performance of a life time and won the thriller for England. This momentum pushed England to draw two other games and win another one, once again powered by the sheer brilliance of Freddie Flintoff.

Ever since, many fiercely fought battles ensued between the two teams in the quest for the Ashes Urn. The last fifteen years have been peppered with a plethora of spectacular performances. Whether it be Johnson’s scorching spell at Perth, Broad’s mind boggling 8-15 at Trentbridge, Smith’s double ton in 2017 or Cook’s double century in 2011, each performance was breathtakingly beautiful.

After a devastating loss in Australia in 2017, England were rearing to win the series at home. But the summer of 2019 was more significant than just the Ashes. England also hosted the 50 Over World Cup less than a month before the series was about to start.

Now, the World Cup is not just another tournament. It is the ultimate carnival of world cricket and competing teams fight tooth and nail to win the prized trophy. The 2019 World Cup final will definitely go down in history as one of the most dramatic and most controversial finals ever played. Despite tying the match, England were declared winners because of a technicality. How could a test match series possibly top all the high octane action that took place during the World Cup?

The Ashes started on 1st August and also inaugurated the first series of the World Test Championship. This test also marked the return of Smith and Warner to test cricket. Australia won the toss and chose to bat. A couple of overs into the opening spell, lead pacer James Anderson twisted his ankle. England were now one bowler short. But fate seemed to favour the Poms. The Australian batting line up collapsed like a pack of cards around Steve Smith. Despite being reduced to 122/8, Smith and Siddle stitched a partnership to bring their tally up to a decent 284, including a gritty century from Smith. England countered with a remarkable 374, with opener Rory Burns leading the charge. But the tide turned in the second innings where the men from down under scored over 400 runs, with another amazing ton from Smith, and their bowlers bowled England out for a measly 167, resulting in the Aussies winning the first match by 251 runs and breaching fortress Edgbaston.

The first day of the second test match was washed out due to the typical English monsoon. Despite this setback, even this test match was as entertaining as the previous one because of a sizzling debut by Jofra Archer. His fiery spell knocked over an already injured Steve Smith, who still went on to a brilliant 92, and gave way to the first concussion substitute in tests, Marnus Labuschagne. Despite having the upper hand for the majority of the game, England could not win because of lack of time and the match ended in a draw.

The third match was set to take place at Leeds in Headingley. Australia still looked a formidable side even without their star batsman and leading run scorer. Despite falling prey to Archer’s sensational pace and scoring only 170 odd in the first innings, the Aussies bowled England for a paltry 67. It seemed like the urn was slipping away from England’s grasp. Right before lunch on Day 3, England started their second innings with a target of 359. They ended the day at 156/3 requiring another 203 runs for victory, with Root and Stokes at the crease. The next day, despite best efforts from Root, the skipper got out after scoring a valiant 77. But Stokes was at his defensive best, scoring a boundary only on the 74th delivery. He, along with Bairstow, took England to 245/5. Although, they required over 120 runs to win, English fans and supporters were confident that the team would pull this off. And that is when the drama began.

Jos Buttler walked in at seven with the intention of winning the match for his country. Unfortunately, due to a brilliant piece of fielding from Travis Head, he was run out after scoring only a single run. “Never mind.”, said English fans “We got a tail that wags a lot and we still have Stokes at the crease. With just over a hundred runs to go, we can still hope that our team will come through.” But they perhaps underestimated the quality and skill of the Australian bowling attack which was one of the best in the world. They continued to chip away at the tail and soon the Brits were reduced to 286/9 which meant they still required 73 runs to win the match and keep the series alive. This is when Ben Stokes started to script a match winning innings that will be remembered for ages to come.

Batting with the tail isn’t easy. Batsmen who end up doing that tend to aggress in the hope of scalping as many runs as they can. But in a do or die situation like this one, Stokes couldn’t afford to aggress. Or could he?

It was evident that he was going to burn the brunt of the Australian attack and never allow Jack Leach to face more than a few deliveries at any given point of time. Stokes took on Lyon in the first over of the partnership and hit him for six, straight down the ground. He continued to target Lyon and managed to hit a couple more sixes off him in the subsequent overs. Neither did he spare the quickies and smashed few more balls to the boundary, to the absolute delight of the crowd. It would suffice to say that Ben Stokes was cruising. But there were still a couple of twists and turns waiting to play out.

England were at 342/9 with less than 20 runs needed to win when it began. Stokes sliced the ball to third man. Marcus Harris got his hands to the ball but could not cling on. Luck had started favouring the Poms. In the very same over, Leach had to face two deliveries bowled by the best bowler in test cricket, Patrick Cummins. The last ball hit Leach’s pads and Australia appealed. The on field umpire gave it not out. Australia had only review left. But they were desperate. Their wicketkeeper-cum-captain, Tim Paine reviewed despite Cummins saying that he thinks that the ball did pitch on the leg side. Australia lost the review. More drama ensued in the very next over. Stokes hit Lyon for a six, to the deafening din of the crowd erupting, meaning they required only 2 runs to win. England were going to clinch victory from the jaws of defeat. But in the fifth ball of that very over, an eager Jack Leach ran out of his crease without realising that the ball had not been hit well. Despite a brilliant throw from Pat Cummins, Nathan Lyon fumbled and dropped the ball and Leach made it back to the crease. The very next ball, Lyon bowled from around the wicket and Stokes tried to slog sweep. He missed and the ball hit his pads and Australia appealed in the most dramatic fashion only to see a firm no from umpire, Joel Wilson, as he was unsure whether the ball straightened enough. Lyon was devastated. He held his head in his hands and rolled around in the pitch, desperate for a review. After checking with Hawk Eye, it is revealed that the ball did straighten enough. In fact, it hit middle stump.

Since Stokes faced the last ball of the previous over, Jack Leach is on strike and he faced Cummins again. A scared but hopeful Stokes was crouched at the other end of the crease, praying that his partner does not get out. Two balls are bowled and Leach survived them. He jabbed the third ball wildly and Stokes ran manically to make the scores level. Jack Leach had scored the most important test run in his career! And on the fourth ball of the one hundred and twenty-fifth over, Stokes whipped Cummins to the boundary and lead England to a completely unlikely victory and thereby proved to the world that the Ashes was indeed the pinnacle of test cricket.

If you still think that all the action for this series is over, the joke is on you. In the fourth test of the Ashes, Steve Smith came back in full glory to smash a colossal double century and lead his side to victory, which meant that Australia did not have to part with the prestigious Ashes Urn.

In a fiercely competitive fifth match, the Brits played to save face and draw the series. And draw they did, when they beat their rivals by a margin of 135 runs.

Now when I look back, the things that comes to mind are how I watched the third match, biting my nails, sitting at the very edge of my couch and my heart pounding in anticipation. that last four and Nasser Hussain’s fantastic commentary, “Cut away! Cut away for four! What an innings! What a player! Take a bow, Ben Stokes. The Ashes is well and truly alive because of one cricketer. And that cricketer is Benjamin Stokes.”

All I ask is this. Do you still think that test cricket is boring?

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I have to say that I absolutely loved to pen this piece. Whether it appeals to readers or not is secondary to me. This is because I was able to re-live all these amazing matches and watch it from the perspective of someone who is experiencing it for the first time. I just loved and cherished the two hours I put into looking up stats, watching old videos and reading other articles on the same topic. Even if it does not appeal to readers, I really hope that people start watching tests just to prove me wrong. Because if just watching highlights could bring me this much joy, imagine how excited I would have been to watch it live.