Inside the crazy final hour at Headingley

The first hint that Ben Stokes was about to embark on what many will argue was the greatest innings Test cricket has hosted came just before 3.15pm on a sunny Sunday afternoon.

Stuart Broad had just been sent back for a second-ball duck, and so bereft of hope was England – still 73 runs away from the unprecedented win that would keep them in the Ashes series – Broad chose to review that decision.

Perhaps he thought he had jabbed the toe of his bat upon James Pattinson's searing yorker, or hoped for a miracle in the form of an undetected no-ball, but instead the technology confirmed it hitting off stump, about a quarter of the way up.

Through the gate and into the glaring sun stumbled Jack Leach, fresh from a knock of 92 that earned him player of the match against Ireland last month but even fresher from having his leg stump uprooted for one two days earlier.

Stokes contemplated his bespectacled batting partner as the Headingley crowd rose to exhort one final, seemingly pointless dash at victory, and made a decision that will echo through history.

"I knew what I had to do, in terms of the game situation," Stokes revealed at day's end.

At that moment, Australia justifiably felt the game was virtually in their grip.

No England team had previously chased down 359 in the fourth innings to win a Test match.

No England team had put together a last-wicket partnership greater than 39 to win an Ashes Test (and that happened more than 110 years ago).

And no team this century, among all Test nations, had won a game after being bowled out for 67 (or less) in their first innings, as England had so ignominiously managed on day one.

But few teams boast a player as fearlessly combative and sublimely skilled as Stokes, which was why – according to England captain Joe Root – most of the faith that had not already evaporated in the 30C Leeds heat was residing in the home team's dressing room.

"We were trying to work out how Ben was going to play," Root said of that moment when Stokes and Leach met for a brief mid-pitch chat.

"We basically got to a point where we were like 'it doesn't matter, as long as he trusts his instincts, we've got a chance'."

Within an over, that plan was revealed.

Stokes was facing Nathan Lyon – who earlier in the day had taken his 356th wicket to formally claim the mantle of Australia's third-greatest Test bowler – operating around the wicket and pitching the ball into some menacing footmarks outside the left-hander's off-stump.

Stokes planted his front foot down the pitch and swung his massive bat in an arc that followed Lyon's projected turn and, even though there was a fielder stationed on the rope at long-off, it cleared him to register six.

The target was 67. And the die was cast.

Stokes then deftly dabbed Lyon's final delivery for a single, saw off an over of James Pattinson thunderbolts that hit the bat so hard he was forced to call for a replacement, and redoubled his attack on the spinner by clubbing him once more over the head of Josh Hazlewood at long-off.

Four balls later, and clearly having decided he would go down swinging at everything, he flipped to full one-day mode and reverse swept Lyon over the fence at deep backward point (or square leg, as it had become), falling sideways on to the pitch after making sweet contact.

"I knew the tactic that Nathan Lyon was trying to bowl to me at," Stokes later revealed.

"He was trying to hit the rough and make it really hard for me to get underneath and try and hit them.

"It was spinning quite a lot, so I thought that was one of only two options I had in terms of trying to hit a boundary."

By that stage, and sensing the danger Stokes posed in such a remorseless mood, Paine had moved all but one of his fielders to positions on the rope when Stokes was on strike.

Stokes knew that trying to execute a conventional sweep against Lyon was likely to yield a top edge and a lost Test match, so he opted for innovation.

But the message it sent clearly to the fans, who by now were out of their seats with the victory mark at 50, and to the increasingly uneasy Australians on the field was that Stokes firmly believed England could win.

And that he had the strategy and the skills to get them there.

Even though the sight of almost all the Australia team scattered to the playing field's perimeter suggested their anxiety was trending towards fear, Paine maintained it was not a sign of panic.

"If we didn't, it probably would have finished a lot earlier, the way he (Stokes) was hitting them, to be honest," Paine said of the tactics on Sunday evening.

"It is a really difficult time to captain, I don't think anyone has done it perfectly – I certainly didn't.

"But when a guy is going like that, you bring the field up and he's hitting them for four or six anyway.

"What I probably would like to have done is more talk to the bowlers about their mindset.

"At times when the field gets spread they go a bit defensive.

"I still want our bowlers to be running in thinking about getting them out, regardless of the field."

Even on the rare moments that Stokes erred, such as when he pushed the ball into the deep but timed it too well to get back for a second run, Leach played his part by staunchly defending and ducking until over's end.

Fuelled by adrenaline and the delirium of the sun struck, awestruck crowd, Stokes pulled out more party tricks.

Image Id: F618BAD09EB74C009177FEF1B08642E7 Image Caption: Ben Stokes keeps his century 'celebration' low key // Getty

A failed attempt at a ramp shot against Cummins (who had replaced the under-siege Lyon) was followed immediately by a second, improved, effort that flew to fine leg for six.

When Hazlewood was brought back to relieve Pattinson, he was welcomed by a sledgehammer blow through mid-on that beat the scampering outfielders, and then consecutive leg-side heaves that cleared them.

In the midst of that onslaught, Stokes reached his second century of this Ashes series and the eighth of his 55-Test career, though it was not immediately obvious given his refusal to outwardly acknowledge the milestone.

"I looked at the bigger picture," he said, explaining his lack of emotion that contrasted sharply with his celebration of a ton at Lord's a week earlier.

"Personal milestones, especially in that situation, mean absolutely nothing.

"There was still a lot more runs to get. I was not bothered about how many runs I was on, it was all about making sure we got over the line."

By this time, news of Stokes's barely believable victory push had captivated the nation.

Play was paused in the T20 match between Hampshire and Essex at Southampton so that players and the public could, instead, turn their focus to events unfolding at Headingley.

In three overs of controlled carnage, England's victory target had been shaved from 50 to 19, and in the gladiatorial atmosphere the heat was taking its toll.

After just one over from Cummins, the world's top-ranked Test bowler, Paine reverted once more to Lyon.

That was when Stokes felt his first pangs of stress.

"I think that was a very, very good piece of captaincy from Tim Paine to be fair," Stokes acknowledged.

"Obviously everybody was out on the boundary, it was a pitch that was very helpful for spin bowling, and I was trying to attack the first half of every over when Jack (Leach) came in.

"I would much rather have been facing one of the seam bowlers than Nathan Lyon at that point, and I wasn't quite sure whether to keep on going like I was, or to try and win it in ones and twos.

"But then I thought 'well I've got us to this point by playing a certain way, so I'm just going to keep on going'."

In the England dressing room, the faith that had been collectively placed in Stokes's unflappable temperament and his unbending self-belief was being tested.

"The emotions in the dressing room were all over the place for a long period of time," Root revealed.

"Jos (Buttler) had a shirt half-on and half-off at one stage, I don't think he really wanted to watch.

"At one point, Jos was covering his ears because Stuart (Broad) was shouting, 'He's gone for six, he's gone for six'.

But Stokes knew precisely what he was doing.

So clean was his ball striking and so clear was his mind that he decided it would be Cummins, brought on to replace Hazlewood after his blow-out over, who would cop the full brunt given his uncertainties against Lyon.

He cleared his front leg and sliced the first ball to third man where Marcus Harris hared in from the rope and managed to get his fingers underneath the chance as it dived, only for it to spill out.

Clearly, this was Stokes's afternoon, just as the World Cup final had been five weeks earlier and he set himself for the last shootout.

A pull to deep mid-wicket sent Warner sprawling along the rope in futility; the next ball was muscled to long-on where Hazlewood's desperate dive was similarly in vain.

Fielders were falling like nine pins all around the edge as Stokes stood and spun and showered sparks like a Catherine wheel.

The target was whittled to nine.

Somehow, remarkably, he was nailing gaps despite the ferocity with which he was heaving, and even the slight mis-hits that occasionally ensued carried sufficient force to reach the rope or, a couple of times, clear it.

"I had to make sure that I picked the right ball, and make sure that I committed to what I did," Stokes said.

"I got my pitching wedge distance quite good on a few occasions today."

Then, with eight runs to win and Lyon beginning his 39th over, Stokes suffered an attack of nerves to go with the cramps taking hold in his forearms and legs.

A mis-hit cut shot brought an instinctive throw-back of the head in exasperation and, two balls later, a rush of blood.

Stokes once more took on the boundary at long-off where Marnus Labuschagne had replaced the rangy Hazlewood, and the smaller fielder was able only to get his fingertips to the chance as it cleared the rope for six.

With two needed, and the improbable now the almost certain, Stokes tried another reverse sweep that rifled directly to Cummins at backward point, and when he looked up he saw Leach steaming towards him, hellbent on a single.

"I think Jack Leach must somehow have been watching Monty Panesar at Cardiff (in 2009)," Stokes said, the mere mention of that moment forcing him to cover his face with his hands even 90 minutes after the Test had ended.

"I could not believe when I looked up – me and Leachy could have had a conversation he was that close to me.

"He said he later he thought I was coming down, but I said, 'mate, I was nowhere near running'.

"That was huge panic stations there because he was so far out."

As history will continue to cruelly remind Lyon, just as Michael Kasprowicz has relived his gloved catch at Edgbaston in 2005 a thousand times over, Cummins' deliberately gentle throw bobbled from the spinner's frantic fingers.

Image Id: D964FD12C3B14B3FAFF9763155DCF6AA Image Caption: Lyon fumbles a chance run out England's No.11 // Getty

Stokes was magnanimous post-match, noting that the usually sure-handed Lyon would complete that run out nine times out of 10, but under such pressure and scrutiny, the smallest mis-steps are magnified.

Root, barely able to watch from the England dressing room, admits he envisaged the 1999 World Cup semi-final at Edgbaston where Allan Donald's similarly inexplicable run-out remains an albatross around South Africa's neck.

"It just shows what pressure can do to people, or how people react in certain situations," Root said.

"But whenever you find yourself in those situations in big moments and big games you need luck on your side."

The last, decisive slice of fortune fitted into place with Lyon's next delivery.

Having somehow regained sufficient composure to land a pin-point off-break near Stokes's front foot, Lyon got the ball past the sweep shot that might have brought the two runs needed to win and Stokes was struck low on the pad in front of his stumps.

But for reasons only umpire Joel Wilson will only ever really know, Lyon's agonized, beseeching appeal that ended with him lying flat on his back on the pitch was turned down.

Image Id: 2B71D5DCBCE84366804B8676E6348900 Image Caption: Lyon collapses as an lbw appeal is turned down // Getty

And having burned their final DRS review in Cummins' previous over, when Paine conceded the pair essentially guessed in the hope of sneaking a wicket, Australia had no access to the mechanism that would have confirmed Stokes was out, and handed a one-run win to Australia.

Had Wilson given it out, Stokes would have immediately reviewed the verdict and clearly would have been incensed at the outcome.

"I have seen the DRS on my lbw shout, which obviously shows up with three red (lights), but DRS has got that completely wrong as it flicked my front pad first and didn't spin," Stokes said emphatically at game's end.

"It shows how crucial it is to make sure you use your reviews.

"When you get to a situation like that, you still need one.

"If they (Australia) had one, they would have used it and ended up winning.

"I still cannot believe it was three reds.

"I thought, as soon as it hit me, that it was sliding down leg because there was no spin."

Image Id: E26C4C4E40ED4CC09DCE7E24D7796D19 Image Caption: The ball tracking on Lyon's appeal that was turned down // Sky Sports

As it transpired, it was just another item added to the overflowing 'what if' file within the space of a couple of deliveries.

After an hour at the crease, and having called for a cloth to de-fog his glasses before Cummins began what would prove the final over, Leach scored his first, his only run by tucking the world's best bowler off his hip behind square leg.

"Those will be the most important balls Jack Leach will ever face in his Test career," Stokes said.

"And the best 'one' he's ever got in his career."

Next ball, it was over as Stokes punched a back-foot drive through the ring of fielders brought in from the boundary in the vain hope that another Allan Donald moment might materialise.

But that chance had been and squandered, and the unthinkable Test win of an hour earlier had become the greatest Ashes Test of recent times; perhaps the most dramatic ever.

Stokes, who had already stamped his mark on the match by bowling 24 overs virtually unchanged across Friday and Saturday, revealed that his preparation for the most famous of innings had been a room service pasta meal accompanied by a couple of raisin and biscuit chocolate bars.

Followed by several strong coffees on Sunday morning.

However, the recipe he took with him to the middle as England prayed for, then pondered and finally produced a most extraordinary win reveals much about the man currently living every aspiring young boy and girl cricketer's fantasy summer.

"Whatever the stage of the game is, whether it's with bat or ball, the team that I play for or I'm representing is going to get everything from me," Stokes said.

"I really enjoy being the person that Joe (Root) turns to in situations when it isn't going our way.

"I like to stand up and not do the easy things all the time. To do the hard yards as well."

It's difficult to imagine harder yards than those he covered in a single bound during a crazy hour at Headingley on Sunday.

But as Root acknowledged when asked if he agreed with recent descriptions as 'super human': "I think that sums it up perfectly."

"He's a bit of a freak."

2019 Qantas Ashes Tour of England

Australia squad: Tim Paine (c), Cameron Bancroft, Pat Cummins, Marcus Harris, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Marsh, Michael Neser, James Pattinson, Peter Siddle, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Matthew Wade, David Warner.

England squad: Joe Root (c), Moeen Ali, Jimmy Anderson, Jofra Archer, Jonny Bairstow, Stuart Broad, Rory Burns, Jos Buttler, Sam Curran, Joe Denly, Jason Roy, Ben Stokes (vc), Olly Stone, Chris Woakes.

First Test: Australia won by 251 runs at Edgbaston

Second Test: Match drawn at Lord's

Third Test: England won by one wicket at Headingley

Tour match: Australians v Derbyshire, August 29-31

Fourth Test: September 4-8, Old Trafford

Fifth Test: September 12-16, The Oval