Global Courant
On his 10th Test match, England player Harry Brook scored 75 off 93 balls with nine fours over Australia.
England secured another memorable win from Ashes at Headingley after Harry Brook helped set up a three-wicket win over Australia in the Third Test on Sunday to keep the five-match series alive.
Brook and Chris Woakes had shared a match-changing 59-run partnership for the seventh wicket on the fourth day before Brook was caught out on Mitchell Starc to make it an increasingly exciting end. England then stood at 230-7 in their second innings with a goal of 251.
Brook played his 10th Test match and scored 75 off 93 balls with nine fours. He hit with maturity and seemed ready to carry the load all the way to the final stretch before handing it over to Woakes and Mark Wood (16 not out), both of whom made emphatic first impressions in their belated introductions to the series.
Woakes (32 not out) hit the winning boundary – a cracking shot that sent the ball to the frenzied Western Terrace – late in the afternoon session against Starc as England finished 254-7.
“Another down-to-the-wire game so it’s nice to cross the line in this and of course keep our hopes alive,” said England captain Ben Stokes. “We got Woody and Woakesy back on the team and it’s great when you make decisions like that and they really impact the game.”
Wood took 5-34 and 2-66, while Woakes had a six-wicket match that included batsman Marnus Labuschagne in the first innings and Usman Khawaja in the second.
Australia lead 2-1 with the Fourth Test at Old Trafford starting on July 19.
By lunchtime, England had moved to 153-4 and within 98 runs of its target, four years after a famous Stokes-inspired win at the same venue.
But the game swung Australia’s side shortly after the break as Stokes trailed just 13 and Jonny Bairstow (5) was bowled – both against Starc, who finished 5-78.
Stokes’ dismissal was a soft notch down the leg side, robbing the hosts of their inspirational captain and the architect of their 2019 Ashes marvel.
Stokes hit 135 not out at Headingley to give England a one-wicket victory in the Third Test of the 2019 edition of the Ashes.
England have chased four larger numbers in the “Bazball” era, including 296 on the same ground last year, but to keep their hopes of reclaiming the urn alive, this is probably their most satisfying chase to date.
After squandering promising positions at Edgbaston and Lord’s, England are finally on the board and will take on new faith in the remaining clashes at Old Trafford and the Oval.
Asked where the latest Ashes thriller had turned against his team, Australian captain Pat Cummins said: “I think there were a few moments that went back and forth, pretty much every day. Day one we lost six for 20-odd , yesterday the sun was shining and we probably missed an opportunity, just a few key moments.”
