England have stored the Ashes collection alive after holding on to beat Australia by three wickets at Headingley.
In the newest thrilling chapter of this glorious collection, England denied an on-song Mitchell Starc to go to victory on the fourth afternoon in Leeds on Sunday.
Harry Brook was the house aspect’s star, hitting his solution to 75 earlier than being dismissed with 21 runs required and leaving Chris Woakes and Mark Wood to safe victory.
The end result leaves the collection scoreline 2-1 in Australia’s favour, with two Tests to play at Old Trafford and The Oval later this month.
But it solely got here after one other titanic Ashes tussle, as Starc threatened to bowl Australia to victory and their first collection win in England since 2001 with 5-78.
The left-armer first eliminated Ben Duckett and the elevated No.3 Moeen Ali to begin the day, earlier than respiratory life again within the contest after lunch.
When England regarded in management with 90 runs wanted and 6 wickets in hand, Starc strangled their miracle man Ben Stokes down legside on 13, having him caught behind.
Two overs later it was Jonny Bairstow who chopped on in opposition to Starc, because the English veteran’s underwhelming collection continued.
Another 80 runs had been required, with 4 wickets in hand.
Pat Cummins hit the shoulder of the bat twice in a single over, however each occasions the ball fell safely. Suddenly, the margin was right down to 60.
Then it bought to 40 runs, then 21 … however as has been the case all collection, there was one other sting within the tail.
Brook tried to upper-cut a brief ball from Starc, skied it, and Cummins took the excessive ball regardless of the bowler charging in to try to take the catch in a close to mix-up.
It was that type of day.
But for the primary time this summer time, England had been in a position to win the large moments.
When Brook perished, Wood top-edged Cummins for six to cut back the margin even additional and Woakes blazed Starc via the offside to complete off the chase.
But nonetheless, the hero was native man Brook, who grew up 25 kilometres down the street in close by Ilkley.
On a day when he introduced up the file for the quickest man to 1000 Test runs by way of balls confronted, Brook held his composure with some old school cricket.
He cover-drove supremely and put the strain again on Scott Boland when the often economical Victorian seamer veered on line and size.
His innings left Australia needing the type of miracle with the ball that Stokes had conjured up with the bat at Headingley in 2019.
One closing likelihood got here with 4 to win when Wood skied a ball to fly slip, however as a substitute of Boland operating in from the boundary, wicketkeeper Alex Carey charged again and simply missed out on taking it.
It wasn’t to be, and Australia should now wait one other 10 days to try to declare a drought-breaking collection victory in England.
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
