England v Australia 3rd Test

Sixty-seven all out

England went into the third Test of the 2019 Ashes one down, having lost the series opener at Edgbaston before the second Test at Lord's ended in a rain-affected draw, and at Headingley they were bowled out for 67 in their first innings, the lowest total of the whole series. Josh Hazlewood took 5 for 30 and Pat Cummins 3 for 23, and only Joe Denly, with 12, reached double figures among the top order; last man Stuart Broad was unbeaten on 4 when the innings ended. Australia, who had made 179 batting first on a green pitch, led by 112 on first innings, a lead that on that surface looked close to decisive.

Australia's own first innings had not been comfortable either. Jofra Archer took 6 for 45 as they were bowled out for 179, with only Marnus Labuschagne, on 74, and David Warner, on 61, getting past fifty. It was that sort of pitch: seam and bounce for everyone, wickets falling in clusters, no total feeling safe.

Ten wickets in twenty-eight overs

England's first innings lasted only 27.5 overs. Jason Roy was caught by David Warner in the slips off Josh Hazlewood for 9 in the fourth over, and Joe Root followed two overs later for a duck, also caught by Warner. Rory Burns held out longer, for 9 off 28 balls, before he was caught by the wicketkeeper Tim Paine, and when Ben Stokes himself was caught by Warner for just 8, England were 34 for 4 and the match already looked over. Joe Denly made 12, the top score of the innings, before he too was caught by Paine, and from 45 for 5 the last five wickets went down for 22 runs. Jonny Bairstow, Jos Buttler, Chris Woakes and Jofra Archer were all out cheaply, Tim Paine and David Warner finishing with four catches apiece, before Jack Leach was bowled to end the innings on 67.

It was the platform for everything that followed. A lead of 112 on a seaming pitch, after a top order had been skittled inside 28 overs, is normally the kind of position from which a side does not recover, and it is why the second-innings chase that followed reads as such an improbable reversal rather than a routine one.

A target of 359

Australia batted again and made 246, Marnus Labuschagne top-scoring with 80 before he was run out, and Ben Stokes took 3 for 56 to go with an earlier wicket in the first innings. That left England needing 359 to win, a total no side had ever chased successfully at Headingley, on a ground and in a match where 67 all out was the most recent evidence of what could happen to a top order under pressure. Josh Hazlewood did not add to his tally in that innings, but he would take 4 for 85 in England's second innings, finishing the match with nine wickets to go with his 5 for 30 in the first.

Root and Denly lay a base

England lost Rory Burns and Jason Roy cheaply again, but Joe Root, the captain, and Joe Denly put together the innings' first real partnership, 126 for the third wicket, before Denly fell for 50, caught off Hazlewood. Root carried on with Ben Stokes for a while before he too was out, for 77, caught off Nathan Lyon. It was solid rather than spectacular, the kind of stand that keeps a chase alive without settling it, and by the time both were gone England were still a long way short, with the middle and lower order still to come.

Stokes, alone

Jonny Bairstow made 36 before he too was out, caught off Hazlewood, and from there England's recognised batting was gone. What was left was Ben Stokes, and what followed was one of the most famous innings in the history of the Ashes. He built his innings in two distinct halves: watchful and risk-free while partners came and went at the other end, then, once last man Jack Leach arrived, ferociously attacking. He finished 135 not out from 219 balls, with 11 fours and 8 sixes, an innings that carried England from a hopeless position to within touching distance and then all the way home.

Leach and the last-wicket stand

Wickets kept falling around Stokes. Jofra Archer made 15 before he was caught off Lyon, and Stuart Broad fell for a duck at the same score two balls later, lbw to James Pattinson. That left England nine down, still 73 runs short, with only Jack Leach, the number eleven, left to bat. What the scorecard records is a last-wicket partnership of 76, unbroken, Leach contributing a single run from 17 deliveries while Stokes took the strike again and again, farming it in over after over, refusing to let the strike rotate away from him unless he judged it safe. It is one of the highest unbroken last-wicket stands to win a Test match.

The final overs

Australia had their chances. Lyon, bowling to Leach with the game there to be won, beat him and appealed for lbw; the on-field decision was not out, and Australia had no reviews left after Tim Paine had used their last one earlier in the innings on a Stokes lbw shout that replays showed would have stayed not out anyway. It became the most debated moment of the match, the review spent an over too soon. Stokes kept finding the boundary when Leach could not be exposed, and with the target reduced to almost nothing he swung Pat Cummins away to the fence to bring up an England win by one wicket, England 362 for 9 in reply to a target of 359.

What Headingley 2019 meant

England had been down 0-1 and staring at 2-0 with two Tests to play; instead the scores were level, and the series went to the final Test at The Oval still to be settled, Australia eventually retaining the Ashes by drawing that match. Stokes was named man of the match, adding a Headingley chase to the World Cup final he had helped win at Lord's earlier that same summer, and the innings is regularly ranked among the greatest in Test history by judges who have watched them all.

The full scorecard, innings by innings, is on this page, and you can follow both sides on the England and Australia team pages. In The Follow-On you can take either XI to Headingley and see whether you can find your own way out of 67 all out.

Sources

• CricArcade Test archive: the full scorecard, fall of wickets and partnerships on this page
• ESPNcricinfo: England v Australia, 3rd Test, Headingley, 2019, scorecard and report
• Wisden Cricketers' Almanack 2020: the Ashes of 2019