2019 Headingley Test: When Ben Stokes Led England To A Thrilling Victory In Ashes

The first match of the Ashes 2023 was a thriller that Australia won thanks to Cummins’ determination and grit. And it was a fitting payback or revenge for what happened back in 2019 at Headingley. One of the best Test matches of recent times has to be the Headingley Test match of the Ashes 2019. This Test match saw one of the most dramatic ends to an Ashes Test match. In this article, we go back in time and relive the moment when Ben Stokes led England to a thrilling victory in the 2019 Headingley Test.

2019 Headingley Test: Australia Set England a Target of 359

Coming into the final match of the Ashes 2019 played in England, Australia were leading 1-0 and looked on the verge of retaining the Ashes urn. Australia made a below-par total of 179 in the first innings, however, England underperformed even more as they got all-out for 67. And with that, England lost any hope of victory and drawing the Ashes. Australia bats again and with the help of Marnus Labuschagne’s 80 ends up with a decent total of 246. England had to chase down  359 runs in the end.

England’s Chase Begins

England’s chase gets off to a good start as Joe Root and Joe Denly build a partnership of 126 runs after losing 2 early wickets. Root gets out off Lyon after scoring 77 runs

England’s Batting Collapse

However, the 2 soon get out, and in walks the hero of this whole affair, Ben Stokes. Ben Stokes and Jonny Bairstow then try to stabilize the run-chase and take England to 245 when Bairstow gets out to Hazlewood. Bairstow walks back after scoring 36 runs

Then Jos Buttler gets run out and soon enough England have a collapse, from 245/5 they end up at 286/9. England still needed 76 runs and had just their last wicket left. Australia now needed just one more wicket to win the Ashes, but that wicket remained elusive. It was now up to Ben Stokes and Jack Leach to bring England home.

Ben Stokes On The Attack

Ben Stokes produced a masterclass of an innings, he hit sixes all around the ground and attacked all the Australian bowlers. While on the opposite end, Jack Leach who was the most vulnerable to the Australian bowling attack blocked each and every ball bowled to him to the cheer of the crowd.

Ben Stokes played the innings of his life, but it wasn’t test-match batting, he played T20-like shots like like reverse sweeping Lyon for a six!

Stokes reached his 8th Test Century when the team was still 33 runs away from the win, it was all up to him now to bring England home.

Lost Chances For Australia

Cummins was able to somehow get Stokes to edge a ball and it goes towards the fielder who drops it! The Australian team could have almost won the match but it wasn’t meant to be.

In fact, they had another chance, when Leach could have got easily run out but the ball slipped from Lyon’s hands and he missed the run-out.

Now with just 2 runs needed, Stokes was on strike and tries to reverse sweep the ball but misses. The ball hits his pads and there is a huge appeal from the Australian team for a LBW but it is not given. Australia cannot take DRS as they have run out of it and as replays show Stokes was in fact LBW but got saved by the umpire’s decision.

2019 Headingley Test: England Win The March By 1 Wicket!

With just 1 run to win, Stokes hits the ball for a four and finally wins the match for England.

The whole crowd erupts and Stokes celebrates in style. England somehow managed to steal the victory from the jaws of the Australian team.

Stokes with his amazing knock of 135* single-handedly won the 2019 Headingley Test for England. For his knock, Stokes won the BBC Sports Personality of the Year four months later and cemented himself into Ashes folklore.

With that we come to the end of this article, we hope in the ongoing Ashes 2023 we see some more spectacular performances like this one and some interesting nail-biting ends to matches. We hope you enjoyed reading this article and we will continue to bring you more content like this, till then adios!