Leaning back, arms raised, roaring in ecstasy, with thousands of adoring onlookers going berserk in the stands behind him.
Ben Stokes’ celebration during the final moments of the 2019 Headingley Test has become one of cricket’s most iconic images, emblazoned on the front page of every newspaper in the United Kingdom the following morning.
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The English all-rounder, having completed one of Test cricket’s most dramatic wins, had single-handedly denied the Australians what appeared to be a comfortable victory at the Leeds venue.
The hosts reeled in a 359-run target, at the time the nation’s highest successful run chase in Test history, with Stokes finishing unbeaten on 135, having clobbered 74 runs from 42 balls during an unbroken 76-run partnership alongside tailender Jack Leach.
The Ashes series was alive – and it was all thanks to one man.
Two days earlier, England had been rolled for 67 in 27.5 overs, with Joe Denly the only player capable of reaching double figures, top-scoring with 12. Having won the first Test and drawn the second, Australia was leading the five-match series 1-0, one victory away from retaining the coveted urn, a feat not achieved in the United Kingdom in 18 years.
England’s middle order fought valiantly in the fourth innings, at one stage recovering from 4-159, but Joe Root’s men still needed 73 runs when the spectacled No. 11 Leach joined Stokes in the middle. The Australians could taste victory.
“This was an unwinnable game,” former Australian spinner Kerry O’Keeffe reflected.
Running out of partners, Stokes switched gears after Leach walked out to bat; having managed two runs from his first 66 deliveries at the crease, the New Zealand-born redhead commenced an ambitious counterattack, slapping a flurry of boundaries against Australia’s fatigued bowlers, including a remarkable switch-hit against spinner Nathan Lyon that landed in the Western Terrace.
The left-hander farmed the strike by pinching singles on the final delivery of each over, keeping his vulnerable partner safe at the non-striker’s end. Up in the Australian dugout, agitated coach Justin Langer fumed as captain Tim Paine neglected to bring the fielders in to deny the regulation singles.
Stokes brought up his century by smacking Josh Hazlewood through long-on for a commanding boundary, but he wasn’t interested in celebrating the milestone, or even acknowledging the Headingley crowd, which had risen to its feet. The job was far from over.
“When you’re out there and you know what’s on the line, adrenaline keeps you going,” Stokes later explained.
“I never gave up.”
Hazlewood’s next delivery was a low full toss, which Stokes slapped into the crowd, while the following ball also sailed over the boundary rope.
The Englishman was calm, determined, clinical; the Australians were scrambled.
“Stokes was having one of those days where everything he seemed to hit was either going for a boundary, six or landing in a gap,” Lyon later recalled.
“It was just unbelievable.”
Former England captain Michael Vaughan added: “He has just got this amazing ability to crack open again a game, whether it’s with a bat in hand or a ball in hand.
“He is as calm a batsman as I’ve ever seen.”
Between overs, Leach would remove his helmet and mop the condensation off his glasses with a cloth, fuelling Australia’s frustration.
With 17 runs required, Stokes finally made a mistake. Facing Pat Cummins, he top-edged a lofted cut stroke towards deep point, where Marcus Harris steamed in from the boundary rope.
The Victorian dived and got his hands to the ball, but when his elbow struck the turf, it bobbled out of his grasp and onto the grass. Stokes survived.
“I’ve just dropped the Ashes,” Harris said of the moment on Amazon docuseries The Test.
“That’s the worst feeling I’ve ever had.”
With eight runs required, Cummins half-heartedly appealed for an LBW chance against Leach, who was still yet to score, knowing the ball had pitched comfortably outside leg stump. The desperate Paine sent the decision upstairs anyway, an ambitious Hail Mary that ultimately backfired, with the Australians losing their last unsuccessful review.
“It was the worst review,” Australian opener Usman Khawaja groaned.
At the other end, Stokes slapped Lyon down the ground for another six, his eighth of the innings, with a tough chance bursting through Marnus Labuschagne’s fingertips at long-off. Now just two runs required.
But the drama was far from over.
Two deliveries later, Stokes attempted a reverse sweep that picked out Cummins at short third man, ball-watching as a panicked Leach sprinted through for a suicidal single. Suddenly, both batters were stranded at the same end, with Cummins delicately throwing the ball towards Lyon at the non-striker’s stumps.
But the Australian tweaker, already positioning himself to whip off the bails, failed to grasp the ball, which instead thudded into his chest, allowing Leach to return to safety.
“I just took my eye off the ball,” Lyon recalled in 2020, adding it was the second-worst moment of his playing career behind the death of Phil Hughes.
“We all make mistakes, the big difference is 25 million people or more were watching my mistake over and over and over. It wasn’t pleasing.”
Khawaja added: “I’ve never seen Gaz drop a ball like that in my life. He’s actually got every good hands.”
Stokes dropped to his haunches in disbelief, as did half of the Australians, while guttural groans echoed around the venue. Apropos of nothing, Herschelle Gibbs’ infamous dropped catch during the 1999 World Cup, coincidentally, occurred at the same venue.
“Nine times out of ten, Nathan Lyon would pick that ball up and take the stumps off,” Stokes later lamented.
“Players are under such pressure in crucial moments, especially at the highest level with what is on the line.”
As captured by cameraman Andre Mauger, Langer jumped out of his seat following Lyon’s fumble and kicked over a rubbish bin, which toppled down a nearby set of stairs. Like a punished schoolboy, the Australian coach sheepishly picked each of the water bottles and coffee cups off the floor, chucking them in the trash can he had dented a few moments earlier.
The following delivery, Stokes attempted a regulation sweep, but missed the ball, prompting the elated Lyon to spin around and drop onto one knee, appealing for a match-winning LBW.
But umpire Joel Wilson, incorrectly, shook his head, deeming the ball was sliding down leg. A dejected Lyon collapsed onto his backside, lying on the pitch with his feet in the air, his chance at redemption gone.
“I’ve never appealed so much to end up on my back on the middle of the wicket,” Lyon continued.
“I could not believe it. It just looked completely dead.
“Joel just stood there like a statue … he didn’t get a Christmas card that year.”
Ball-tracking technology later proved Wilson’s error, while Paine was left to rue his wasted review from earlier.
“We’ve run out of reviews because of stupidity,” Australian cricket icon Allan Border said at the time.
“It’s come back to bite us badly.”
A couple of minutes later, Leach successfully nudged a delivery from Cummins into a vacancy at square leg, scampering through for a single, his first run of the innings.
Scores were tied. England couldn’t lose.
“Jack has got some serious bollocks,” Stokes quipped after the match.
O’Keeffe laughed: “He’ll get an MBE for 1 not out!”
Stokes thumped a wide half-tracker from Cummins through the covers to seal the remarkable victory, ending one of the greatest Ashes performances of the modern era. Having a couple of months earlier helped England win its maiden World Cup title, he had cemented his legacy as a national hero.
It was the innings of his lifetime – and perhaps for everyone else in attendance at Headingley that sunny Sunday afternoon.
“It has to be right up there with the greatest English Test innings,” former captain Michael Atherton said.
“It was a combination of all kinds of things: craft, skill, versatility, and most of all an over-my-dead-body attitude.”
Australian legend Ricky Ponting added: “I’m not sure I’ve ever seen anything better than that on a Test ground.”
Paine had to haul a devastated Lyon off the ground, while rival captain Root struggled to articulate his feelings during the post-match presentation.
“To try to sum Ben’s innings up in words is impossible,” Root declared.
“Outrageous batting, it really was. To be able to stay so calm and calculating was incredible. It’s a fabulous lesson that you should never give up.”
Even the humiliated Paine could appreciate the bigger picture.
“We finished up on the wrong side of it but in terms of an advertisement for Test cricket, I think that was bloody exciting,” he said during the post-match press conference.
“It was great to be involved in so I can only imagine what it was like to watch.”
Later that day, former Australian captain Steve Waugh sent Lyon a text message that read, “You don’t know how lucky you are. You’re going to make tens of thousands of dollars going around doing guest speaking all around England after dropping that run-out.”
Waugh’s text helped soften the blow.
“I think we played in one of the best Test matches to ever be played, so that’s one positive out of it,” Lyon said.
“You’ve got to take your hat off and say, ‘Well played, Ben Stokes’.”
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