During the final session of a day that had earlier been marked by the home team’s historic short-ball strategy, which at times paid off but ultimately appeared to have no impact on the result, Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins brought Australia within striking distance of a 2-0 Ashes lead as they cut through England’s top order.
Given England’s recent history of chases, which includes one of 378 against India last summer, they had a glimmer of hope with a target of 371 in four seasons as Australia dodged and swayed away from bouncer after bouncer for portions of the fourth day, but overall they lost 8 for 92.
Those expectations were dashed, however, by the brilliance of Starc and Cummins, who left them 45 for 4, and by Nathan Lyon’s unavailability, who had shockingly come to bat at No. 11 and was probably of little consequence.
Ben Duckett attempted an uppercut, which Starc brilliantly caught at fine leg just before the end of the innings to give Australia what looked like a five-run margin. However, the third umpire declared the catch wasn’t clean because the ball scraped over the outfield, much to Australia’s surprise and dismay.
As Zak Crawley shot Starc down the leg side, the opening wicket of England’s innings was not very noteworthy. However, Starc was getting movement with the new ball and unleashed a magnificent delivery that clattered middle stump into Ollie Pope after coming back into play sharply.
After roughing up Joe Root with a ball that smacked his forearm before forcing him to deflect to slip, Cummins, who is no stranger to producing viral Ashes moments, may have produced the series’ first over. He then delivered a ball to remove Harry Brook’s off stump that was identical to the one Joe Root received at Old Trafford in 2019.
Australia was two wickets away from England’s bowlers, and there was a chance the game might end quickly, but Ben Stokes and Duckett made a 69-run stand to ensure that there would be room for a few more mentions of Headingley even though the task of 257 more runs remained enormous with a long tail. This was Stokes’ second half-century of the match.
When play started, England cautiously attempted to find the outside edge but quickly turned to short-pitched bowling and essentially did not depart from it until Australia was all out. In the ball-by-ball database of reporters dating back to 2015, the two sessions on the fourth day have the most brief deliveries. 98% of England’s bowling in the second session had an eight-metre pitch or shorter, according to TV graphics.
However, wickets did start to fall. It was a slow-burning strategy that sparked much discussion, especially in light of England’s earlier declarations of entertainment. Usman Khawaja’s excellent inning, which brought him to 300 runs for the series, concluded with a top edge to long leg, which marked the beginning of the incident.
James Anderson dropped Travis Head at backward point before he could score, which was his second miss of the game, and Steven Smith top-edged the next ball to deep square leg during the next chaotic time. Soon after, Head deflected a catch to short leg that was expertly taken by Root as Australia lost 3 for 10, giving England some life.
Even though Australia had a significant lead the entire time, Cameron Green and Alex Carey played cautiously up until lunchtime before the game virtually came to a standstill in the afternoon session. Although Green was struck on the helmet badge by Stokes and pushed Robinson to deep square leg shortly after, the pair generally had little issue dodging the short deliveries. This was despite a 13-over post-lunch spell that produced 17 runs.
Before his batting heroics, Stokes was in the midst of one of the illustrious long stretches that have dot his Test career—the most notable one taking place at Headingley in 2019. It is unclear if this attitude was wise given the condition of his knee, and when he later batted, he was visibly grinning at the crease.
But as wickets dropped at the other end, he undoubtedly contributed to England’s success. Robinson finished with a session of 9-6-7-2 after Carey and another player bunted a catch to short leg, and Cummins fended to gully after being awarded a life when Stokes overstepped.
Josh Hazlewood’s turn of the ball to short leg gave Stokes his first wicket, but the innings’ quirks were far from over. Inability to employ a runner due to ICC rules, Lyon walked to the middle of the field while limping down the pavilion stairs on a badly injured calf that will undoubtedly keep him out of the remainder of the series. He assisted Starc in adding 15 runs despite barely being able to stand or move and himself only managing one pulled boundary.
Australia may have believed they needed every run they could get, but because to their opening pair’s new-ball surges, it will take an unusual turn of events for this match to come down to such narrow margins.