Ben Stokes failed to repeat his Headingley heroics, but Harry Brook and a couple of returning guns fill his shoes as England prevent Australia from winning the series with two games left.
- Daily wrap: Read the wrap of the day’s play and the live blog
- Scorecard: Check out the stats and full card from the third Test
Here are the five things you missed overnight as England won another thrilling Ashes Test in Leeds.
1. England shuffles the deck and comes up trumps
Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes’s revolution of the England team has, in this Ashes series, come to mean something akin to “swing wildly at everything and anything all of the time”.
Depending on who you ask, what time of day it is and whether Mercury is or isn’t in retrograde, so-called “Bazball” is any number of things, but part of it is going against accepted wisdom and playing the scenario in front of you.
The more sensible side of the approach was on display after Ben Duckett was sent on his way in the fifth over of the day.
Rather than the hard-hitting Harry Brook, who was controversially named at number three when Ollie Pope was ruled out with a shoulder injury, recalled veteran Moeen Ali strode out to the crease, with the situation calling for a more circumspect approach.
It didn’t work at all given Moeen was comprehensively bowled by Mitch Starc for 5, but the English weren’t finished there, injecting Australia’s boogeyman into the fray early.
Ben Stokes strolled out to the middle ahead of Jonny Bairstow, just 10 minutes before lunch, and you could feel every Australian sphincter tighten as he looked ready to dig in for another bout of heroics.
He couldn’t get it done this time, but the flip side of the elevations was the demotion down the order of Brook, who still has a strike rate over 95 at Test level.
Against the softer ball and tiring bowlers, he took over where Ali, Joe Root, Stokes and Bairstow couldn’t, effectively winning the match for England with his 75 off off 93 taking his side within 21 runs of the target.
2. Cummins has the wood on Root
For the third time in a row, Pat Cummins claimed the wicket of Joe Root to send a shiver of apprehension through the capacity crowd at Headingley.
Joe Root’s wicket is always a big one, but it seemed even more so as England chased a seemingly achievable target.
After all, Root had scored an unbeaten 86 as England successfully chased down 296 runs to beat New Zealand at this same ground last year.
He had not though, in truth, looked too comfortable on his home ground, but had made his way to 21 before being dismissed.
His dismissal left England 4-131, still 120 runs shy of victory and, frankly, teetering on the edge of their own belief.
It was not quite squeaky bum time, but not a done deal either.
3. Australia finally gets Stokes
Australia hasn’t proven great at getting Ben Stokes out in Test matches.
Four years ago at the same ground, in the last Test at Lord’s and in the first innings here, the bat of Stokes has been the pivot point on which the game has swung.
But then, something bizarre happened.
He got out. For 13.
And in the most innocuous fashion, getting a feather on a Starc full ball down the leg side through to Alex Carey.
Australia had defeated its Big Boss.
Of course it wasn’t a repeatable dismissal that Australia can lean on the next time they face a rampaging Stokes but, in that moment, that dismissal was the only thing that mattered to the entire Australian cricket scene.
4. Cummins holds on, but Carey can’t
After Stokes went out, England found a new hero in one of the diamonds uncovered during this Bazball era, Harry Brook.
The erratic ball striker looked a sure thing to steer his team home until he tried one too many flat-bat swats, sending a catch high in the air.
Pat Cummins was perfectly placed to take the catch as he steadied himself under ball at mid-off, but suddenly something came flashing in from his right.
Mitchell Starc’s desperation for the wicket carried him from his follow-through after the delivery and sent him clattering into his captain.
Cummins somehow clung to the catch and the pair shared a relieved and somewhat tense hug.
With England’s last recognised batter in the sheds, Australia had a shot at victory, even with only 20 runs to play with.
The final England chance was offered up with them four runs away from victory, when Mark Wood top-edged a hook shot and it sailed towards the boundary at fine third man.
Alas, Scott Boland at fine third man, perhaps so used to watching balls fly over the rope, did not move in with the bowler, nor towards the ball and wicketkeeper Alex Carey could not make up enough ground as he sprinted back with the flight and unleashed a final fruitless dive.
Three balls later, the game was over.
5. England’s reinforcements arrive
Mark Wood and Chris Woakes missed the first two Tests of the series as England fell behind 2-0 — and maybe their presence in London or Birmingham wouldn’t have made any difference.
Wood was working his way back from his myriad injuries, and Woakes would have likely been a bowling machine on the flat tracks at Edgbaston and Lord’s.
But they certainly made their presence felt on a proper cricket wicket at Headingley.
Wood’s rapid pace combined with accuracy and swing ran through Australia’s batting line-up in the first innings to the tune of 7-100 for the match, belted 24 important runs in England’s first innings and showed no fear when he strode out with 21 runs to win and only three English wickets left.
Woakes, meanwhile, was quietly brilliant in his first Test since March last year.
His accurate swing bowling in classic English conditions gave the Australian batters fits, finishing with 6-141 for the match, and his capable batting was possibly more important.
He hung with Harry Brook in a 59-run partnership for the seventh wicket in the run chase, and ultimately scored 32 vital runs, including the match-winning boundary to keep the series alive.
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