The Twelfth Man 2020

wicket down late on the third day he was absolutely focused on getting the 359 runs that England needed to win and to be there at the very end. His motivation for this, as revealed in his book On Fire , was to be able to shake hands as victor at the close with Australian David Warner who had reverted to type with his belligerent, goading sledging during the first innings. Moreover, Stokes had total faith in his ability to do so. At close on the Saturday he had scored 2 runs off 70 balls but no mat- ter - with two full days to go the only thing that mattered was occupation of the crease. Resuming on Sunday, and against a determined attack, he maintained the same approach until, after Root’s dismissal, he was joined by Jonny Bairstow. Either side of lunch they put on 86 runs from just under 22 overs but an injudicious shot by the Yorkshireman led on to a calamitous run-out with Joe Buttler. Then the quick loss of Woakes, Archer and Broad meant all that early painstaking endeavour was now in peril. With last man Jack Leach at the crease the dynamic was completely altered. Immediately, instead of runs scored and balls faced being an irrelevance, every ball was a peril and the longer it took to get the 73 runs needed the more chance of Australia snaffling the last wicket. All-out attack was now the name of the game. Farming the strike well, Stokes began hitting out, but always with carefully controlled aggression. As the runs needed came down, Australia were the ones most under pressure, whereas Stokes seemed, for the most part, to be in control. Boundaries began to flow as did some well-hit sixes. Stokes’ century off 199 balls seemed almost a footnote along the way, so little emotion did he show before re-focusing on the much bigger prize. There were some scares for sure, but when Australia wasted a review for lbw against Leach and Nathan Lyon fluffed an almost certain run-out it was obvious where the real pressure lay. And finally, with the scores level, Stokes smote Cummins through the covers for 4 to conclude a gripping match and a truly unbelievable innings. Rating: Botham 7 - buccaneering bravado combined with sheer strength and opportunism Stokes 10 - solid determination, well calibrated throughout and carried the team over the line The context of the match The Botham innings undoubtedly turned the match on its head. At the end of play on Saturday England were staring at almost certain defeat, as evidenced by two legendary stories. Firstly, the England players checked out of their Leeds hotel on the Monday morning. Secondly, the bookmaker Ladbrokes offered odds of 500-1 on an England win, which came up on the new electronic scoreboard just after 5pm on the Saturday. Seem- ingly, one of the scoreboard operators returning to his post had seen the odds as he passed the betting tent that stood between the football stand and the Western Terrace and thought it wor- thy of reaching a wider audience. When play ended abruptly in bad light England, following on, were 6 for 1 with Gooch out. By the end of Monday, England, thanks to Botham and his tail-end support, had a lead of 124; an unexpected situation but hardly one that seemed enough to secure a win. The next morning added only 5 more runs before Willis was out, setting Australia just 130 to win. However, by itself, Botham’s innings was not enough. It would take Bob Willis’ super-human performance of 8 for 43 to deny Australia the win. Seemingly in a trance he came down the hill from the Kirkstall Lane end to dismiss all the Australian side save for Chappell, who fell to Botham, and Features