Australia acknowledge they need to discover a method to shut down Ben Stokes in an effort to wrap up their first Ashes sequence victory in England in 22 years.
Stokes once more confirmed at Headingley why he’s probably the most harmful man in English cricket on Friday, together with his first-innings 80 preserving the hosts within the third Take a look at.
Battling hip and knee accidents, Stokes bludgeoned 53 runs off 41 balls after lunch on day two to cut back England’s first-innings deficit to 26 when the captain was final man out.
Buoyed by Stokes’ efforts, England fought additional again into the match with the ball to have Australia 4-116 at stumps and trailing by 142 runs.
It was on this corresponding match 4 years in the past that Stokes made his match-winning 135.
However his ongoing risk is arguably extra regarding for Australia on this sequence.
After a uncommon failure within the first Take a look at at Edgbaston, it took a superb Mitchell Starc outswinger to dismiss Stokes within the first innings at Lord’s for 17.
Stokes then responded by nearly hitting England residence with 155 within the second innings, earlier than Friday’s highly effective knock at Leeds.
Australia have toyed with sending all males out on the boundary for Stokes, whereas additionally trying to make him hit to deeper pockets within the floor.
However the shorter boundaries at Headingley make that troublesome, significantly when the left-hander is batting with the tail and in all-out aggression mode.
Stokes’ innings on Friday additionally got here as England’s Bazball batting unravelled round him, with Pat Cummins taking 6-91 for Australia.
“Ben Stokes is an unbelievable chief and we’ve got an unbelievable one in Pat Cummins too,” Australia coach Andrew McDonald stated.
“We have now to work out a method to navigate via Ben Stokes within the second innings and Pat immediately was excellent.
“That one-on-one showdown is a should watch.”
Friday’s knock got here with Stokes in apparent ache, twice needing medical help on the sphere and a minimum of as soon as receiving treatment.
However England know the affect of what even a half-fit skipper has on their facet and the opposition, as Australia goal to set a fourth-innings goal of past 300 runs.
“He’s the one participant on the planet that everyone can be pondering (we will chase something) in that state of affairs,” teammate Moeen Ali stated.
“Particularly towards Australia as a result of he has achieved it a few occasions now.
“White ball, crimson ball, no matter it’s, so long as he is there you’ve got received an ideal likelihood of successful
“It is troublesome, there’s a lot he is coping with. After I was batting he was a bit of bit sore. There’s much more than he is exhibiting.”
