England level the Ashes with incredible win against Australia.

England level the Ashes with incredible win against Australia.

Wow! If only every cricket match could be like this. How honoured and privileged we'd be. The irony of course is that the last time an England cricket side managed to claw their way back into an Ashes Test Match the venue was Headingley and the good folk of Yorkshire did it again for England in a way that has now become almost customary. As will now be constantly repeated throughout the ages, for 1981 Ian Botham read 2019 and the even more remarkable Ben Stokes on 135 not out. Stokes it was who would receive the match winning garlands. Some will insist that Stokes should be bestowed with the freedom of Yorkshire.

Undoubtedly and most deservedly the man of hour, even month and quite definitely the man of the year, Ben Stokes, ginger hair bristling and eyes blazing, punched the air ecstatically. He then threw caution to the wind, leaping up and down like a child on Christmas Day and then trying to take in the sheer incredulity of the moment, and the breathtaking climax to the game. There was a sudden realisation  that here was a man who was destined to be one of England's finest all rounders in that summer game of cricket. Surely no greater accolade could be extended to one man of sport.

So here we were on the grandest of all occasions. Two Ashes adversaries were gritting each other's teeth, snarling and sneeringly menacingly, with one in the hot seat and the other in an even hotter. England had tumbled out dreadfully and meekly as if convinced that there was no point in continuing with the game. They were all out for 67 after the Australians had more or less let them off the hook with a meagre total of 179.

Then Australia exploded out of the blocks in their second innings building the kind of mammoth total that looked for all the world would prove unassailable. This would not be quite the formidable score that some Australians would have been pleased with and there was a sense that maybe a missed opportunity would be their ultimate undoing. But on 246 they must have thought that England would perhaps find themselves slightly unsettled by the big occasion. When England collapsed quite compliantly with a sorrowfully pathetic 67 all out, Australian hands were rubbed together and Headingley feared the worst.

But then came the heroic, the courageous, the defiant and daring Ben Stokes, a man seemingly for all seasons. While all around him quite literally fell to the ground like blood stained soldiers on a battlefield, Stokes of course kept his cool. a figure of bravery, red blooded, doughty indestructibility, utterly fearless, powerful, round shouldered and punishing every loose ball with an artillery of sixes that flew over the Headingley boundary like one of those predatory gulls waiting to be fed their evening meal.

And yet it all started so unpromisingly and potentially disastrously. England began like the shy, nervous teenager at a school disco. Joe Root seemed to have a healthy appetite for the fight but then tickled fatefully down the leg side and was caught out by David Warner for a worthy 77. Then the hometown favourite Jonny Bairstow came stomping out of the pavilion rather like his predecessor Geoff Boycott 38 years ago when the chips were down, the pies were beginning to lose their taste and England were clinging onto dear life

Bairstow started swinging the bat joyfully, straight driving the ball down the ground handsomely, slogsweeping wildly and then clattering the ball through mid on and off with some consistency. The stage may have been set for Bairstow and the Yorkshire faithful willed on their boy from the local back streets. Sadly, Bairstow, as if unnerved by the immensity of the occasion nudged the ball fatally to the slips and was out cheaply for 36 when it seemed as if he was setting himself up for the day.

Jos Buttler now walked out into the sweltering heat of a Headingley afternoon. The swallows and gulls overhead were now desperate for sustenance and England were beginning to lick their lips again. Buttler though looked distracted and then, horribly, was run out for one. England's tail was wagging and a dark chasm was beginning to appear in front of England. Australia, to all intents and purposes, had one hand on retaining the Ashes and another on that much cherished little urn.

Now there would open up the most spectacular cabaret ever seen on an English cricketing field. With Chris Woakes and Stuart Broad back in the pavilion for a single respectively, England were teetering like a rock on a cliff side. With only one wicket to take and all the signs pointing to an imminent victory for the Australians, England  were quite literally staring down the barrel.

With almost hilarious frequency there were dropped catches, Stokes and now Jack Leach running for their lives, harum scarum fielding that could have resulted in near certain defeat for England and that final, fumbled take that could have run out England's last batsman. This was heart in mouth cricket, cricket designed to raise the blood pressure and now the most miraculous recovery by an England side panting for breath.

Stokes was now on his own and after a series of giant sixes that seemed to travel into some distant Yorkshire valley, the man with the most implacable spirit, just got more and more incensed. The square cutting from the meat of his bat could be heard in Sheffield. Stokes, flowing and firing, stunned the crowd with massively extravagant hooking. He swiped, scooped and seemed to ladle the ball to the boundary, always improvising, always taunting the Aussies with batting of the sweetest vintage.

Headingley was almost beside itself with joy and disbelief. The crowd were so feverish and excited that any resemblance to 1981 would surely have been coincidental. Then Botham and Willis went for Australia like two heavyweights just hell bent on landing that momentous hook that switched off the lights of their opponents. Now it was the turn of Ben Stokes to send an electrical current through the Australian batting. Stokes stepped up and smashed the Australian bowling attack all over Headingley.

With two now required to win the game, Stokes settled himself for one last hurrah. Bat eagerly lifting up and down in anticipation and head perfectly poised, Stokes swung his bat delightedly at the ball before launching the most tremendously accurate shot with glorious finality. The ball scurried away from the Australian fieldsmen and clinched victory for England in quite the most ultra dramatic style in recent history.

For a minute it felt as if England had actually regained the Ashes once again but there is a long way to go for England if they are to regain any momentum and rhythm in this Test Match. There are no Sir Donald Bradmans or Len Huttons this time for England but you can somehow sense that this intriguingly balanced Ashes Test could go the proverbial distance. Under the shrewd guidance of Michael Vaughan in 2005, England were inspired winners. |Now cricket focuses on the figure of captain marvel Joe Root. Rarely has English cricket left us so lost for superlatives. It surely couldn't have got any better.