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When Australia shot England out for mere 67 runs in the first innings of the 3rd Ashes Test match, the fans and the critics believed that Tim Paine's men will retain the little urn by getting an unassailable lead in the 5-match series; little did they know that the New Zealand-born all-rounder Ben Stokes will see the home side through with a magnificent hundred.
Australia had set a target of 359 runs for England and they were required to do something that had never ever been done to save their prestige. Ben Stokes, who had taken 3 wickets with the ball in Australia's 2nd innings, came in to bat after Joe Denly lost his wicket on the individual score of 50.
Unfortunately for Stokes, he lost the support of his skipper, Joe Root with the addition of just 18 runs to the team's score. With 200 runs still to get, the fans expected the World Cup hero to pull off a once in a lifetime innings to win the game for England.
Stokes joined forces with Jonny Bairstow to form a partnership but the wicket-keeper batsman departed with over 100 runs still to get. An unfortunate run out and Josh Hazlewood's strike reduced England to 261/7 with Jofra Archer coming out to bat with Stokes.
Archer provided some respite to Stokes by striking consecutive boundaries off Nathan Lyon in the 115th over. But, Lyon got the last laugh as he trapped Archer and got his wicket on the final ball. Soon, James Pattinson took the wicket of Stuart Broad to nearly seal the deal for the Aussies.
Number 11 batsman Jack Leach joined hands with the lone warrior, Ben Stokes, who was nearing his century. England needed 73 runs to win the match while Australia was just 1 wicket away to retain the Ashes.
Ben Stokes then unleashed an all-out assault, which was planned to perfection. The all-rounder took the aerial route to smash 3 maximums in the next 3 overs. He hit one more six Pat Cummins' 120th over besides rotating the strike at the right time.
Then came the big over where Ben just dismantled Josh Hazlewood with a boundary and 2 sixes, recording his 8th Test century in the process. He scored 18 runs off that over and then Leech supported him till the end to ensure England wins this contest.
Just like Kusal Perera had done it for Sri Lanka at Durban this past year, Ben Stokes pulled it off for England at Leeds. Here's how Twitter reacted to Stokes' heroic knock.
Also see - Ashes Best economy rate
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