Ashes 2023, 3rd TestHarry Brook stars as England win thriller to keep series alive

By India Today Sports DeskEngland remained alive in the Ashes 2023 after defeating Australia by 3 wickets at Leeds on Sunday, 9 July. Young Harry Brook was the star of the show hitting a crucial 75 off 93 balls after England suffered a batting collapse in the final day of the Test match at Headingley.

Brook added a crucial 59 runs for the 7th wicket in the final innings of the Test match alongside Chris Woakes. Woakes, who came in during nervy moments in the second session of the innings hit 32 runs off 47 balls that weighed in gold for England. This helped England cut back the deficit after losing the first two Test matches of the series. England now trail 1-2 in the Ashes 2023 and have kept their hopes alive for a potential comeback of 3-2.

Ashes, Leeds TestAs it happened

Australia started the final day of the Test match in a riveting fashion with Mitchell Starc running riot. The left-arm pacer bagged the wickets of Ben Duckett, Moeen Ali, Ben Stokes, Jonny Bairstow and Harry Brook and sent shivers down the spine of the English cricket team. The first resistance of the day came from Brook when he partnered Joe Root for the fourth wicket. Brook looked comfortable from the very start of his innings as batting got comfortable under the sun after Lunch.

One can also credit the England management for dropping Brook down the order and sending Moeen Ali at No. 3, in what they thought could have been a wicket worth sacrificing. Moeen was able to last just 15 balls before Starc uprooted his stumps but he stayed for long enough to provide Brook a crucial shield.

The youngster as he often does, had a lot of swing and a miss, but the ones that he was able to middle raced to the boundary line. Brook refrained from taking the ariel route in the second innings at Leeds, in a mature innings that saw him hit 9 boundaries. He got out trying to pull a short ball from Mitchell Starc that took his top edge and went to Pat Cummins at extra cover.

Chris Woakes, who had been an equal partner with Brook during their stay in the middle, looked assured after the batter’s dismissal and took England home without losing any further wickets. Woakes hit a boundary through the off side to score the winning runs, reminiscent of what Stokes had done back in 2019.

The win helps England make a comeback in the Ashes series with a spirited show after their loss in the Lord’s Test.

The hosts had several heroes in this Test match, but most important of them all was perhaps, player of the match winner Mark Wood, who finished with 7 wickets and 40 runs in the Test match. This was Mark Wood’s comeback Test match, having been out of the longest format of the game since December 2022. The tearaway pacer did not play in the first two Test matches and proved to be the difference maker at Leeds. Wood affected a late collapse in the Australian batting order with his rapid pace in the first innings, picking up a five-wicket haul on comeback. Bowling in the second innings of the game, Wood piled on tremendous pressure from one end that allowed bowlers like Moeen Ali and Chris Woakes to clean up Australian batting order for just 224 runs. Wood was handy with the bat as well scoring 24 off 8 in the first innings and 16 off 8 in the second.

England will go into the fourth Test at Manchester with concerns over Stokes’s fitness. The England captain has struggled with his knee at Leeds, but has not given any update anything about his fitness. Australia on the other hand will be ruing their batting collapse in either innings and hope to fix the chink in their armour in the long 9-day break ahead of the next Test match.