At lunch on the second day of this third Ashes Test, it wasn’t only England’s Ashes hopes that were flatlining but the very concept of Bazball.
At 142 for seven, still 121 behind Australia’s first-innings total, the hosts were all but out of this match and the series.
Yet cometh the hour, cometh Ben Stokes, England’s captain and talisman who wrote his next chapter in Ashes folklore with a brutal, calculated assault that somehow got his team to within 26 of Australia’s total.
In the space of an hour, he not only revived his team’s chances in this match but almost single-handedly brought England’s new way back to life. Think of the scene from Pulp Fiction where John Travolta’s character stabs Uma Thurman with a shot of adrenaline to revive her.
At 2-0 down in this series after a slew of careless dismissals in the opening two Tests, the condemnation of Bazball was reaching critical mass. By the time Moeen Ali and Chris Woakes threw away their wickets in the most brainless manner to leave their team in a hole just before lunch on day two of this match, the obituaries for England’s uber-attacking modus operandi were being drafted.
Yet in a remarkable hour after lunch, Stokes offered up his latest piece of mystical realism to sprinkle this thrilling Ashes series with yet more stardust.
Just five days after his tour-de-force 155 in a losing cause at Lord’s gave the Australians PTSD about what happened at Headingley four years ago, Stokes was at it again at this famous old ground, smashing the ball to all parts to take his score from 27 to 80 in just 41 deliveries after lunch.
Mark Wood had set the tone immediately after the interval, laying into Pat Cummins as he smashed 24 from eight balls.
Stokes then took his cue with a brutal assault on 22-year-old off-spinner Todd Murphy, smashing the youngster for five sixes as he crafted a mini-sequel to that unforgettable, match-winning Headingley blockbuster of 2019.
Time will tell if Stokes’ latest onslaught will also help his team win this contest – and with it keep them in the series.
But whatever transpires, and Australia must fear England can chase any target they set in the fourth innings when Stokes invokes beast mode, this small, spectacular passage of play has ensured Bazball as a concept will live on whatever the final scoreline of this series is.
Quite simply, when he is in this mood, Stokes is the most captivating sight in any sport.
His counter-attack started with three fours off one Mitchell Starc over before moving on to Murphy. That the bespectacled Ashes debutant ultimately took Stokes’ wicket on 80 will give him confidence. Yet will Australia captain Pat Cummins be willing to turn to his spinner, in as a replacement for the injured Nathan Lyon, if the game is on the line during England’s chase?
In total, Stokes, with a little help from Wood, turned this Test into a Twenty20 match in the hour after lunch, England adding 95 runs to their total in just 10.2 overs.
It came after the most becalmed morning session that was the second-slowest in terms of scoring of the Bazball era, with just 74 runs added to the overnight total of 68 for three.
The early dismissals of Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow didn’t help, with the one big partnership England required never materialising before lunch.
Thankfully Stokes has effectively turned this Test into a one-innings contest, giving his team a puncher’s chance of somehow getting over the line over the remaining three days, although surely only rain can push into a fifth day.
As brilliant as Stokes’ knock was, he cannot keep doing it on his own. Someone else in the top six needs to support him, with Ben Duckett, brilliant at Lord’s, and Root, whose first-innings century at Edgbaston should have won England that Test, the most likely candidates.
Stokes’ method, scoring 27 from his first 67 balls as he soaked up the pressure before carefully choosing his moment to go, is perhaps the lesson his team-mates need to learn.
Bazball lives on, yet England need to add the street smarts Stokes displayed on a high-octane second afternoon if it is to be sustainable in the long run.
