Greatest Tests: Stokes' sorcery at Headingley vs Sri Lanka's record chase in Colombo
England winning an Ashes Test Australia had all-but won or Sri Lanka's marathon fourth-innings chase against a battling Zimbabwe?
ESPNcricinfo staff
06-May-2025 • 2 hrs ago
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Was it the ending, the unbroken 76-run stand for the last wicket between Ben Stokes and Jack Leach? Or the fact that one of the batters scored 74 (in 45 balls) and the other 1 (in 17 balls) in that partnership? Or that the winners had scored 67 in their first innings and then hit 362 for 9 in the chase in a Test where 246 was the next-best total?
Maybe all of the above. But the drama of the Stokes-Leach partnership is what perhaps made it all so memorable.
Australia won the first Test and the second was drawn, so England wanted to win this one at Headingley to stay in the contest, harbour dreams of winning the Ashes. But after Australia were bowled out for 179 in the first innings, all England could put up was 67, with Joe Denly top-scoring with 12. Back to Australia, and this time they put up 246.
Was the pitch getting better for batting? It didn't seem so when England were 15 for 2 in their chase of 359, and then 159 for 4 with Joe Root gone, and then 286 for 9. Stokes, the No. 5, was on 61 at the time. Off 174 balls. So 2-0 to Australia? But with last-man Leach for company, Stokes switched something on. He hit four fours and seven sixes from that point, keeping Leach away from the strike as much as possible, before finishing it off with a flay through the covers off Pat Cummins.
How difficult could Zimbabwe make it for Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka in a Test match?
Very, as it turned out.
Craig Ervine hit 160 in close to six hours after Zimbabwe had opted to bat. They scored 356. Sri Lanka had two half-centurions - Upul Tharanga and Dinesh Chandimal - as they fell ten runs short.
Surely Zimbabwe couldn't do it again against Rangana Herath and everyone else.
Yes, they could.
Even top it.
This time Sikandar Raza was the star, with 127, again in just under six hours, and Sri Lanka had to chase 388. Only four times had a bigger target been chased down in a Test match at that point, and never in Asia.
Again, there was no century-maker. Forget that, Sri Lanka were five down for 203, still 185 in arrears. But Niroshan Dickwella and Asela Gunaratne weren't done yet. Both scored 80s - Dickwella 81 and Gunaratne 80 not out - and Zimbabwe's fight eventually fizzled out.