Excellent read that.... the last paragraph summed it all up....
"Doing what all of us who watched this day might do at different times: trying to recapture the magic of something that we were lucky enough to experience, marvelling at the feeling, never quite understanding what it was."
The stuff before that was good too.
"Stokes needed 73. Which is to say, England needed 73, and Stokes needed to get them all. There was only one gear left to use.
Consider the degree of difficulty. You can't tick the runs down, because the bowlers will get your partner out. So you don't just have to score, you have to score fast.
So you need boundaries, but your opponents have eight men on the fence. Fours are mostly out of the equation. You can score a two, or a six. And at the end of every over, a single to keep the strike.
When the first six of this closing stanza came off Lyon, Australia didn't mind. It was a message from the future saying that Stokes would be caught on the fence soon enough. He was cornered, desperate, getting his front pad out of the way and walloping.
An over from Pattinson saw him scream back for a second run, then find a single with a ball to spare. Leach ducked a bouncer.
The second six off Lyon wasn't clean. It hung in the air long enough to clear Hazlewood, the tallest man on the ground, at long-off.
The third was something else. Stokes advancing, swapping hands on the bat, switching his stance, and slog-sweeping as a right-hander over what had previously been cover, down on one knee while falling over.
Then a single from the last ball. It was 49 to win.
Tim Paine went for pace from both ends. Pattinson, then Cummins. Stokes had one missed attempt at the scoop shot from a Cummins length ball, then went again next ball and nailed it. Six over the keeper.
With the fielders all hanging back, Stokes used his World Cup experience. Nudged the ball to square leg and hared back for the second run. He was on his haunches and blowing. Found a single.
It was clear in every moment: We've just seen the greatest ODI ever played
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Forget Australia and South Africa in the semi-final of 1999. Even factoring in hyperbole, it's clear that we have just witnessed the greatest ODI game of cricket of all time, writes Geoff Lemon.
Here Leach came into his own. With one ball left, he took off his helmet, his gloves, then pulled out a fibre cloth to clean his glasses. Wiping them carefully before putting all his gear back on. Giving Stokes time for a breather. Blocking Cummins. Over.
All the while, the crowd in the stands cheered on. A Leach dot ball was as loud as a Stokes six. With blithe confidence, English punters calmly wandered off to the bar at nine wickets down, and came back with full rounds of beers. They expected to be here a while longer.
The moment of the day was when Stokes raised his 100. Clipped Hazlewood square for four. As Leach came down the wicket, Stokes waved him back. Ignored the cheers. Wandered for a couple of seconds to compose himself, took guard again, and faced. He needed 33 to win. A hundred was irrelevant.
The Western Terrace was loudest, and that's where he landed the next couple of sixes. Down on one knee, under Hazlewood's low full toss. Then mowing through the line of a length ball. Another brace behind point, another single, another one ball for Leach to survive.
Every time Leach faced a ball, the atmosphere was at its most intense. Stokes, knowing he didn't want to run from those balls, couldn't bear to watch. He crouched with his head down at the far end, curled like a beetle, hoping to hear a cheer. The relief with each delivery was palpable.
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PHOTO: Ben Stokes and Jack Leach combined to create delirious scenes at Headlingley. (AP: Mike Egerton)
At 18 to win, the squeeze really began. Paine bowling Lyon looked like the biggest risk, but it also gave the chance of a wicket. One mis-hit was all it would take. One single from that over was all Stokes could get, as he lined up big hits that didn't come off.
Then going at Cummins, getting a thick outside edge, seeing Marcus Harris sprint in from third man, just too far away to do anything but palm it into the ground on the dive.
Two boundaries to the leg side followed, both just evading fielders into the fence. Cummins bowled twice at the left-handed Leach, burning Australia's last review when an lbw appeal pitched outside leg stump.
Eight to win. Lyon bowling. Another straight six, another just clearing Hazlewood down the ground, drifting over his fingers.
At two to win came the moments that Australia's players will remember. Leach wandering down the pitch like Allan Donald after Stokes found the field, then Lyon fumbling the throw that would have run him out by yards.
The four massive blunders that may cost Australia the Ashes
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The memory of Ben Stokes completing his Headingley miracle will linger, but so will the pain of the opportunities Australia blew in a crazy finish to one of history's greatest Test matches.
Lyon landing the next ball perfectly, straightening it, beating the sweep from Stokes, but the angle convincing the umpire that it was missing leg stump, even though it was smashing it. No reviews left.
Stokes unable to get off strike that ball, leaving Cummins bowling to Leach for a one-run win. Leach cleaning his glasses again, taking every part of his time. Fending off his hip, just wide of the field, Stokes streaking through for the single. Tying the scores before his final hit through cover.
One of the greatest matches. Three days of brilliant bowling from either side, resisted by isolated pockets of pugnacious batting. Warner and Labuschagne against Archer and Broad, Root against Hazlewood and Cummins.
Then the coup de grace: quite simply one of the greatest performances in an irresistible season; Ben Stokes as Megan Thee Stallion in Hot Ginger Summer. The moments of fortune, yes, but the audacity to demand them, like luck itself had no choice but to go along.
The delirium, the adrenaline, the voices drowning out the presentations. The knowledge that you have just witnessed the truly extraordinary, in a season where the extraordinary just keeps coming.
Then the way it all drifted away, the crowds dispersing, the ground becoming quiet, the warm breeze holding as the day dipped, that gentle smell of grass and moisture that rides those summer currents.
Later, under the soft purple gauze of an English evening fading into night, Leach led the whole team back out onto the pitch, the only player still in his whites.
As they sat and watched and laughed, he re-enacted his single in its entirety: taking guard, the nudge off the hip, the terrified sprint to the far end.
Doing what all of us who watched this day might do at different times: trying to recapture the magic of something that we were lucky enough to experience, marvelling at the feeling, never quite understanding what it was."
