The Ashes: When Ben Stokes Took England To A Miraculous Win At Headingley in 2019. Watch | Cricket News

The highly anticipated Ashes series begins on December 8 as Joe Root’s England try to do what no other English team has managed to do in a decade. Andrew Strauss led England to an Ashes triumph on Australian soil in 2010-11, which in fact is the only win that the Three Lions have managed to secure down under in 25 years and 8 attempts. It will be a tough assignment for Root’s team but something that they will be desperate to ace given the fact that Australia managed to retain the Ashes urn in 2019 after drawing the series 2-2 in England.

The Aussies in fact would have won the series, had it not been for a miraculous victory in the third Test match at Headingley in Leeds, when England chased down a fourth innings target of 359 runs after being bowled out for a paltry 67 in the first innings.

England in fact were staring down the barrel and looking at a 0-2 deficit with two matches to go in the series when they were 9 wickets down for 286 runs, still needing 73 runs to win.

But Ben Stokes played one of the all-time great knocks in the history of cricket’s oldest rivalry, scoring an unbeaten 135 with the help of 11 boundaries and 8 massive sixes.

Watch Video of Ben Stokes’ knock here:

While Stokes was going about his business, number 11 Jack Leach held his own, surviving for 17 balls under immense pressure from the Aussies to help Stokes take England to a win which helped them level the series.

England would hope Stokes will return from injury in time and play many such inspirational knocks in the days to come.

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The rivalry which was seeded back in 1882, has grown to become the oldest and biggest cricket rivalry and will see Australia and England battle for the ‘Urn’ for the 72nd time.

Fans can watch all the action on the Sony Ten network channels in English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu commentary from December 8, 2021 onwards. The first match will be played at the Gabba in Brisbane.