Big Ben’s set to chime in Headingley as England ring up first Ashes win

Headingley has a rich tradition of stirring up some of the most memorable moments in Ashes history.

Mind you, it’s a big ask for this week’s Test to eclipse the drama, controversy and sheer outrage which has just unfolded at Lord’s.

First, Jonny Bairstow grabbed a Just Stop Oil protester and carried him off the pitch like a bloke striding down the beach with a difficult deckchair.

Then Yorkshire’s wicketkeeper/batter was controversially stumped by Australia’s backstop Alex Carey, sparking an unprecedented kerfuffle in the Long Room between MCC members and Baggy Green players.

The tourists were also indignant when Mitchell Starc was, correctly, ruled to have dropped Ben Duckett after an athletic catch on the ropes. What scenes!

England lost the second Test by 43 runs and now find themselves in a 2-0 series hole.

But they could easily have won at both Edgbaston and Lord’s and if they tinker slightly with the gung-ho Bazball approach – and are also galvanised by Bairstow’s dismissal – they can reduce the arrears.

It will require someone to reproduce those Headingley heroics of the past though.

Something like Ben Stokes, who smashed Australia for 155 second innings runs at Lord’s, hitting six after six in an unbeaten 135 in Leeds four years ago to pull off the unlikeliest of victories.

Or the astonishing performances in 1981 when England were 500/1 to win before Lord Ian Botham’s 148 not out off 149 balls and Bob Willis’ eight wickets for just 43 runs led the hosts to another superlative success.

The 1975 Ashes duel in Leeds was on a knife edge entering the final day and could have joined the pantheon of classic finishes.

Instead it ended in a draw after a protest in support of wrongly convicted robber George Davis broke into the ground, dug up the crease at one end and poured oil onto the pitch to force play to be abandoned. 

Punk band Sham 69 released the song George Davis Is Innocent and the London taxi driver at the centre of the outrage was released from his 20-year prison sentence for armed robbery a year later.

He was reportedly unhappy at the actions in his name, though, as he was whiling away time in his cell by following the Test on the radio.

Anyway, our ante-post shout was for a 3-2 England series victory so we’re sticking to our guns and backing them to win the third Test at 8/5 with William Hill while Stokes is 12/1 with Betfair to be the man of the match.

• England to beat Israel 1-0 in tonight’s European Under-21 Championship semi-final is 5/1 with bet365.

• Elina Svitolina, fresh from a first-round victory over Venus Williams, is 13/10 with Paddy Power to beat Elise Mertens as Wimbledon starts to heat up.

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