Australia learn lessons of Headingley to exorcise demon Stokes

As Ben Stokes hauled Mitchell Starc over square leg and into the Tavern Stand for back-to-back sixes, the spectre of Headingley loomed over Australia.

Four years ago, they were overwhelmed by the moment as Stokes took them on, brawling his way to a magnificent 135 not out to snatch a one-wicket win to square the series at 1-1. For much of Sunday, he threatened a repeat - no more so than when he heaved Starc into the stands, then nudged a single which took him to 149.

When Starc wasted the final ball of his 17th over, the 66th, by spraying it past Stuart Broad's pads and down the leg side, England were 292 for 6 and needed only 80 more runs to win. Australia had been ahead of the game ever since the third morning, when England lost 6 for 46; suddenly, they were behind.

Between overs, Pat Cummins pulled his senior players together for a committee meeting: Steven Smith, David Warner, Marnus Labuschagne and Usman Khawaja marched over to mid-on, standing in a small huddle. They quickly determined that, with another few overs of bumpers to Stokes, Australia risked handing the game to England.

Throughout his innings, Stokes had favoured the same side of the ground, hitting down the slope and towards the slightly shorter leg-side boundary: all nine of his sixes were hit towards the Mound and Tavern Stands, rather than the Grand Stand. With the wind "howling" in the same direction, in Cummins' words, Australia resolved to cut off that scoring option entirely.

"It just felt like we needed to go away from that stand, really; to get him into the off side, and away from that side," Cummins said. "He's just too good a player, and it's too short a boundary. That was the crux of it [the discussion] - and just trying to hang in there. [And] ideally, try to have Broad on strike as much as we could."

Cameron Green was brought on to bowl the following over and produced a rare maiden, cutting off the short side with four straight bouncers before landing two wide yorkers outside off stump. After Broad got off strike with an inside edge, Starc went wide to Stokes, again preventing him hitting towards the short leg-side boundary.

With the field still spread, Australia kept England in a holding pattern for the five overs between their meeting and the drinks break. They added only seven runs in that time, without hitting a boundary. Cummins reinforced those plans as his team reconvened, then brought himself on and aimed wide outside Stokes' off stump to further the point.

England had added nine runs in six overs, and Stokes decided it was time to take on the longer boundary when Josh Hazlewood banged one in, back-of-a-length and at his body. He lined up the Grand Stand, but completely mishit his pull; the ball skewed up towards point via the top edge, and Alex Carey settled underneath it.

Hazlewood stood Andrew Flintoff-style, arms stretched and soaking in the moment, but this was a collective wicket. It was a moment that showed they had learned from their defeat four years previously - even if, in the fervour of Jonny Bairstow's dismissal, it had taken them plenty of time to devise a plan to cut down Stokes' scoring.

"The biggest help was that we had an extra few runs on the board." Cummins said. "He was in pretty formidable form out there… I think we learned a few lessons from Headingley: slowing the game up a bit; trying to get him to hit into areas that we wanted him to, rather than 360 [degreees].

Cummins added: "With a wicket like that, the ball was old, soft, and you don't have too many options really. So you just try to kind of hang in there, hang in there, not let there be too many big overs and yeah: fortunately, he hit one up."

The same plan accounted for Ollie Robinson and Stuart Broad, both men caught in the deep while trying to swing short balls that cramped them for room towards the longer boundary. Across 8.2 boundary-less overs, England had lost three wickets for 10 runs, and the game was effectively Australia's.

This was a triumph for clear-thinking amid chaos. Australia have grown used to playing the bad guys over the last five years, not least when they come to England, but the frenzied Lord's atmosphere after Alex Carey ran Bairstow out - culminating in MCC members abusing players in the Long Room - still seemed to throw them off course.

Their fielding became ragged, epitomised by Smith's drop off Stokes at deep backward square leg and a very wayward throw from substitute fielder Matt Renshaw, who overcooked an attempt to run him out.

Australia initially fed Stokes' strengths, letting him take on their boundary-riders on the leg side by extending the bumper barrage that emerged as a common tactic. "We felt a hundred-plus runs was a long way away with bouncers," Cummins said. But when his sixes off Starc brought them to within 80 runs of their target, they were jolted into an alternative.

Given the circumstances, this must register as one of the great Ashes victories away from home - certainly of the modern era. Australia lost their second toss of the series and had the worst of conditions by some distance, batting under cloud cover and bowling beneath clear skies.

They also had to cope with the loss of Nathan Lyon to injury on the second afternoon, leaving them a bowler down for the rest of the match. "Those kinds of situations, 270-odd [required] on the last day, some big footmarks there, they're made for Nath," Cummins said. "He was missed."

It meant a substantial workload for Australia's seamers - not least Cummins himself, who bowled 41.2 overs in the match, including 25 in the second innings. This was a true team effort: five batters scored between 75 and 150 runs in the match, and the three seamers took between four and six wickets.

Two hours after their committee meeting, Australia's senior players stood in more or less the same spot. This time, they had their families with them, with Warner, Smith and Khawaja basking in what will likely be their last Ashes appearance at this ground. A legacy-defining series win beckons.