Top 10 cricketing tweets of the year

4. ‘Every Ben Stokes needs a Jack Leach’

2019 has been the year of Ben Stokes. Be it the World Cup or the Ashes, he was England’s go-to man, especially with the bat. He was the lone warrior on multiple occasions. After a dramatic World Cup final, Stokes was in the middle of another dramatic game in the Ashes.

England were 0-1 down and in the third Test, they were chasing 359 to level the series and keep the Ashes alive. They had already been bowled out for 67 in the first innings but they did fight in the second essay. Joe Denly and Joe Root scored fifties and resurrected the innings after an early stumble. Jonny Bairstow and Stokes carried the innings forward after that but England slumped from 245/4 to 286/9 and the game seemed dead and buried.

Jack Leach joined Stokes in the middle as the latter tried to keep the chase alive. The all-rounder kept going after the bowlers and kept reducing the deficit. Leach complemented him well as he played out a ball or two at the end of every over. Stokes continued to smash his way through and when two runs were needed, Leach was almost runout and it was Nathan Lyon who missed the chance at the non-striker’s end.

In the very next over, Leach blocked out the first two balls before scrambling for a single on the third ball to level the scores. It was his first run of the innings and perhaps, the most important run of his career. Stokes finished things off on the next ball to lead England to a heroic and a miraculous win.

Thus, Stokes received praise from all over the world but Leach played his part too. And the following tweet summed it up nicely:

Every Ben Stokes needs a Jack Leach.

— Richard Osman (@richardosman) August 25, 2019