It wasn’t joy that echoed around Edgbaston at midday on a cool, overcast Tuesday in Birmingham, but thunder. England reached the target of 378 runs in just 76.4 overs, three wickets down, for their most successful chase in 145 years of Test cricket, and somehow the impact felt even more seismic.
That seven-wicket win against India was the fourth time this summer that England, under the bristling leadership of Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum, made the mountain climb look like brisk walking after reaching targets of 277, 299 and 296 against New Zealand. Yet long after the dust had settled this time, with the podium long since dismantled and the beer flowing in the home dressing room, their final ascent still required some reckoning.
India, a team which has won twice on Australian soil in recent times and which was even more dominant than the 2-1 lead it secured when this series was suspended last summer, were invited to bat first, Stokes speaking as captain for a day when saying he wanted to “chase”. The tourists put 416 runs on the board through Rishabh Pant’s 146 and Ravindra Jadeja’s 104, and although Jonny Bairstow fired back with 106, England rose to 284 all out and were 132 ahead in the first innings.
Although India gave up at the end of their second dig, Stokes impressively marshalling his troops to take the last seven wickets at a cost of 120 runs on the fourth morning to turn 125 for three into 245 all out, it was ‘necessary history’ territory and common sense (plus algorithms) made them beloved. Instead came a fearless, calculated attack, led by Zach Crowley and Alex Lees, thrashing their way to the fastest opening centuries in England’s history, 19.5 overs.
Even the minor embarrassment of losing three wickets for two after that, amid the flicker of the wonderful Indian spectacle witnessed on these shores last summer, could not disturb England’s tunnel vision. Bairstow and Joe Root this time went for the danger rather than running away (as McCullum put it), finishing a pair of slick centuries in an unbroken stand of 254 and needing just 90 minutes on the final morning to deliver the coup de grâce.
The Indians’ shoulders slumped and there was not much of the tension seen during the final throes of England’s previous record chase, that famous day at Headingley in 2019 when Stokes donned his cap, Jack Leach polished his glasses and Australia fooled a defense of 359. Barely a sliver of it, in fact – Root and Bairstow completely neutralize the threat of Jasprit Bumrah and co before breaking the party tricks.
A charging drive here, a reverse six there, Root and Bairstow cruising to three figures like a pair of purring supercars; the turnout after the frenzied sale of free tickets may have been a little disappointing, but everyone in attendance had a favorite moment to discuss as they made afternoon plans. And then Stokes, amid presentations and press conferences that tested his thirst for post-match celebrations, said: “There was a part of me that almost wanted them to get 450 [ahead] to see what we’ve done.”
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378 for three v India, Edgbaston, 2022
England’s pursuit of the record seemed both logical and improbable. It was perfectly in line with their fourth-inning rampage this summer, but the size of the target, the quality of the opposition attack and the ease of victory took Bazball into the stratosphere. Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow, both in the form of their lives, walked up Everest in their slippers. They may never have more fun on the cricket field.
362 for nine v Australia, Headingley, 2019
It is no longer the highest pursuit in England, but then it was never about records. Ben Stokes kept the 2019 Ashes alive with a stunning burst of knocks, adding 76 for the last wicket with Jack Leach making a career-defining 1 not out. Stokes’ unbeaten 135 was an innings that shifted through gears like no other: after scoring three off the first 73 balls, he hit 74 off the last 42.
332 for seven against Australia, Melbourne, 1928-29
No baseball here: England needed 159.5 overs to chase down a target of 332 at the MCG. Legendary opener Herbert Sutcliffe anchored the innings with an eight-hour 135, and an England line-up full of greats – Jack Hobbs, Sutcliffe, Wally Hammond – were 318 for three before a flurry of late wickets made the score more respectable. The match result, that is: the win took England 3-0 up in the series.
315 for four v Australia, Headingley, 2001
Mark Butcher was a good batsman in Tests, perhaps very good. For a day, he was undeniably, awe-inspiringly great. A hurt, battered England, already 3-0 down in the series, were set a target of 315 on a chaotic pitch at Headingley. But Butcher made light work of including Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne, Jason Gillespie and Brett Lee in all parts. He finished on 173 not out and England achieved a famous victory against perhaps the greatest Test team in history.
307 for six against New Zealand, Christchurch, 1996-97
Mike Atherton is best remembered for his 185 shutout save in Johannesburg in 1995-96. The following winter, he produced a lesser-known epic, this time to win a game – and a series. After carrying his bat for 94 in the first innings, he batted for almost seven hours to make 118 in the second. After a lull after Atherton, John Crowley and Dominic Cork calmly led England to their first away win in five years.
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damn That was exactly the new captain’s statement. It could be taken as hubris in some of the saltier corners, but if nothing else, it highlights the confidence coursing through England’s veins at the moment. Long gone is the winter of discontent, the repeated struggles in Australia and the tour of self-delusion in the Caribbean, and in its place is a team that, with very minor personnel adjustments, has completely transformed itself.
Bairstow celebrates scoring his latest century during England’s stunning win. Photo: Gareth Copley/Getty Images
Some might point to the latest in a string of English acts this summer who refused to break up, or the Dukes’ bottom ball, which was changed more often than Elton John between songs back in the day. Perhaps it will simply come down to the collision of two notable purple patches of form, with Root’s 142 not out of his 11th Test century in the last 18 months and Bairstow’s unbeaten 114 an astonishing fourth in his last five innings.
But then what will South Africa’s Dean Elgar think if he wins the toss at Lord’s on August 17 and all logic screams bat first? Or Babar Azam in December if Pakistan’s ground staff prepare the same flat, sorry, beautiful batting strips they released for the recent visit of Australia.
England, under their so-called ‘Bazball’ approach, are playing so well now that they are opening up the back of Tests to create a much wider canvas to chase. Innings one through three are simply working out the equation.
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Stokes told his players on the fourth night as much, suggesting that the third innings has now replaced the fourth as the real pressure cooker in the Test, “because they have to concentrate on how we’re going to play, and they’re worried about that.” , he explained later. “To be in that position as a team, to be scared before they’ve even finished their innings, it’s an amazing place to be.”
The all-rounder said England were trying to “rewrite the way Test cricket is played, especially in England” with Eoin Morgan’s pioneering, record-breaking white-ball team serving as their muse. Can such a paradigm shift be achieved in a format that is much more capricious and involves a wider range of variables and conditions?
Time will tell. But if the alarm bells in dressing rooms across the cricketing world that McCullum spoke of after the 3-0 win over New Zealand didn’t register, this latest thunderclap certainly will.
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