Not that he could bring himself to do so, as Chris Woakes scored the winning runs to seal a pulsating three-wicket win and leave the series at 2-1 in Australia’s favor.

I’m not going to lie, I was a bit nervous at the end,” Stokes said. ‘We knew we needed to win this game to keep our hopes of winning the Ashes alive.

In the last half hour, I walked about two kilometers around the locker room at Headingley and didn’t watch the last 20 goals being scored. It’s a completely different place when you can’t do anything, you can’t influence the game anymore.

You just have to watch and hope things go your way. Considering the level the series was at before this game, the whole game – at bat, with the ball, on the field – was just an incredible effort on everyone’s part.

The key innings came from young Harry Brook, whose 75 points made all the difference on his home field. Brook provided the resistance for England, reaching his half-century off 57 balls – his ninth score of 50 or more for England in just 10 Tests.

The fast pace of scoring runs has been Brook’s trademark since his arrival in the England squad. He broke the 1,000 Test runs mark in 1,058 balls during his innings – faster than any other batter in Test history.

I think that shot came under pressure and under the pressure of where we are in this series, Stokes added. To be there and make the contribution that got us over the line was very important.