England vs New Zealand: Stokes, Leach rekindle Headingley bromance as hosts surge forward on Day 3

Ben Stokes and Jack Leach will always have Headingley. And while that magical, lopsided partnership in 2019 will forever tie them together in the cricketing consciousness, there are signs that on their first return to the ground together they have started to grow the first shoots of an altogether more meaningful long-term relationship.

On Day One, Stokes showed early faith in Leach, throwing him the ball in the 13th over – the reward instantaneous as his spinner struck first ball to remove Will Young. It was the perfect start to a fruitful innings for Leach, trusted enough by his skipper to get through an unusually heavy first innings workload of 38.3 overs, picking up his first five-fer on home soil in the process.

It was a Leach and Stokes combination that provided the high point of that innings for England – England’s captain essentially daring Daryl Mitchell to hit Leach down the ground in the over before lunch on Day Two – an alpha trap the previously implacable Kiwi fell right into, succeeding only in miscuing the ball high in the air and into the grateful hands of Stokes who took an excellent catch running backwards.

There is a pleasing asymmetry to their imagined bromance, a mismatched partnership straight out of a 1980s buddy cop movie, the gung-ho all-rounder who doesn’t play by the rules and the endearing bespectacled left-arm spinner with a history of calamitous bad luck.

And although the reality is inevitably probably somewhat less cinematic, there were signs once again on Day Three at Headingley that the Stokes-Leach combo is one that is starting to bear fruit for England.

Indeed it was Leach along with Stuart Broad who took the new ball in the second innings, an advance manoeuvre straight out of Brendon McCullum’s Funky Captaincy Handbook™ — perhaps the only rulebook England’s new head coach hasn’t decided to instantly rip up.

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The move ultimately didn’t really pay off for England – Tom Latham finally managing to stick around long enough to rediscover a bit of touch – but it was another fillip to Leach’s confidence, the captain’s trust never a more precious commodity than in the mind of the team’s spinner.

Ultimately it was trust that Leach made sure to repay, brought into the attack for his fourth spell late in the day he struck within five balls, luring Henry Nicholls into prodding a catch straight back to him. The wicket, England’s fifth, pressing home their advantage and putting even more wind into the sails of an already boisterous Headingley crowd.

Then came the rain to wash out the final half hour of play, New Zealand going in overnight just 137 ahead at 168/5, their own double act of Mitchell and Tom Blundell scripted once again as the only thing left standing in England’s way.

How they get on Day Four will go a long way to determining New Zealand’s chances of avoiding a 3-0 series whitewash, and if the prospect of seeing off Broad, Matt Potts and Jamie Overton didn’t seem difficult enough, they better not forget about Leach and Stokes and the possibility of just a little bit more of their Headingley magic.

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