Ben Stokes was savouring every moment after dragging England back from the Ashes brink with a match-winning century at Headingley that is destined to go down as one of the great Test innings.

Stokes conjured a virtuoso performance of 135 not out that was easily the equal of Sir Ian Botham's classic performance on the same ground in 1981, turning certain defeat into a one-wicket victory and re-energising a series that would have slipped from England's grasp without him.

Just six weeks earlier Stokes' bloody-minded brilliance with the bat had powered England's remarkable World Cup win at Lord's and here he guided them to their biggest fourth-innings chase of 359, the 10th highest of all time.

"We were trying to work out how Ben was going to play it but got to the point where we thought it doesn't matter if he just trusts his instincts. It just shows what pressure can do to people and how different people react to certain situations."

Australia captain Tim Paine was magnanimous in defeat, appreciating the special status of the contest he had just competed in.

"I thought it was an amazing game of cricket, Ben Stokes was unbelievably good...it was one of the great Test innings," he said.

"We finished up on the wrong side of it but in terms of an advertisement for Test cricket, I think that was bloody exciting. It was a bit of individual brilliance today from a world-class player. Stokes was playing out of his skin and he managed to do things that you normally wouldn't see."