Tag: Test Cricket

England Fall Short at The Oval

An account of an extraordinary hour of cricket this morning to end an extraordinary series, plus a look ahead to England’s winter tour and a photo gallery.

Play resumed today at The Oval with England needing 35 runs to win and having four wickets left. This post describes a crazy hour of cricket this morning.

THE END OF A GREAT SERIES

The weather had closed in after two balls of a Prasidh Krishna over yesterday evening, so he started proceedings this morning. Jamie Overton hit the first two balls of the day for fours, the first a superb shot, a pull that sent the ball in front of square for four, and the second an edge. Then came a huge moment, when Jamie Smith, the last front line batter remaining for England, was out caught behind. Overton and Gus Atkinson advanced the score to 354, 20 to win, 19 for the tie that would be enough to give England the series. Then Overton was given LBW, a very slow decision by umpire Dharmasena (so slow that Overton was actually at the bowler’s end having run an intended leg bye by the time the finger was raised). Overton reviewed it, and it was umpire’s call on wickets, just brushing the outside edge of leg stump. Some might argue that if it taken Dharmasena as long as it did to assess the situation there had to be doubt in his mind and therefore he should not have given it. That brought Josh Tongue in join Atkinson. Three runs later Krishna bowled Tongue to make it 357-9, and Woakes, his left arm in a sling (he dislocated a shoulder in a fielding attempt on day one, and was on the field for the first time since that injury) made his way to the middle, following in the footsteps of the likes of Lionel Tennyson, Colin Cowdrey, Paul Terry and Malcolm Marshall in batting one-handed in a test match (Tennyson actually scored 63 and 36 one-handed in the face of Aussie speedsters Jack Gregory and Ted McDonald). Atkinson did his best to advance the score, and Gill twice refused to alter his deep set field on the last ball of overs, allowing Atkinson to take the strike when India could have given themselves an over at the injured Woakes. On the second of those occasions the score ticked to 367-9, one big hit away from levelling the scores and winning the series for England. Siraj, who had bowled his heart out and must by this point have been pretty much out on his feet, took the ball for yet another over. With the first ball of the new over he hit Atkinson’s stumps, and just before midday India had won the match by six runs. The turning point that enabled all this drama, and England’s eventual failure by so slender a margin was Harry Brook’s crazy dismissal yesterday with England 301-3 and India looking every inch a beaten side. For the record Siraj’s marathon bowling efforts secured him the Player of the Match, while Shubman Gill was India’s player of the series for his 754 runs across the five matches and Brook England’s, with 481 runs in the series. A scorecard of the match can be seen here.

LOOKING AHEAD

This winter England travel to Australia to renew test cricket’s oldest rivalry. Australia hold The Ashes, and the last time an England side regained the urn down under was in 1970-1 when Ray Illingworth skippered the side to victory in the series that ended Bill Lawry’s playing career (England sides retained the urn down under in 1978-9, 1986-7 and 2010-11 as well). Can this England do the almost impossible? Possibly, though it will be incredibly difficult even for such a confident England outfit as this one. If the likes of Wood, Archer and Atkinson are fit on a consistent basis rather than the odd match here or there that will be a big help. Woakes will almost certainly not be able to tour, but I would probably not pick him for an Australian tour anyway – even fit he would be unlikely to make much of an impact there. More worrying is that England’s pig headedness has left them with an opener averaging barely more than 30 in test cricket and a number three averaging a little over 35 in test cricket (an a series in Australia is not the time to be blooding newcomers to the test scene). Although a little under five runs an innings separates these players there is another difference – Crawley’s test average is a near duplicate of his first class average meaning that he is quite simply not good enough at the job. Pope however has a magnificent record in first class cricket and has failed to translate that to consistent success at test level. I would like to see Rehan Ahmed’s form for Leicestershire recognized with a place in the squad. If England want to attempt to equip themselves with something approaching a replacement for Stokes the player (Stokes the captain and Stokes the talisman are irreplaceable) then Jordan Clark has a lot going for him. In all probability, if England are to prevail Stokes will to be both the Brearley and the Botham of the squad.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

An Unexpected Final Day

How the fifth and final match of the 2025 series between the England and India men’s teams is poised and a large photo gallery.

I had expected to be posting about the conclusion of the final test of the 2025 series between England and India today, but the weather at The Oval turned nasty, bringing an early close with the match interestingly poised. Therefore the series will finish tomorrow.

HOW THINGS STAND

This match has seen astonishing twists and turns. First Atkinson, returning from injury at his home ground, took five cheap wickets to restrict India to 224 in the first innings. Then England made a blazing start in response only to lose wickets in a heap thereafter to a combination of good bowling and more than a few bad (or in some cases downright stupid) shots. In the end their advantage was 23. England bowled well again, but their fielding was the stuff of horror stories – six catches were dropped (I would probably class the sixth as more of a great stop than a drop had the rest of the fielding been up to snuff) and one clear cut run out opportunity fluffed. With this generous assistance India built lead of 373. England were 50-1 coming in to day, with Crawley having again demonstrated his inadequacy as a test opener. At 106-3 with Duckett and Pope gone in addition it looked good for India, but then a great stand between Root and Brook seemed to have settled things in England’s favour. Then Brook gifted India his wicket in a truly bizarre way – he actually completely lost his bat while playing an aggressive shot and ended up caught at mid off. This shortly after completing a century, his tenth in test cricket, off 91 balls. Jacob Bethell had his second failure of the match, and then not very long after completing his 39th test century Root was caught behind for 105. Jamie Smith and Jamie Overton were together at the crease, struggling to score as the ball suddenly started misbehaving when a black cloud reduced the light sufficiently for the umpires to take the players off with the score 339-6. That cloud then released its contents, and shortly after 6PM Oval groundsman Lee Fortis confirmed to the umpires that there was no way the surface would be playable by the cut off time of 6:42PM and that was the end of day four. England thus need 35 with four wickets standing to win the match, 34 for test cricket’s third ever tied match which would also win them the series, while India need four wickets for 33 or less or level the series. Chris Woakes dislocated his shoulder in the course of diving for a ball on day one, and would only bat in extremis, just to add to the variables. This has been an outstanding series, meriting comparison with the 2005 Ashes series, and in many ways that third ever tie in test history would be the most appropriate way for it to end.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

You may recall that I showed a female Karner Blue in yesterday’s gallery. This picture taken on Monday has now been confirmed as a male of the same species, which is considered to be endangered.
The female Karner Blue

Combined XI for the England v India Test Series 2025

The selection of a composite team for the 2025 test series between the England and India men’s teams, now approaching an end. Also a photo gallery.

The five test series between the England and India men’s teams is nearing an end – we are on day three of the fifth and final match, and I am not entirely convinced that day five of this match will be needed. This post picks a composite XI for the series.

SELECTION CRITERIA

This is a team of this series, so it is based on performances that have happened within this series. However, I reserve the right to alter positions in the batting order if I deem it necessary (explanations will be provided). Please feel free to comment with suggested changes, but bear in mind the effect that these will have on the balance of the side.

THE XI IN BATTING ORDER

  1. KL Rahul (India, right handed opening batter). Over 500 runs in the series, and even though Jaiswal (the unlucky candidate for an opening berth, Crawley being plain and simple not good enough) is going well in this innings a shoo-in for this slot.
  2. Ben Duckett (England, left handed opening batter). Just edges Jaiswal for this slot – both have contributed well at various stages.
  3. Shubman Gill (India, right handed batter, vice captain). At one time he seemed to have Bradman’s record aggregate for a series (974 in 1930) in his sights but has fallen off in the latter half of the series. Nevertheless, his deeds, including 430 across the two innings of the match India won, make him a shoo-in.
  4. Joe Root (England, right handed batter, occasional off spinner). Has had a fine series, highlighted by moving past Messrs Dravid, Kallis and Ponting to go from fifth to second in the list of all time test career run scorers.
  5. +Rishabh Pant (India, left handed batter, wicket keeper). Has been typical Pant with the bat, though hasn’t actually done a huge amount with the gloves this series due to injuries preventing him from doing so.
  6. Jamie Smith (England, right handed batter). England’s leading run scorer of the series, and because he plays as a pure batter in domestic red ball cricket I have given Pant the gloves ahead of him.
  7. *Ben Stokes (England, left handed batter, right arm fast medium bowler, captain). Has been talismanic this series, and England are really feeling his absence from the current match.
  8. Washington Sundar (India, left handed batter, off spinner). Made his maiden test century in the course of this series, and also did his part with the ball, including a cheap four-for in the second England innings at Lord’s.
  9. Gus Atkinson (England, right handed batter, right arm fast bowler). Has missed most of the series through injury, but he has taken eight wickets to date in the current match (and has been let down by his fielders this innings), which is enough for me to give him the nod.
  10. Akash Deep (right handed batter, right arm fast bowler). He claimed a ten wicket match haul in the only game India have won so far, and in the current match, where again India are looking in a strong position, he has contributed a maiden test 50, having been sent in as night watcher last evening and benefitted from some generosity from England’s fielders.
  11. Jasprit Bumrah (right handed batter, right arm fast bowler). The best fast bowler in the world at the moment, although India have fared better this series in the matches he has missed, his own personal performances have been splendid when he has been fit.

EXPLANATIONS/ HONOURABLE MENTIONS

I played Gill at number three rather than number four because both number fours have had great series, and none of the number threes have done especially well (if mandated to play someone who batted at three in the series I would select Pope and drop Root, but under strong protest – Pope has had an adequate series, whereas neither Sudarsan nor Nair have made a big score from number three for India). I opted to promote Gill because he is well used to batting up the order, whereas Root famously dislikes the number three slot.

Even though he fits less well with Root’s part time off spin than does Jadeja I opted for Sundar at number eight because he has done more with the ball than Jadeja this series, and I wanted to honour his maiden test century (for my money England’s petulant reaction to India’s refusal to accept the draw the very instant it became available was entirely indefensible).

The fast bowlers were problematic because only Siraj has played the entire series, and he has not been all that impressive except in being better at staying in one piece than the others. However all three of my picks have great individual performances to their credit, Deep’s 10-for being a clear cut match winner.

Gill has handled the captaincy reasonably well, but not well enough to get the job over Stokes, though I have endeavoured the show a measure of respect for his leadership by explicitly naming him as vice captain.

Duckett over Jaiswal was practically a coin flip of a choice, and I have no objection to those who resolve that decision either way. Anyone raising a voice on Crawley’s behalf merely demonstrates their lack of cricket knowledge.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

This comes from work – I am currently assembling (and imaging) day one of a stamp/ postal history sale, using the lots and handwritten descriptions thereof which I type up.
A graphic of my selections.
I spotted this near the end of my lunch time walk, more or less equidistant between the discovery centre and my home. It has been identified for me as a female Karner Blue butterfly.

Surrey Women Win T20 Vitality Blast

A mention of the final stages of the fourth test match between England and India, and some classless behaviour from Stokes, a look back at the Women’s Vitality Blast T20 Final between Surrey and Warwickshire, and a large photo gallery.

Yesterday evening, overlapping with the end of the fourth test match (by then an inevitable draw, which I switched away from while keeping a cricinfo tab open), and also with most (but not quite all since it went to extra time and penalties) of the final of the Women’s European Championship between England and Spain, the final of the Women’s T20 Vitality Blast tournament took place between Surrey (league stage winners and as such automatic qualifiers for the final) and Warwickshire. After a brief wrap up of the test match this post will look back at that match.

A DRAW AND A POOR BIT OF THINKING/ BEHAVIOUR

By the time I changed radio channels away from the test match to the final of the Women’s T20 Blast tournament the draw was effectively signed, sealed and delivered, with the sole remaining question being whether either or both of Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar would reach what I would consider to be well deserved centuries. Unfortunately Stokes, a great cricketer but not always the most sensible in other regards, failed to appreciate the niceties of this situation (Sundar especially deserved extra consideration as he had at this point not scored a test match century) and donning his “moral crusader’s cape” he offered India the draw as soon he was allowed to do so, ignoring the two milestones that were by then bulking large in the minds of the batters, and got grumpy when they did not accept his offer, preferring to bat on to secure their landmarks first and then accept the draw. The laws of this great game are unequivocal on the point that a draw can be accepted at any time in the last 15 overs of a match if both sides agree. Here, for obvious reasons, even though the draw had long been the summit of their ambitions, India were not ready to agree, and they could not be forced do. Stokes should have noted the scores of the two batters (especially Sundar), and waited until they either completed their tons or failed in the attempts. As to what actually eventuated I finish this section with two mastodon posts of mine, a few moments apart:

Post by @autisticphotographer@mas.to

View on Mastodon

and

Post by @autisticphotographer@mas.to

View on Mastodon

A TALE OF TWO SISTERS

The finals day for this competition featured a playoff in which Warwickshire faced The Blaze for the right to take on Surrey in the final and then the final itself. The first match was dominated by Issy Wong, who scored 59 and then took 4-14.

For the final Surrey won the toss and chose to bowl. Wong again batted well, but did not go really big this time, managing 31. That would remain the highest Warwickshire score of the innings. Laura Harris was typically explosive but only did half a job, going for 25 off 11 balls. It took some good work by the Warwickshire tail to get them past 150. They ended with 153-9, a good recovery from 115-8 at the dismissal of Harris, but a total that a powerful Surrey line up would have been confident of chasing.

The big difference between the two sides was that whereas Warwickshire had had lots of useful efforts but no big contribution Surrey got a clearly defined match winning innings from Grace Harris, sister of Laura (hence the title of this section of the post). Grace did not score quite as explosively as Laura had, but she did rack up an unbeaten 63, the highest score of the day, and she still only took 33 balls to make that score. The real key to her innings was that she was always scoring – of the 25 balls she took to reach her 50 she actually scored off 24 and faced only one dot ball. With Dunkley and keeper Chathli (who had earlier been superb with the gloves) playing support roles (23 off 13 and 16 not out off 9 respectively) Surrey won by five wickets with 3.2 overs to spare, a victory every bit as comprehensive as the margin suggests. Most of Warwickshire’s bowlers did reasonably well, though Millie Taylor, the young wrist spinner who was the tournament’s leading wicket taker came badly unstuck in the final, finishing with 3-0-37-0. The much more experienced Georgia Davis leaked 14 from her only over. Issy Wong was relative economical (under eight an over), but would have been disappointed to finish wicketless. It was Chathli who made the winning hit, a drive down the ground off Wong. Grace Harris, having produced score over twice the size of anyone else in the match, was named Player of the Match. Full scorecard here.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…(periodic reminder, to view an image at larger size simply click on it, and if you do this for the first image in a gallery you can view the whole gallery as a slide show).

This green beetle (see next image for close up) was enjoying some flowers not far from King’s Lynn train station.
This blue winged butterfly was enjoying a yellow plant head in Hardings Pits (four images). There is also a ladybird on the other side of the plant head.
A magpie and a muntjac – I think the magpie provides cleaning services for the muntjac which is why it is allowed to perch on it.

Heading for a Draw at Old Trafford

A look at developments in Manchester, where the test match is moving towards a draw. Also a large photo gallery.

When I put up yesterday’s post Gill and Rahul were putting up a good fight for India as day four at Old Trafford drew towards a conclusion. This post takes the story forward.

INDIA’S RESISTANCE ACT

Shubman Gill and KL Rahul were still together at the close of day four, meaning that England still needed eight more Indian wickets. Stokes had Rahul caught behind for 90 in the 71st over to make it 188-3. Gill proceeded smoothly to his fourth century of the series, a joint record for a series in England shared with Don Bradman (1930), Denis Compton (v South Africa, 1947) and Joe Root last time India visited these shores, with an honourable mention for Allan Lamb who took three tons off the mighty 1984 West Indies side and then added another in a one-off test against then newbies at that level Sri Lanka. Shortly after reaching the landmark he made the first and only mistake of his innings edging one from Archer with the new ball through to Smith behind the stumps. That was 222-4. It might have been two in two for Archer, as Jadeja edged his first ball, but Root floored the chance. Since then there have been no serious alarms, though Ollie Pope almost got to what would have been an amazing catch. Sundar and Jadeja, promoted ahead of Pant as the latter is injured, each reached 50s, and took India to the tea interval on 322-4, a lead of 11 overall. Post tea the two all rounders are playing more expansively, and England look decidedly short of ideas.

A NOTE ON SELECTIONS

My own view is that both sides have erred with their selections for this match. England, with Dawson at eight and Woakes at nine had a huge amount of batting, but as this second Indian innings is demonstrating they are short of bowling, and although the odd ball has misbehaved this has overall been a very good pitch on which to bat. India in my view were more culpable. Neither Thakur nor Kamboj offered anything with the ball, which is what they were selected to provide. Arshdeep Singh damaging his thumb just before the match started created an extra difficulty for India, who were admittedly short of options, but Kuldeep Yadav, the left arm wrist spinner, would have been more likely to be of value than either Thakur or Kamboj. The fact that this match is quite likely to finish with only two of the four innings completed (the third may end with a declaration to bring an early finish to the match, but an all out is highly unlikely) tells its own story about the domination of the bat over the five days. England will head to The Oval 2-1 up in the series.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

A goods train on its siding, from the Tennyson Road level crossing.
A beetle on a reed hanging out over the Gaywood River
A close up of the beetle.

Record Breaking from England

A look at developments at Old Trafford since yesterday, including Ben Stokes joining not one but two elite clubs this morning. Also two photo galleries of very different types.

Yesterday, as Root went past Ponting to second place in the all time list of test match run scorers I put up a post about England’s progress in the fourth test of their series against India, at Old Trafford. Since then things have moved forward, largely in England’s favour, although KL Rahul and Shubman Gill are currently batting well for India.

STOKES JOINS TWO ELITE CLUBS

Stokes and Root shared a big partnership, ended not by a dismissal but by a retirement due to cramp on Stokes’ part. Eight runs after Stokes’ retirement Root was finally out for precisely 150. That was 499-5. Neither Jamie Smith nor Chris Woakes did a huge amount with the bat, but between them they lasted long enough for Stokes to feel able to resume his innings at the fall of the seventh wicket. Stokes and Liam Dawson saw things through the close of day three, by when Stokes had advanced his score to 77. England at 544-7 were 186 ahead by then.

Dawson was eighth out at 563, but Carse now provided Stokes with good support. Two landmarks came in quick succession – when Stokes reached three figures he was only the fourth England men’s player to score a century and take a five-for in the same test match, the others being Tony Greig, Ian Botham (five times) and Gus Atkinson. Then when he struck a six to move from 108 to 114 that also took his career tally from 6,999 to 7,005 making him one of only three to have achieved the test career treble of 7,000+ runs, 200+ wickets and 100+ catches, the other two members of this club being Garfield St Aubrun Sobers, the most multi-skilled cricketer ever, and Jacques Henry Kallis, the South African superstar. By now Stokes was in full rampage mode. The fun ended for Stokes when on 141 he holed out to Sudarsan off Jadeja. That was 658-9, already a record test score at this ground, and a lead of precisely 300 on first innings. However, Stokes kept England batting, and Carse and Archer accrued 11 further runs before Carse holed out just short of what would have been his second test 50.

GALLERY ONE: AUCTION PURCHASES

James and Sons had an auction this week, which went reasonably well after a very quiet start. I was successful on two items, lot 293, a small barometer in the shape of a helmsman’s wheel and lot 359, an early (1902) set of railway themed cigarette cards. The images I took of these yesterday morning form this gallery…

The first of four images of the barometer taken in my kitchen
The barometer in its new location, atop my Czech sculpture, which is working admirably as a support for it.
Not only did I image all five sleeves of this set, I imaged every locomotive bar one individually.

INDIA’S SECOND INNINGS SO FAR

There was time for a brief burst at India before lunch, and Woakes struck twice in the first over, removing Jaiswal and Sudarsan for ducks. Since then India have had their best period of the match, not having lost a wicket between lunch and tea, nor any since tea as yet. They are scoring fairly slowly, but holding out. At the moment India are 104-2, needing 207 more to avoid the innings defeat. India probably need to bat until at least tea time tomorrow before they can feel safe, and a victory for them from here is as close as anything in red ball cricket can be to impossible.

GALLERY TWO: GENERAL

My usual sign off…

England in Command at Old Trafford

A look at what has been going on in the test match at Old Trafford, including Root’s move from fifth to second in the all time list of test match career run scorers. Also a large photo gallery.

On Wednesday morning the fourth test match of the England v India series got underway. This post looks at what has happened in the match so far.

THE PRELIMINARIES

England had selected Liam Dawson in place of the injured Shoaib Bashir, deepening their batting order in the process (Dawson is a genuine all rounder, which means that with Woakes also retained England would have Carse at number ten and Archer at eleven). For India Anshul Kamboj, who has taken all ten wickets in an innings in a first class match in India, made his debut in place of the injured Akash Deep, while in the interest of bulking up the batting medium pacer Shardul Thakur was preferred to either Prasidh Krishna or Kuldeep Yadav (who would have been my choice). Ben Stokes won the toss and opted to put India in to bat.

THE INDIAN INNINGS

The Indian upper order largely functioned quite well, but none of them managed to make a really huge score. Ben Stokes was the best of England’s bowlers, capturing five wickets. India tallied 358, respectable, but less than they would have been hoping for. Pant had had a foot broken along the way, meaning that for the second straight match Dhruv Jurel took over behind the stumps.

THE ENGLAND RESPONSE

Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley batted beautifully, though neither could make it to three figures. Crawley was first out, for 84. Duckett managed ten runs more. Pope and Root got through to the close with the score 225-2. Play resumed this morning with Root the first of the players involved to make it out to the middle. He had three test career run tallies in his sight at the start of play. Pope and Root batted superbly through the morning, and England took lunch at 332-2, a mere 26 short of parity with a huge amount of batting to come. Root by then was on 63 not out, and had passed both Rahul Dravid (13,288) and Jacques Kallis (13,289), and was now in third place in the all time list of test run scorers on 13,322, needing a further 57 to go into second and push Ponting (who played 168 tests, while this is Root’s 157th) down into third place. Washington Sundar got his bowl of the innings in the 69th over thereof, and immediately post lunch he made the delay in bringing him on look a farcically bad call by Gill, claiming the wickets of Pope (a poor shot from the Surrey man to go for 71) and Brook, out for 3. Root was still there, and now found a good partner in skipper Stokes. Just before the tea interval a single took Root’s score to 120 and his career tally to 13,379, relegating Ponting. At Root’s current rate of accumulation he will need about a further 30 test matches to close the gap to Tendulkar (15,921) at the top of the list. By the tea interval England were 433-4, 75 ahead with six first innings wickets standing, Root 121 not out, Stokes 36 not out. Incidentally this Root’s 38th test century, and due to a period a few years back when he went a long time failing to convert 50s into 100s (he has a total of 104 50+ scores in test cricket, 66 between 50 and 99 and 38 of 100+) that puts him level with Sangakkara, and behind Kallis, Ponting and Tendulkar in the career centuries list. England will be looking to bat only once – the earliest they might call a halt would be midway been lunch and tea tomorrow to give them a day and a half to polish off the Indian second innings.

PHOTOGRAPHY

My usual sign off…

I have an ID on this little green critter of ‘inchworm’. the larval stage of a certain species of moth (six photos total, two of them after I had orchestrated its transfer to a buddleia branch).
I usually focus on the teazel heads, and the insects enjoying them, but this is a shot of a whole teazel plant.

From Attritional Contest to Absolute Snorter

A look back at a test match that was always a tense, attritional contest and over the final two days became an absolute snorter of a match, plus not one but two photo galleries.

Just under three-quarters of an hour ago the third test match of the series between the England and India men’s teams came to an end. I covered the early exchanges in a previous post, and this one picks up more or less where that one left off.

EQUALITY ON FIRST INNINGS

As lunch on the third day approached India were 248-3, with Rahul approaching a century and Pant also going well. Then Rahul, not eager to take lunch with his score still in the 90s went for a run to get the strike back, Pant was hesitant and Stokes’ direct hit throw ran the Indian wicket keeper out. Shortly after the interval Rahul did complete his century, but the landmark disrupted his previously unshakeable concentration, and he was out for exactly 100, caught by Brook off Bashir. The spinner was to suffer a finger injury that severely limited his participation. Ravindra Jadeja now batted well, with support from first Reddy and then Sundar. At 376-6 it looked like the only question would be the size of India’s lead, but then Jadeja was out, edging Woakes through to Smith. The tail then folded and India were all out for 387, exact parity on first innings.

A TALE OF SHIVERED TIMBERS

England’s openers Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett got through to the close without loss, helped by getting away with some serious time wasting which ensured that there was time for only one over before the 6:30PM cut off.

The following day it soon became clear the batting conditions were much tougher than they had been early in the match. Bumrah bowled superbly, but it was Siraj who got the first breakthrough, having Duckett caught by his new ball bowling partner for 12 to make it 22-1. With scores level on first innings it did not require a wrangler to calculate the lead. Siraj behaved rather badly in the aftermath of the Duckett dismissal, to the extent that he lost some of his match fee. The second wicket was also Siraj’s, Pope LBW for just 5. Then Crawley, who had already enjoyed several slices of luck gave Jaiswal an easy catch off Reddy for 22 to make it 50-3. Root and Brook batted well for a period, but then Brook in a rather bizarre shot choice essayed a sweep at pace bowler Akash Deep, missed it and was bowled. That was 87-4. Remarkably every subsequent wicket in the England innings would also be out bowled. At 154-4 it was looking as though Root and Stokes had stabilized things for England, and speculation was on as to just how big a lead they could carve out. Then Sundar bowled Root for 40. With the most technically accomplished batter in the side gone and the pitch definitely getting tricky England fell away badly. Sundar added Stokes, Smith and Bashir to his scalp bag, Bumrah, never to be denied, dealt with Woakes and Carse. England had mustered 192 in their second innings and would need to bowl very well to defend such a total.

THE END OF DAY FOUR

Archer struck in the second over of the innings, removing Jaiswal for a duck. KL Rahul and Karun Nair scored slowly but looked reasonably comfortable, and at 41-1 it looked like England’s chances of giving India a troubled night’s sleep were fading. Then Carse pinned Nair LBW for 14, a dismissal that may have ended Nair’s return to the side as well. A few moments later Carse added the prize scalp of skipper Shubman Gill, also LBW, for just 6. With the third to last scheduled ball of the day Stokes bowled night watcher Akash Deep all ends up and India overnighted on 58-4, still needing 135 more to win.

PHOTO GALLERY ONE

I have opted to split today’s gallery into two, due its size and also because this is a fairly substantial post…

A DIGRESSION ON NIGHT WATCHERS

I have never been the hugest fan of the traditional night watcher, whereby a tail ender is sacrificed to prevent a proper batter from having to walk in that evening. When Gill was out I was thinking (and posted on mastodon to that effect) in terms of Sundar, who might had he seen it through then gone on to play a proper innings, rather than one of the genuine tail enders if India opted to protect Pant, and I regard the splattering of Deep’s stumps to end day four as a compelling exhibit against sacrificing tail enders in this fashion.

THE FINAL DAY

England started the final day splendidly. Stokes, who put in an epic shift with the ball, and Archer were the early stars. Pant had reached 9 when Archer bowled him to make it 71-5. Ten runs later KL Rahul was hit on the pads by Stokes, it was initially not given, but Stokes, who is pretty good at judging when to use DRS sent it upstairs, and the replay made it clear that it was indeed out. Rahul had scored 39, and his dismissal heaped pressure on Jadeja. Archer then held a return catch and Sundar was on his way without scoring. India were 82-7. Reddy gave Jadeja solid support for a while, lasting 53 balls for his 13 before edging Woakes to Smith. By now the ball was getting soft, and from 112-8 the Indian tail showed a resolve that until that point had been conspicuously absent from its batting. The game at this point was following a pretty much set pattern – four balls of each over at Jadeja with the field set back off the fourth of which he took a single and the last two attacking the tail ender. The scoring was painfully slow, but as the runs gradually ticked up the Indian fans in the crowd made their presence felt. After 22 overs of resistance, which had yielded 35 runs, reducing the ask to 46, Bumrah made his one and only mistake, hitting a ball from Stokes into the hands of sub fielder Sam Cook to make 147-9. Bumrah had only scored 5, but he had resisted for 54 balls. Siraj showed similar levels of determination. Bashir, with two of his fingers bound together due to one being injured, finally got a turn at the bowling crease, and he did not bowl badly. With a target of only 193 the new ball had not looked even a possibility at the start of the innings, but it was now only a few overs away. However, just a few minutes before 5PM on the final day of a contest that always been a tense, attritional affair and had over the last five and a bit sessions become a bona fide humdinger, the injured Bashir induced Siraj to play a ball into his stumps, and India were all out for 170, beaten by 22 runs, putting England 2-1 up in the series. Three results going into this final day were possible, a win for England, a win for India and a tie. The last named had it happened would have been a first in first class cricket – a completely unsplittable tie, with each side having identical first innings (387 plays 387) and second innings (192 plays 192) scores. Stokes, who had had a fine all round game, and had on the final day taken responsibility for bowling England to victory on his own shoulders and put in a truly massive effort was named Player of the Match. A full scorecard of this truly extraordinary test match can be viewed here.

PHOTO GALLERY TWO

My usual sign off…

An Attritional Contest at Lord’s

A look at developments in the test match between England and India at Lord’s so far and a huge photo gallery.

The third test of the series between England and India got underway at Lord’s yesterday. This post looks at what has happened so far.

THE PRELIMINARIES

Each side had made changes from Edgbaston. For India Jasprit Bumrah replaced Prasidh Krishna. For England Jofra Archer was in the XI for the first time in four and a half years. Josh Tongue was the player to miss out. The coin was kind to Ben Stokes, and given the heat not even he was about to bowl first (here in Norfolk the temperature has officially not quite hit 30, but it feels exceedingly hot), so England were batting.

THE PLAY

I missed most of day one due to work. I got the closing stages, which featured a bizarre stoppage when Stokes, who had already taken time out of the game by having cramp attended to, decided that he couldn’t bat with ladybirds flying around him, and that play could not continue until the insects (entirely harmless) had been made to fly away, and Root have to overnight on 99 not out. It was an old school type of day, and thus not surprising that the most old school type of player in the line up came to the fore. England had reached 251-4, very slow by their recent standards, but losing only four wickets in the day was good for them. Seven overs had disappeared from the game due to the various delays (the over rate was, as it has been today, very much new school).

Root reached three figures of the first ball of the new day, with a somewhat airy shot which flew away for four. Then Bumrah got busy. accounting for Stokes, and then Root and Woakes in consecutive balls. That was 271-7 and Bumrah had four of the wickets. Jamie Smith was now joined by Brydon Carse, not a good enough batter to called an all rounder, but the possessor of two first class centuries and a career average at that level in the high 20s. They shared a good partnership, which featured an early moment of history. When Smith reached 3 he also reached 1,000 test runs, which meant that for the first time since the Adelaide test match of 1947 England had three batters in their line up who had all scored over 1,000 test runs at an average of over 50. By lunch they had taken England not merely beyond 300, which had looked in doubt when they joined forces, but the 350 as well. Smith had clocked up 50, and even on this pitch and in a largely attritional innings it had taken him only 52 balls to get there. Carse would also go on to top 50, the first time in his test career that he has done so. Bumrah secured his place on the honours board when he clean bowled Jofra Archer, the ninth wicket of the innings and his fifth. Of those scalps four had been clean bowled and Jamie Smith had been caught by the wicket keeper. England scored 387 in total, and Bumrah, the only bowler ever to have taken over 200 test wickets at under 20 runs a piece, had 5-74.

Chris Woakes bowled the first over of the reply, and it was a shocker, conceding 13 including three boundaries, all hit off properly bad balls. Then it was time for Archer from the pavilion end. His first two balls were dots, his third took the edge of Jaiswal’s bat and flew to Harry Brook at second slip – India 13-1, Jaiswal C Brook B Archer 13. Archer bowled five overs in that spell and ended it with 1-16. India have now moved on to 61-1. Karun Nair has 33 not out and KL Rahul 15 not out. Nair’s last four was a little lucky – had Carse placed a fielder at gully it would have been catching practice, but there was no gully and it flew away for four.

PHOTOGRAPHS

There has been a lot to photograph lately – this gallery is a huge one, and that is after I pruned it a bit (and I have another ready to go, and more pictures on my camera)…

India Level the Series in Emphatic Style

A look at happenings in the last four sessions of the test match at Edgbaston and a large photo gallery.

Early yesterday evening Brydon Carse holed to Shubman Gill off Akash Deep for 38 and India had won the second test match of this series for the Anderson-Tendulkar trophy by 336 runs. It was an appropriate finale, since Gill was unquestionably Player of the Match, and Akash Deep, whose 10th wicket of the match this was had been the best bowler on either side. I had taken the story up to tea on the fourth day here. This post picks up the story from that point.

THE DECLARATION

India scored a such a rate post tea that by the time they called a halt to the slaughter, at exactly the sort of time expected by most people their lead had mushroomed to 607, meaning England needed 608 to win. Only twice has 600 been topped in the final innings of a first class match, both in timeless (played to a finish however long it takes) matches. At Durban in 1939 England scored 654-5, but their travel arrangements for the journey home from South Africa intervened, forcing an abandonment of a supposedly timeless match, the last test match to be designated as such. Just under a decade late Maharashtra scored 604 in the last innings against Bombay, but such was the preposterous scoring in that match (2,376 runs for 37 wickets!) that they still lost by 354 runs. Shubman Gill has achieved the second highest test match aggregate ever, following his 269 in the first innings with 161 second time round, the first time anyone had a 250+ and 150+ in the same test match (the record match aggregate, 456 by Graham Gooch for England against India at Lord’s in 1990, was comprised of 333 in the first innings and 123 in the second).

ENGLAND’S START

By the close of day four England were 72-3, still 536 short of a target that even the greatest of optimists surely had to admit was by then purely nominal. The three batters dismissed were Crawley, Duckett and most importantly of all Root. Akash Deep had two of them, both clean bowled, while Siraj had been gifted Crawley’s wicket courtesy of a catch to sub fielder B Sai Sudarsan. Barring rainfall of Noachian intensity it was hard to see any way out for England, and frankly they did not deserve to escape defeat either.

THE FINAL DAY

It did rain on the fifth morning, but cleared up in time for play to get underway at 12:40PM. Akash Deep made the first break through when a delivery from hit Pope’s arm and rebounded into the stumps for a dismissal recorded as ‘bowled Deep’. That was 80-4, and three runs later the other overnight batter, Harry Brook was on his way, pinned LBW by Deep for 23. I had a commitment early in the afternoon which necessitated me leaving the cricket (see here for more details). In the time I was out England lost only one further wicket, that of the skipper Stokes for 33. Smith batted superbly for the second time of the match. Woakes after resisting for a while was well caught by Siraj off the bowling of Prasidh Krishna to make it 199-7. Smith hit two successive sixes off short balls from Akash Deep, but when he tried to give a third short delivery the same treatment it was slower than its predecessors had been, he misjudged the pace and Washington Sundar held the catch. That was 226-8 and heralded the last rites of the match. Tongue scored two before he gave Siraj a catch of Jadeja. Shoaib Bashir now joined Carse and they provided some entertainment, adding a rapid 25 which included a six and a four hit by Bashir. Then came the poetic justice moment referred to in the introduction when Carse gave Gill that catch off Deep to end proceedings. Deep had 6-99 for the innings and 10-187 for the match. Siraj had 7-126 for the match, 6-70 and 1-56. This makes it almost certain that Prasidh Krishna will be the one to miss out when Bumrah comes in for the match at Lord’s that gets underway on Thursday morning, though given the remarkable disparity in his records when Bumrah is and is not in the side there is case for it being Siraj to miss out. For England two As, Archer and Atkinson are likely to play, with Tongue and Carse likely to miss out (Woakes is a virtual cheat code at Lord’s, so he will play unless actually injured, and Stokes always wants a spinner in the side). With the weather due to be blazing hot it really should be mandatory for whoever wins the toss at Lord’s to bat first.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…