Key events
13th over: England 71-1 (Duckett 34, Pope 32) Krishna continues after drinks. The intensity has dipped slightly, like the school playground when the bully is inside doing extra spellings.
12th over: England 67-1 (Duckett 30, Pope 32) The players take drinks after Siraj’s latest. Duckett plays and misses at the last ball. Have a Tizer and settle down lad.
England ticking along at over five an over despite the early loss of Zak Crawley. Tea will be taken between 16:50 – 17:10 and the final session will go from 17:10 – 18:43.
Plenty of cricket left to be played today and it looks like the rain is staying away. Penny for your thoughts on a potential close of play position?
12th over: England 65-1 (Duckett 29, Pope 31) Pope drives elegantly for four off Krishna and picks up a bonus boundary as Bumrah lets a ball through his legs whilst sweeping up. The crowd emit a loud cheer/jeer. Don’t rile him up then!
11th over: England 56-1 (Duckett 28, Pope 23) The clouds have lifted a bit at Headingley and this pair have settled into their work. Two singles off Siraj. Positively sedate out there now. Still searingly tropical in the press box, FYI.
10th over: England 54-1 (Duckett 27, Pope 22) Duckett pounces on a short ball from Krishna and pulls it away over the leg side for four. Will Bumrah be back for another? Nope, he’s been given a breather by Gill and so have England. Siraj to bowl next with a change of ends. And Breathe. But not too deeply. Fifty up for England.
9th over: England 47-1 (Duckett 20, Pope 22) Shot! Duckett drives Bumrah on the up for four. There’s that straight bat! I’m harping on aren’t I?
8th over: England 41-1 (Duckett 16, Pope 20) Prasidh Krishna replace Siraj and Pope and Duckett have a look, for the moment. Two singles off it.
GOOD NEWS: Jofra Archer is set for a long-awaited return to first-class cricket in Sussex’s County Championship clash at Durham. The England fast bowler’s appearance in the Division One fixture at the Banks Homes Riverside, starting on Sunday, will be his first red-ball outing in more than four years following a litany of injuries. He was surprisingly absent when Sussex announced a 12-strong squad to travel to Chester-le-Street on their website, raising concerns the 30-year-old had suffered another frustrating injury setback. But the England and Wales Cricket Board later clarified Archer was among Sussex’s contingent for the contest.
England would love to have him play a part in this series. A Lord’s return is being mooted. Wouldn’t that be something.
7th over: England 39-1 (Duckett 15, Pope 19) DROP! Blow me down with a rhubarb leaf. Jadeja spills a regulation chance at backward point! Duckett slaps the final ball of the over in the air straight and it goes in the hands and straight back out again. Jadeja and India can’t believe it. Duckett is one lucky boy.
6th over: England 39-1 (Duckett 15, Pope 19) The crowd are fully engrossed in the contest, not a beer snake in sight. Siraj pounds in from the Rugby end, four dots in a row as he targets Pope’s off stump. Too straight and whipped for four by Pope. He middled that one.
Gah! Don’t do that! Pope throws his hands at a wide one and plays an ugly stroke that he would be mortified to get out to. No foot movement and just a waft. You know that line in The Departed where Ray Winstone’s character tells Leonardo Di Caprio’s (in a ropey Boston accent) that “There are people you can hit and there are people you can’t hit..”
Well there are ways to get out (nicking an unplayable Bumrah snorter say) and there are ways to not get out (tamely poking a Siraj wide ball to point). Capiche?
It’s just a shot away, it’s just a shot away!
5th over: England 35-1 (Duckett 15, Pope 15) Pope edges Bumrah with a twisted blade and nearly suffers the exact same fate as Zak Crawley! He’s a lucky lad as the edge bisects third slip and gully at chest height and flies away for four. Play straight! Yes I sound about ninety years old. Eeeesht. Duckett steps away and flays off the back foot, the ball squirts through the cordon for another four but England are well on truly on the rocks here against Jasprit Bumrah.
4th over: England 24-1 (Duckett 11, Pope 8) “Bumrah must be literally licking his lips at the prospect of bowling at some nervous English lads on a juiced-up wicket under heavy skies…AT HEADINGLEY!” emails Jeremy Boyce.
“Can there be a better Test ground in England to bowl quick stuff when it’s “doing something”? What’s the forecast for the rest of the afternoon ?Apart from wickets…”
It has brightened up at Headingley but the rain hasn’t diluted the atmospheric pressure. If I may get my Schafernacker on. You get my drift. It’s muggy as mate. Certainly the trickiest conditions to bat so far in the match but the pitch is still an absolute belter. Ben Duckett proves it with a punch through mid-off and a late cut past point to pick up two boundaries off Siraj.
3rd over: England 14-1 (Duckett 1, Pope 8) Bumrah sends down a searing yorker to Pope and it pins him on the toe. There’s a huge appeal, arms akimbo in the air from bowler, keeper and cordon. Not out say the umpire but India fancy it and send it upstairs. NOT OUT! The ball pitched outside the line of leg stump by a gnat’s eyebrow and so India lose a review and Pope survives. Another probing over from the man with the bullwhip arm, every ball an event. Test match cricket at its finest.
2nd over: England 13-1 (Duckett 1, Pope 8) Duckett clips a single to leg to get off the mark. Pope then opens his account with a four through midwicket to a straight ball, that’s what Crawley was trying to do but Pope did’t turn the bat so much. Pope then picks up four more with a glide wide of point with velveteen hands.
1st over: England 4-1 (Duckett 0, Pope 0) Here’s Ollie Pope. England off to a poor start. Mohammed Siraj is going to share the new ball. Don’t go anywhere.
WICKET! Zak Crawley c Nair b Bumrah 4 (England 4-1)
Bumrah stutters and jerks into the crease with the floodlights beaming down. His first ball is back of a length and Crawley leaves it alone (with the benefit of the doubt). Bumrah beats him with a beauty that is fuller and jags away off the seam. Four! Crawley gets a thick edge off a forward poke and the ball flies low wide of slip to the boundary. England on their way. The fact they aren’t staring down the barrel of a 550-600+ is a real boon for them.
Gone! Zak Crawley tries turns the blade to try and whip Bumrah off his pads but the ball straightens enough to take the edge and it flies to slip where KL Rahul takes a fine catch. Being harsh I think that is a poor shot in the first over against the world’s best bowler. It did move sharply but the margin for error by flicking and trying to hit square rather than with a straight bat up to mid-on is so much higher. It was a good ball though, as you’d expect. More pressure heaped on Crawley you’d think with young Bethell waiting in the wings.
Bumrah prowls at the top of his mark. Zak Crawley is on strike. Here’s the game right here. Play!
James Wallace
Thanks Rob and hello all. Very sprightly* and not at all emanating a slight eau de Yorkshire ale and curry after reconvening with my three Leeds dwelling brothers yesterday afternoon post OBO stint.
The covers are indeed coming off and the drizzle has abated. India’s bowlers are going through their paces on the outfield, they are positively champing at the bit to get out there under lights and muggy skies. Here come the umpires! We’ll be back on shortly.
Buckle up, it’s Bumrah Time!
*Anyone got any paracetamol and possibly a quart of flat Coca-Cola?
Good news: the covers are coming off, though we don’t have a restart time yet. But this is a good moment for me to tag in a sprightly James Wallace for the rest of the day. Thanks for your company and brain food; see you tomorrow.
Rishabh Pant’s wagon wheel
It’s for a right-hander, to keep all the wagon wheels consistent, so 88 of his 134 runs came on the leg side.
Another potential statgasm
I need to double check this but I’m pretty sure India’s total of 471 is the lowest completed Test innings to include three centuries. The previous best (sic) was South Africa’s 475 against England in 2015-16.
The bad news: it’s raining.
The good news: I’ve learned more about the brain than in my previous 18,042 days on earth.
“I’m a speech therapist specialising in neurological conditions, so I have that dangerous thing, a little knowledge,” writes John Swan. “The spike in performance I think is very likely to be multifactorial, neuro-wise. I’m going to hazard it’s partly to do with attention (there are a number of different types or modes that the brain switches into, depending on whether you need to focus on one task (performing neurosurgery, let’s say) or keep abreast of several (like being a nurse in charge of a four-bedded bay). That’s your frontal and temporal lobes in action, also firing broad processes like executive function (decision-making essentially).
“This is where the spike followed by the drop-off might be explained. Your brain can’t keep itself in executive mode for long periods. I know from personal experience that after a day in clinic, where I might have worked with a succession of clients with, say, motor neurone disease, MS, stroke and Parkinsonism, it’s like I use up my brain’s store of executive function, so that if you were to ask me at 7pm whether I’d like a cup of tea my response might be, ‘Errr… I don’t know.’
“This is clearly a million miles away from a definitive answer but I’m hoping it’s got the hare running and one of the other brilliant OBOers can pick up the, um, baton.”
I know a bit about executive function due to the impact of ADHD and ASD, so that fatigue (or whatever the appropriate word is) makes perfect sense.
And on an uncomfortably serious note, thanks to all of you for the emails on this subject – it’s been really fascinating.
Rain stops play
The rain is getting heavier. England’s openers were halfway to the middle when the umpires called for the covers; they didn’t look too unhappy to spin on their heels and go back to the dressing-room. England would much rather start their innings in sunshine.
The players are back on the field. England’s trial by Bumrah (and Siraj, and Krishna, and the rest) is about to begin.
On Sky Sports, Mark Wood has confirmed that Ben Stokes’ celebration was “rabbit pie”.
“OK the captaincy may be an English affliction,” says Max Williams. “Steve Smith averaged 68 as captain, Jayawardene 59 and Garry Sobers 58. Some chap called Don Bradman averaged 101.
”Graeme Smith, Kane Williamson, Kohli and Pointing all coped fine in more recent examples. Obviously these are generational players but Cook, Root, Strauss knew how to hold a bat and all regressed quite dramatically after the first year.”
It does feel more pronounced with England but plenty of other captains have followed a similar arc. Michael Clarke comes to mind, though I appreciate his case is complicated by the death of Phil Hughes. I just looked and Clarke’s year-on-year averages as captain were 39, 106, 48, 36 and 21. Mark Taylor struggled desperately in the mid-1990s, though his best spell with the bat (while captain) came at the end rather than the start.
Josh Tongue’s fourth wicket was celebrated extravagantly… but only by Ben Stokes, who motioned as if he was wolfing down a bowl of soup or something. Maybe it’s a reference to gobbling up the tail, I’ve no idea. Whatever the gesture, it’s classic Stokes: he could have had a five-for himself, maybe a seven-for, but he did the right thing for the team and couldn’t have been happier for the young player who took the wickets. What a human being.
The covers are coming on It was spitting as Tongue bowled to Krishna, and the groundstaff got to work as soon as the stumps were disturbed. It looks like a passing shower.
Tongue ends with figures of 20-0-86-4, having taken four wickets for eight runs in 17 balls. Flattering figures, but he won’t care and nor should he.
WICKET! India 471 all out (Krishna b Tongue 0)
Krishna misses, Tongue hits and India have lost their last seven wickets for 41.
WICKET! India 469-9 (Jadeja b Tongue 11)
India’s unlikely collapse continues. They’ve lost six wickets for 39, with Jadeja the latest to fall. He pushed at a good ball from Tongue, bowling round the wicket, and dragged it onto the stumps. It’s been a fine comeback from England but the prospect of facing Jasprit Bumrah in these conditions won’t fill their hearts with joy.
112th over: India 469-8 (Jadeja 11, Siraj 1) Four more to Jadeja, lifted handsomely to long-on off the new bowler Carse. The ball, which is 32 overs old, is swinging nicely with the lights on.
111th over: India 463-8 (Jadeja 6, Siraj 1) Jadeja is on the attack now that India are eight down. He gets four with a pull that slithers under Carse on the boundary; a rare misfield from him.
WICKET! India 458-8 (Bumrah c Brook b Tongue 0)
Ben Stokes, one wicket away from his first five-for in eight years, looks at the bigger picture and takes himself out of the attack. His replacement Josh Tongue shows him what he could have won by immediately taking the wicket of Jasprit Bumrah, caught at second slip after edging a drive. Two wickets for Tongue, with the chance of two more to come.
110th over: India 454-7 (Jadeja 2, Bumrah 0) Bashir bowls to Jadeja with a slip, leg slip and a whole lotta forward defensives. A maiden. The lights are now on at Headingley. It won’t happen but there’s a case for India declaring to make the most of these conditions.
“Am I the only person in the country who thinks we have a chance?” says Max Williams. “Maybe I need to accept it’s no longer 2022.
Has any captain improved their average over their tenure? Gooch maybe? Certainly every English captain of my lifetime got increasingly weighed down – Stokes may be the only exception, partially because he was never a huge run scorer to begin with. Vaughan might have averaged 50 if he’d stayed in the ranks but it was certainly a worthwhile tradeoff.”
Yeah, with the majority it balances out by the end. Gooch was exceptional in so many ways: he averaged 59 as captain, 36 in the ranks. Mike Gatting’s record was also much better as captain I think.
109th over: India 454-7 (Jadeja 2, Bumrah 0) Ben Stokes finishes the over he started before lunch with a couple of dot balls to Jasprit Bumrah. It’s a bit gloomier in Leeds, which is usually good news for the quick bowlers.
“For some years now,” begins Alan Tuffery, “I have been gently wishing that England could produce a team of players with monosyllabic surnames. I fancy that the current team’s eight may be the record. (Some fella called Anderson mucked it up for several decades.)”
I thought about it during the lunch break and couldn’t get anywhere near eight, so you might be right.
There was a bit of rain during the lunch break. The covers were on, but now they’re off and play should resume in a few minutes.
Lunchtime reading
Lunch
Fascinating stuff at Headingley. India looked set for 650+ as Shubman Gill and a rampant Rishabh Pant extended their fourth-wicket partnership to 209. Then Gill was deceived by Shoaib Bashir and England seized their opportunity. Karun Nair was out for 0, Pant fell for 134 and Shardul Thakur nicked off to give Ben Stokes his fourth wicket.
India are still on top – sound the bleedin’ obvious klaxon – but it’s been an impressive comeback from England.
WICKET! India 454-7 (Thakur c Smith b Stokes 1)
Ben Stokes completes a fine morning for England with another wicket just before lunch. Thakur throws everything at a wide, seductive outswinger and snicks it into the gloves of Jamie Smith. Four wickets for Stokes, who has been immense, and India have slipped from 430/3 to 454/7
108th over: India 454-6 (Jadeja 2, Thakur 1) The new batter Shardul Thakur survives a run-out referral after a direct hit from Carse at midwicket. Carse is such a good fielder, particularly for a fast bowler.
Time for one last over before lunch.
WICKET! India 453-6 (Pant LBW b Tongue 134)
Rishabh Pant, a man with every shot known to man and a few more besides, has padded up to a straight one. He got in a real tangle against Tongue, who bowled a good nipbacker from round the wicket, and was plumb LBW.
Pant gets a standing ovation from the Headingley crowd for a royally entertaining and often hilarious innings: 134 from 178 balls with 12 fours and six sixes.
107th over: India 453-5 (Pant 134, Jadeja 2) India sent somebody out at the end of the previous over, apparently with a message to Rishabh Pant to simmer down until lunch. Half an hour they were looking at 700; if they lose Pant now they might not make 500.
Jadeja, on 1, chips Stokes in the air and just wide of the diving Pope at midwicket. Stokes is getting a hint of swing, more than anybody else this morning. I’m trying to remember when he last bowled this well. It’s been at least three years, probably five, possibly eight.
“Hi Rob,” says Ruth Purdue. “Did Karun have a Nair?”
I hate myself for this, but I think it’s pronounced ‘Nigh-er’ rather than ‘Nare’. Does that matter? Am I the unacceptable face of the pun police? Is there even an acceptable face.
106th over: India 450-5 (Pant 132, Jadeja 1) Josh Tongue replaces Shoaib Bashir and appeals for LBW when Pant jumps across his stumps. Not out, but a pretty good shout because he was a long way across. Might have been too high.
Three singles from the over. Pant loses a shoe while running the last of them; good job his batting partner is Ravindra Jadeja and not Christopher Moltisanti.
(NB: CLIP CONTAINS ADULT LANGUAGE.)
