4 hours ago
4
Key events Show key events only Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature
29th over: India 101-3 (Rahul 50, Pant 6) Pant immediately gets himself down the other end, so Carse consoles himself by hurling a beauty down to Rahul – it swings in and beats the edge, again with just enough lift. But a full toss follows, an edge into the on side earning two and raising a crucial 50 for the man upon whom India will be relying to navigate this innings. A further excellent delivery follows, quick and just outside off; the lead is 107.
28th over: India 98-3 (Rahul 48, Pant 5) Woakes is attacking the stumps here – I’m not sure he respects Pant’s defence. But Pant, following that absurd hoik, is playing more watchfully now, leaving when he can before, after five dots, he stretches to shove a single into the off side – meaning he’ll be on strike when Crse returns in a moment. This is intense, and it’s only getting intenser.
“Lovely memories of being a young kid and exposed to REM for the first time,” writes Ryan Amesbury. “For me, via my Dad and his mate playing Out of Time and Automatic for the People on tape in the car, now I was old enough (9) to tag along on fishing trips, which were then still a spectator sport.
I’m currently on holiday in Bosnia, and both me and my wife have been struck down with a summer cold. I thought TMS would be just the ticket for an afternoon hiding from the Mostar sun… but… “This content isn’t available in your location…” quoth the website. No Five Live Sports Extra on the BBC Sounds app. What is the Beeb doing?! So I know the OBO isn’t a helpline, but I’ve tried turning it on and off again and that hasn’t worked. How do all the fine correspondents of the OBO and TMS itself around the globe manage VPNs?!”
27th over: India 97-3 (Rahul 48, Pant 4) I really enjoy the almost balletic nature of Carse’s gather – it’s almost a prink rather than a leap – and I’m sure helps him extract the bounce he’s getting this morning. Rahul actually rides it pretty well while, in comms, Stuart Broad notes how much he’d like to bowl on this, willing a grubber to really get the batters thinking. Maiden.
“I can understand the frustration with the naming of the series trophy,” consoles Brian Withington, “when it could so obviously have been the ‘Suni(l) Jim(my) Cup’ and to hell with alphabetical order.”
26th over: India 97-3 (Rahul 48, Pant 4) Woakes replaces Bashir and Rahul shoves a single to point; how is Pant going to play here? Ahahaha, I think we know the answer to that, the rivers of suggestion driving him away; he leaves his first ball, then unloads the suitcase at the next with such violence you half expect to see his arms flying over the boundary, but instead slices an edge over slip for four.
“Morning Daniel, morning everyone,” begins Darrien Bold. “Interesting that Pete says you reference an REM deep cut? The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite was a top 20 single (and a mainstay of Now 26), so there are clearly much deeper cuts to squeeze into the OBO. Anyway, I’ll get back to enjoying the commentary team reviewing the Aus SA final and hear about how the Test was won and where it got us.”
All part of life’s rich pageant, I’d say.
WICKET! Gill b Carse 8 (India 92-3)
A huge moment! Carse has started well and Gill looks to play a run-down, but as he opens the face, the ball jags in and provokes him to play on! Now then!
25th over: India 92-2 (Rahul 47, Gill 8) It’s going to be Crydon Barse, down the hill but into the wind, and I’m really glad he’s getting a proper go at Test cricket – you could see when he started playing ODIs that he had something. Anyroad, he’s charging in with intensity; Gill yanks him around the corner to deep backward square and they run two.
24th over: India 90-2 (Rahul 47, Gill 6) A dot to begin. The lead is 96.
Shoaib Bashir has the ball, and will finish off his over from last evening.
Here come our players…
“Beautiful test but India will be disappointed with themselves,” reckons Arul Kanhere. “With all due respect to Shardul, who has rescued both India and Mumbai from dire straits … India need a player who can get in on his primary skill and be handy with the secondary one. Shardul is helping with none at the moment." This could always come back to bite me in the ass if the top order collapses and Lord Thakur scores a century … beautiful game.”
“Maybe Sunil Gavaskar is still cheesed off at the Australia-India trophy being called Border-Gavaskar rather than Gavaskar-Border,” suggests Andy Flintoff, “because, obviously, he has the better record (AB averages 50.56, SG averages 51.12).”
That pesky alphabet again – though also worth noting AB has 39 Test wickets.
Email! “Thanks for the REM deep cut so early in the OBO,” writes Pete. “As a longtime tragic fan, I approve. I do dislike that song though. At their most annoying, alongside Shiny Happy People.”
It’s not one of my favourites either, but SHP has a place in my heart because it was, after Near Wild Heaven, the first REM song I heard and, aged 11, it moved me. What a band, though – at 46, I feel I can say that they are both my favourite and the best of my music-listening career.
On which point, if anyone has any Glastonbury recommendations, send em in.
Athers, meanwhile, notes that Dinesh Karthik was “part of the elite commentary panel” – notably, he was not, which is unusual. Perhaps he needs to get dapperer.
On Sky, they’re talking about the WTC final – and what an occasion that was. I was lucky enough to be there on days one and three, and it felt like the start of something. I can’t deny that on Friday morning, we felt Australia had more than enough runs, but as South Africa’s response developed, we realised that for Aiden Markram and Temba Bavuma, this was it. The Aussie team and players have their legacies assured, but for these two, it was bringing this home or nothing, and watching them do it was so moving.
So let’s talk turkey: how many runs will India want? My sense is that, though the Headingley track generally gets better to bat on, the unusually clement will mean it’s crumblier and flakier than usual – ideal for Bumrah and not bad for Jadeja either. I reckon India will want 350, but my sense is England will either successfully chase almost any target they’re set, or get nowhere near anything sub sub sub sub substantial.
It’s windy and chilly in Leeds this morning which makes sense – generally speaking, the east of the country is cold, the west is rainy. Ian Ward has his anorak on, while Stuart Broad is in blazer and off-white drainpipe chinos. Just as well he’s got 604 Test wickets.
Do these two handsome devils look alike?
There’s something very sweet about one Little Master repping for another but … have you heard of the alphabet?
Preamble
So, four-day Tests, then: who’s up for those?
I can’t lie, it’s tempting to leave this preamble there – and not just to avoid writing any more words because really, what kind of people would seek to curtail the world’s greatest sporting format? But the format itself and this particular iteration of it deserve better than a pithy line directed at those who would happily ruin it for money, so let’s also wonder about the actual contest.
It’s impossible to predict what’s going to happen from here. India look the likelier because Bumrah and a wearing day-five pitch sound like the most unpleasant double-act imaginable … except the ability of Baz n’ Ben’s Testvangelists to chase previously ungettable targets is like nothing we’ve ever seen before. It’d be no surprise to see India bat too long , just as it’d be none were the greatest bowler in the world to tear through England in a session.
In other words, it feels like the direction this match takes is up to the tourists. Of course, it’s possible England knock them over then knock off the runs, but far more likely that India set a testing target with all three results possible well into tomorrow.
And though a result some time on the final afternoon is part of the perfect Test pro forma, it’s not actually the most powerful argument in favour of keeping things as they are. Many great matches end sooner than the fifth day, but the potential existence of that fifth day necessarily impacts those which come before it. Our society primes us to constantly be seeking better and different, which is fine – as long as we can also recognise that sometimes, things are great as they are. And make no mistake, this is, and is going to be that.
Play: 11am BST
