wellnessfitpro
Key events
41st over: England 158-5 (Cox 54, Smith 25) Cox is beaten by successive jaffas from Cox. The first straightened sharply from a length, the second burst past Cox’s nose. An extremely good maiden over.
“Hi Rob,” writes Phil Crockford. “This is the first time that both England batters have been varieties of apple since… the previous wicket. The St. Lawrence apple is, Google tells me, a variety of apple created in the 19th century in Montreal.”
40th over: England 158-5 (Cox 54, Smith 25) Smith defiles Usman through the covers for four more. After a dry spell of 18 runs in 12 overs, England have bashed 29 in the last three.
39th over: England 151-5 (Cox 53, Smith 19) Mohammad Abbas (13-3-38-3) is replaced by Muhammad Ali. His second delivery stings like a butterfly: it’s on the pads, a piece of nonsense really, and Smith helps himself to four through midwicket.
Ali tightens his line as the over progresses. Smith is beaten, trying to drive, and then edges past the diving Rizwan for four. Rizwan should have taken that – he dived past the ball, which you don’t see too often, and he was too deep in the first place.
38th over: England 142-5 (Cox 53, Smith 11) The hitherto immaculate Ali Usman bowls successive long hops to Cox, who pulls both for four to reach a mature half-century from 88 balls. He’s the first England men’s player to make a fifty in his first two Test innings at No3 since… Ravi Bopara in 2009.
Usman has suddenly lost the plot, or at least his length. Another half tracker is banjoed to the cover boundary by Smith. Usman’s first six overs cost 11 runs; the seventh has disappeared for 13.
37th over: England 129-5 (Cox 44, Smith 7) A maiden from Abbas to Smith. He’s making England work for every dot ball, never mind every run, by giving them almost nothing they can leave.
“With due credit to Totes McGotes over at the nefarious bed of infamy that is CCLive!, when was the last time England had a partnership involving two varieties of apple (apart from the last time these two batted together)?” chomps Brian Withington. “Or any other fruit for that matter – let the OBO hive mind loose, I say.”
I’m still reeling from the description of our county cricker blog as a nefarious bed of infamy.
36th over: England 129-5 (Cox 44, Smith 7) Smith feels tentatively for a beauty from Usman and edges it just wide of slip. The ball runs away for England’s first boundary since the 21st over. They’re stonewalling on Bazball’s grave!
On Sky Sports, Dinesh Karthik highlights why Pakistan’s slip cordon should be a lot closer to the bat. For a second I thought he was going to belt out the refrain to Transatlanticism by Death Cab.
(NB: Clip contains adult language. Probably, I can’t remember.)
Back to the quiz question nobody is talking about (see 33rd over).
“IR Bell?” wonders Tom Paternoster-Howe.
Nope, I think he made 71 and 31 at Multan in 2005. And you know I don’t like to talk about Multan 2005, Tom.
35th over: England 123-5 (Cox 43, Smith 2) Smith crouches to keep out a straight ball from Abbas that keeps a bit low. He’s started a little tentatively; only a touch, let’s not make a big thing of it. If he’s 3 not out from 100 balls we can revisit the subject.
Alec Gregory points out that England’s score is one two three for five.
34th over: England 123-5 (Cox 43, Smith 2) “I can report that Sam Cook has made it up from Lord’s to Chelmsford and responded by bowling impeccably at Surrey with parsimonious figures of 6-4-1-8,” writes Brian Withington. “Prised out the redoubtable Sibley and could easily have been 4-8. Top bowler.”
He’s taken eight for one?! But seriously, it’s a crime against skill that he’s a one-cap wonder
33rd over: England 122-5 (Cox 43, Smith 1) Cox chases a wide tempter from Mohammad Abbas and is beaten. The run-out must be rattling around his noggin, even if he was probably correct to send Lawrence back.
Cox needs to refocus, mainly because there’s a niche stat at stake, one that would make me inordinately happy: he needs seven runs to become the first England player to reach 50 in their first two Test innings at No3 since…
32nd over: England 120-5 (Cox 42, Smith 0) Jamie Smith props forward to defend his first few deliveries. Ali Usman has started nicely and has figures of 4-1-4-0.
Dan Lawrence has been run out straight after drinks. He worked Ali Usman to the right of midwicket and set off like world peace depended on him taking a single. Cox shaped to go before changing his mind, and Lawrence was well short when Rizwan collected Masood’s flat throw and swished his hands into the stumps.
WICKET! England 120-5 (Lawrence run out 17)
What a shemozzle!
Afternoon one, afternoon all. Thanks to Taha for a marathon shift – the OBO equivalent of a 12-over spell, into the wind, with the old ball.
Taha Hashim
31st over: England 118-4 (Lawrence 15, Cox 42) I’ve already said this several times, but why isn’t Rizwan up to the stumps when Abbas is bowling to Cox? Anyway, it’s time for Rob Smyth to ask the hard-hitting questions. Thanks for reading!
30th over: England 116-4 (Lawrence 15, Cox 42) Lawrence and Cox – two men who can really whack it – are playing it cool. They take just one off Usman.
29th over: England 115-4 (Lawrence 15, Cox 41) Mohammad Abbas returns and is as reliable as ever, conceding a couple of singles.
28th over: England 113-4 (Lawrence 14, Cox 40) Tailenders listeners will recognise that Usman is bowling some Lovely Loopy Stuff. He concedes just one off another fine over.
27th over: England 112-4 (Lawrence 13, Cox 40) Shahzad, angling the ball in before nipping it away from the right-hander, is getting Cox into some slightly awkward shapes. Some pressure builds as Shahzad strings together six dots …. Nah, scrap that: Shahzad has overstepped.
26th over: England 111-4 (Lawrence 13, Cox 40) Spin for the first time today, with Ali Usman ready to tweak. He took five at Headingley and finds his spot quickly, finding some spin to twirl it past Lawrence’s outside-edge. It’s a beautiful start by the left-armer, tossing it up and inviting Lawrence to try give it a whack. The batter resists and Usman has a maiden.
25th over: England 111-4 (Lawrence 13, Cox 40) Shahzad oversteps as he plots the dismissal of Lawrence, who should have gone in the bowler’s previous over. And then he oversteps again before Lawrence makes life worse, whipping for three. Four leg-byes follow before an edge, off Cox, drops short on Imam-ul-Haq in the Pakistan slip cordon, which has looked iffy all day.
24th over: England 100-4 (Lawrence 10, Cox 38) Can Ali complete Pakistan’s first maiden of the day? He lands five dots before Cox flashes hard outside off … and misses.
23rd over: England 100-4 (Lawrence 10, Cox 38) Shahzad can’t believe he hasn’t got Lawrence – a gorgeous nip-backer narrowly evades the stumps. And then the same ball follows moments later! And then, oh dear, another drop by Pakistan. Lawrence plays an audacious whip and Shan Masood should be taking that at midwicket, at a fairly comfortable height. Oh, Pakistan. Why do you do this?
22nd over: England 98-4 (Lawrence 8, Cox 38) Mohammad Abbas is getting loose – he’ll be on shortly. For now it’s Ali, who finds shape and a leading edge off Cox, the ball dropping just short of point. Cox suddenly looks a bit troubled, with Ali whizzing the ball past the outside edge after the batter dances down the pitch. This is good from Ali … until the umpire’s arm is raised to mark his fourth no-ball of the day. We’re still waiting for our first maiden in this innings.
21st over: England 97-4 (Lawrence 8, Cox 38) Shahzad nibbles the ball away from Lawrence, who pushes at it – an edge runs away to the ropes. Lawrence makes a big jump to the off-side to the next delivery and is trying his best to pepper the on-side.
20th over: England 92-4 (Lawrence 4, Cox 37) Mohammad Ali has the ball from the other end, and Dan Lawrence doesn’t quite middle a cover drive, taking two to close the over.
19th over: England 89-4 (Lawrence 2, Cox 36) Shahzad is too short and wide, and Cox punches off the back-foot for four. The Essex man just looks a Test player, doesn’t he? An off-drive takes Cox to 36 off 35.
Time to get going again. Jordan Cox will line up for the first delivery after the break.
With Sky playing an interview with Imran Khan’s sons, it’s worth reading this by the brilliant Osman Samiuddin.
Peter Walker writes in:
It will be interesting to see how Cox & Lawrence bat together. Essex nabbed Cox from Kent when Surrey nabbed Lawrence from Essex. Since that happened I would say that Essex got the better deal.
Ooh, I don’t know – it’s worked out well for everyone. Lawrence’s first-class record at Surrey is brilliant: 32 matches, 2,327 runs at 55.4, including nine hundreds.
Harry Brook’s wicket makes it Pakistan’s session. They’ve not looked all that sharp in the field but Mohammad Abbas has shown enough magic with the new ball, while Mohammad Rizwan took a cracking grab down the leg-side to get rid of Emilio Gay.
Lunch
Ali oversteps again, for the third time today, before launching a wild leg-before appeal against Dan Lawrence. It’s clearly going down the leg-side, even if Ali’s plea is passionate. It’s the two new boys (sort of) who must rescue England. But first: we must all eat.
18th over: England 80-4 (Lawrence 2, Cox 27)
WICKET! Brook b Ali 15 (England 77-4)
Bowled him! Huge for Pakistan! Mohammad Ali wobbles the ball into Harry Brook and gets some sharp movement to rattle the stumps!
17th over: England 77-3 (Brook 15, Cox 27) Mohammad Abbas is finally granted a rest. Khurram Shahzad has to lock in for the next few minutes and he keeps things quiet, conceding a single.
16th over: England 72-3 (Brook 14, Cox 27) Ali oversteps for the second time in his spell, suggesting he’s still trying to get to grips with his run-up. He surprises Cox with an in-ducker but the No 3 closes the over with a lush off-drive for four and a clip down the leg-side for another boundary. He’s on 27 off 26 balls.
15th over: England 66-3 (Brook 13, Cox 19) Abbas is into his eighth over as Rizwan comes up to the stumps … and Brook punches gracefully through point for four. Brook is still starting outside his crease with the keeper up before rocking back to play.
#England #Pakistan #mens #cricket #Test #day #live #England #Pakistan
