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26th over: England 98-4 (Brook 5, Stokes 0) The game moves on rapidly in this first morning session. We’ve still got ten minutes to go until lunch. Ben Stokes survives his first ball.
WICKET! Duckett lbw b Noman Ali 52 (England 98-4)
Pinned by a pearoller! Duckett looks down at the wicket in disgust but he has to go. The ball from Noman scudded into his ankle, no exaggeration. “What we used to call a gazunder” says David Gower on the tv commentary. They’ll be dusting off the Carl Hooper to Nasser Hussain shooter in no time at all I’d wager.
25th over: England 96-3 (Duckett 51, Brook 4) Duckett clips for two to bring up his fifty off 76 balls. Pedestrian by his standards.
Mark Coward wants a turn or he’s taking his ball home…
“Noman Ali and Sajid Khan have now bowled in tandem unchanged for 71.5 overs (and counting) across 3 separate innings in 2 Test matches, taking 17 wickets for 289 runs. Is this a Test record? Is anyone else going to get a chance to bowl?”
23rd over: England 91-3 (Duckett 48, Brook 2) Brook thick edges wide of slip to get off the mark. Duckett hands back the strike with a punch to mid on. He’s playing a lot straighter in this innings, just an observation. More as it happens.
22nd over: England 87-3 (Duckett 46, Brook 0) The bins are collected here in London. Smell the glamour! Sweeter aroma in Rawalpindi as Ben Duckett launches Sajid Khan down the ground for SIX! A lot resting on Duckett now as the set batter and England losing quick wickets. As I type that he is beaten by a ripper that spits past the outside edge. A good time not a long time springs to mind.
21st over: England 81-3 (Duckett 40, Brook 0) The ball is really skidding on low now, Harry Brook is nearly cleaned up playing back and aiming a drive into the off side, showing all his stumps in the process.
“Afternoon James, I’m conflicted. Obviously, I want to keep up to date with all the red hot OBO action, however every time I open it up England lose a wicket.
Should I abandon you and sacrifice my cricketing pleasure for the good of the game? Or do I plough on and hope it was just a two time thing…”
‘Thanks’ for staying with us Phil Withall. We know you did.
WICKET! Joe Root lbw b Sajid Khan 5 (England 80-3)
No Joe! Root goes back to a ball he should’ve played forward to and is STONE DEAD lbw. He doesn’t bother reviewing and stomps off furious at his mistake. Sajid got it to turn and the spin was a bit sharper than it has been all morning. In comes Harry Brook, England teetering a little now.
20th over: England 77-2 (Duckett 37, Root 4) Root is busy, clipping and gliding to get his account ticking. Duckett reverse sweeps for three more as both Noman Ali and Sajid Khan complete ten overs apiece unchanged.
19th over: England 71-2 (Duckett 34, Root 1) Joe Root arrives at the crease and sweeps his first ball away for a single to keep strike.
Pope never looked comfortable at the crease, a man grappling with his process and the best way to go about scoring runs in these conditions. Here’s a bloke who scored one of the all time great English Test centuries in Hyderabad earlier this year looking all at sea ten months later. You never crack Test cricket.
WICKET! Pope lbw b Sajid Khan 3 (England 70-2)
Sajid Khan gets Pope once again! Attempted sweep and pinned lbw in front of all three. Pope reviews in vain and has to go, his underwhelming series with the bat continues.
18th over: England 68-1 (Duckett 34, Pope 1) Eventful over! Pope edges Noman Ali short of slip, the ball dying on the turf before it could be grabbed. The Surrey man is off the mark into the covers off his next ball. Duckett then blasts the bowler back over his head for four with an uncharacteristic stroke. Close! Duckett drives in the air a la Crawley and the ball just lands short of mid off. Phew.
17th over: England 63-1 (Duckett 30, Pope 0) Sajid Khan with the first over after drinks. Duckett reverse sweeps for four and then drives back down the ground, was that a chance? Yes – a tough one, the ball skimming a few centimetres off the ground and hitting Sajid in the wrist. Has to go down as a drop. Sorry but them’s the rules.
16th over: England 57-1 (Duckett 24, Pope 0) Pope is watchful, blocking out six dots to Noman Ali with fielders close in and breathing down his neck. Time for a drink in Rawalpindi and some Toddler negotiations here in London. An absorbing first hour of play.
15th over: England 56-1 (Duckett 23, Pope) Dot follows dot follows dot. Sajid Khan stitches together a maiden to Duckett as Pakistan build some pressure.
14th over: England 56-1 (Duckett 23, Pope) Pope is due a big score, he’s averaging just a smidge over 17 in the series thus far. Crawley won’t like the look of his dismissal on the replay, tossed up by Noman and suckered into a wafty drive.
WICKET! Crawley c Saim Ayub b Noman Ali 29 (England 56-1)
Gone! Not a good shot by Crawley who spoons a drive to offer a simple catch to backward point. Pakistan get the breakthrough and here comes Ollie Pope.
13th over: England 54-0 (Crawley 28, Duckett 23) Crawley smashes another sweep shot in the ankle of the short leg fielder who stops four and will get a big old bruise for his efforts. Oooh loose! Crawley plays a flat footed waft at the next ball and is beaten on the inside edge.
12th over: England 50-0 (Crawley 27, Duckett 20) Pakistan lose a review after going upstairs to have a look at a Duckett sweep to Noman Ali. The ball was spinning past leg stump and Shan Masood gives a rueful grimace as it is shown on the big screen. Duckett gets off strike to leave Crawley with the final ball of the over. The big man duly sweeps imperiously for four to bring up the fifty partnership.
11th over: England 43-0 (Crawley 22, Duckett 19) Mike Atherton has since claimed that, “All I know is this pitch looks a good one to bat first on…” dialling back on the suggestions that it is very flat. It is perhaps too flat… in that it isn’t bouncing higher than the knee roll on early evidence.
10th over: England 41-0 (Crawley 21, Duckett 18) “Is it morning time?!” bellows my three year old. Trouble incoming. Not for England, yet. Three runs worked off Noman Ali without any drama.
9th over: England 38-0 (Crawley 18, Duckett 18) Crawley was presented with his 50th Test cap by his opening partner before the start of play. Their top order little and large act has been a huge success of the Stokes and McCullum era. Duckett uses his feet to get under a length ball and plops it over mid-off for four runs and adds to his collection with a drive through cover for two more.
8th over: England 32-0 (Crawley 18, Duckett 12) Pakistan are rattling through their overs, doing nowt for my sparkling OBO repartee. Just two Duckett singles to bookend Noman Ali’s latest as David Gower does his first laconic plug for a teabag/washing machine on the TV commentary. What a world.
7th over: England 29-0 (Crawley 17, Duckett 10) Seven runs off the over as Crawley nails another sweep off Sajid Khan and then clip for a couple more. England negotiating this slow and low pitch well thus far.
6th over: England 22-0 (Crawley 9, Duckett 11) Crawley slams a sweep to the fence and then cuts a shorter ball from Noman past point for a couple.
“Morning James” writes Neil Bowen
I’ve been up most of the night due to toothache and thought I might as well make the most of it and follow the first few hours. It’s been great to follow The BazBall era, previously the pain following England was of a much less physical kind. Anyway, looking forward to 500 plus runs today.”
Russ Wheedon has your TMS overseas link:
“Looking forward to seeing what havoc has been wreaked by the hairdryers”
https://youtube.com/live/MTYq_NJTdRg?si=_IPDA9Rw4pf0XFkD
5th over: England 15-0 (Crawley 5, Duckett 9) Shot! Duckett unfurls a cover drive that pings across the outfield for four. The pitch is playing very low. Some balls shooting through at ankle height, Nasser Hussain says that is the more eye-catching aspect of the wicket, rather than the turn, from the early exchanges.
4th over: England 8-0 (Crawley 3, Duckett 4) Here come the sweeps! Duckett attempts a reverse but is too soon on it, under edging into his pads. A regular sweep is mistimed too, England’s openers trying to get a read on this pitch in real time.
3rd over: England 6-0 (Crawley 3, Duckett 2) Sajid darts them in. Duckett defends and then pokes a single off the fifth ball. Crawley tries a big sweep and misses! Big appeal but he got himself outside the line and Pakistan do not review. It looks a slow pitch with very little pace and bounce. There is turn but it is a gripping turn rather than a spitting turn, if that makes any sense whatsoever.
2nd over: England 5-0 (Crawley 3, Duckett 1) Noman Ali shares the new ball and is clipped off the pads for three runs by Crawley. England off the mark with the bat. Duckett shovels to midwicket and they scamper a single. Less turn for Noman but a probing over still. No sign of an English sweep shot yet.
1st over: England 1-0 (Crawley 0, Duckett 0) Sajid Khan to start the Test with the ball in hand. Big turn! The first ball grips and turns sharply but without much bounce, sliding past Zak Crawley and the keeper, England get off the mark by scampering a bye. Now then! Duckett is beaten on the outside edge by a beauty. Ominous…
Pakistan are huddling under hazy skies. Out stroll the umpires and here come Messrs Duckett and Crawley. Right then, I have no idea what the next few hours will hold, a glut of runs or a slew of wickets? Something in between the two? Only one way to find out – let’s PLAY!
“Morning James, loved the invigoratingly breathless preamble and a David Bowie reference to boot. How will this wicket adapt to the changes sought by the Pakistan authorities and can it last the full five days never mind five years? Let’s dance.”
I see your ‘invigoratingly breathless’ and raise you a ‘squintingly panicked’ but cheers all the same, Brian Withington.
Solidarity to David Fletcher who takes the first email of the Test award.
“Hi James, of course I’m in bed…”
Unfortunately it’s (a) in hospital and (b) attached to a compressed air thingy that sets off a most-disappointing-ever-party-popper alternately in compression socks on a cycle lasting 44 seconds.
Oh. And the drugs.
Like all good England cricket fans I’m at heart an ironist so have whiled away the small hours binge watching Dopesick but now the iPad has run out of juice so I’m rather excited there’s only 20 mins before play starts.
If we could make this a full five days I’d be very grateful as on medical advice I need to spend the next five days either in bed or propped up on the sofa. Can you sort please?”
Consider it done. Good to have you with us David, England’s batters should be able to take your mind off things for the next few *hours at least.
*Or days. Or minutes. Delete as applicable.
Nasser Hussain and Mike Atherton report from the ground that the pitch actually looks like a belter and despite all the paraphernalia – the patio heaters, the fans and the scarifiers, it should produce runs and then some, especially in the first couple of days. It’ll crack and break up at some point, how much remains to be seen. [Insert gag about four early starts in a row when back from latest coffee]
England win the toss and will bat first!
Here we go, here we go! Buckle up knuckleheads – Ben Stokes has called the coin correctly and chosen to have first use of the wicket. Well duh. The next few hours promise to be Box Office viewing. You can keep your Paul Mescal in a loin cloth and shove your Joaquin Phoenix chewing up the scenery, we’re about to have Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley sweeping like loons and setting their stall out. Pass the popcorn.
Some Stokes Quotes:
The toss is imminent. Ben Stokes will keep his poker face no matter the way the coin falls.
“The toss out in the subcontinent, plays a bigger role than anywhere in the world. I don’t think we’re going to have as extreme conditions as the game goes on: it will be a day-one wicket when we start, not day six.”
England have teenage leg-spinner Rehan Ahmed in their XI as part of a three pronged spin attack with Joe Root up the sleeve. Here’s what England’s captain had to say yesterday on the young lad:
“Adding Rehan’s free spirit and desperation to change the game every time he’s got the ball in his hand is a massive bonus for us this week,” Stokes said, while discarding the relevance of his quiet season for Leicestershire. “Leg spinners have an amazing ability to break a game open… You’d rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it.”
Understood? Incidentally the pitch is full of known unknowns and unknown knowns. I mean, the thing has had two industrial fans on it for the last week and has reportedly been raked, RAKED I tell you!
‘I was not involved in decision-making, I was just there’
Jason Gillespie giving off strong husband dragged to Ikea on a wet Bank Holiday energy in this one.
Nothing to see here… apart from a nosebleed inducing amount of runs:
Preamble
James Wallace
Shouldn’t you be at work in bed?
Hello and welcome to Rawalpindi, by way of a sofa in south London, for the deciding Test match between Pakistan and England. It’s one Test apiece and all to play for as both sides look to secure a series victory that would mean an awful lot.
Shan Masood’s Pakistan side are riding their own brand of chaos but have managed to square the series with a rousing win in the second Test at Multan. The victory put an end to a six Test string of defeats and gave them a glimmer of a way forward, if not a sustainable blueprint for success. They’ve named an unchanged side and ordered up a rotor fan assisted deck that they hope will ultimately crumble the way the of their spinners for the second match in a row.
For Ben Stokes’ England side it is a chance to double down on the series win in Pakistan two years ago and leave the sub-continent (where they aren’t set to return until 2027) with a 6-5 win ratio overall. They have happy memories of Rawalpindi, particularly the first day, last time they visited they racked up 506 for 4 in 75 overs and four of the men playing today – Crawley, Duckett, Pope and Brook notched up centuries before the bowlers set about prising out twenty wickets on a pitch with less life than Mars.
You want subplots? This match has them by the bucketload. We’ll get into all that and more over the coming hours. Play is due to begin at 6am BST and I’ll bring news of the all important toss shortly. If you are tuning in then why not drop us a line in the usual way? This one promises to be a corker.