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“I think you’re being a touch harsh on the revival of slow cricket,” says Martin Wright. “Personally, I enjoy a good attritional game. Tuning in now and again on a working day is like listening to news from the front as the battle slowly unfurls. A slow pace allows you to keep in touch with events – ‘Ooh, look, the cavalry have advanced another 100 yards…’. With Bazball, you barely had time to catch your breath before the cavalry had routed the French, raced over the hill and invaded Belgium.”
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The first email of the day comes from our old friend Krish Krishnamoorthy. “The trick that Ben Stokes and his Bazball have played on the general public,” Krish reckons, “is to make them write requiems for a decent score of 250 on day 1. They may still go on to score 500+ and bowl out India for 200 and enforce the follow-on – all during the day.” True! But they may also lose two wickets to the new ball and struggle to reach 320.
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Updated at 10.29 BST
The pen is mightier than the sopor
Slow cricket can be hard to watch and even harder to write about. But Andy Bull has been on fine form all series and this piece is both stylish and wise.
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Preamble
Morning everyone and welcome to the second day of this historical re-enactment. After spending three years trying to make Test cricket exciting, with a fair amount of success, England have suddenly given up and gone back to the 1950s.
Yesterday was the 56th time they had scored 200 in an innings under Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum, and by far the slowest. They pottered along at 3.02 runs an over. (Even at Ranchi early last year, when Ben Foakes was still on board, they managed 3.36.) And the slowest scorer of all was the captain, who faced 102 balls and hit only three of them for four. Even if he is fit for the next Test, Stokes may have to drop himself for slow scoring.
Perhaps it was the heat. As Paul Simon almost sang, it was a slow day, and the sun was beating on the punters by the side of the field. Perhaps it was the effect of Shubman Gill, who has so spooked England that they now want to play like him. Perhaps it was the return of Jasprit Bumrah, who has the same effect Queen Elizabeth II used to have on her visits to Lord’s – making everyone try too hard to behave properly.
The forecast today is for more of the same. I just hope it doesn’t apply to the batting.
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Updated at 10.18 BST