Joe Root anchored England’s innings and Ben Stokes suffered an injury scare on a compelling, hard-fought first day at Lord’s2ndover: England 8-0 (Crawley 0, Duckett 7) Akash Deep opening up from the Nursery End. He was a revelation at Edgbaston. He strays too straight from around the wicket and Duckett flicks away fine for England’s first boundary.“Plenty of examples of teams being rolled for booger all in this scenario” laments Ben Bernards. “A pitch cultivated at England’s request to be “livelier”, Bumrah’s back, Deep in form …. Bazball going full Baz, or Bazball losing its head under pressure? Promises to be fun! Oh, and stop banging on about the bloody heat. Up here in the Nordics we’re flying the flag for shit summers and usually have the UK as a reliable meteorological bedfellow…” Continue reading...