Key events
5th over: India 52-2 ( Sharma 44, Iyer 6) Sharma hits three stunning fours, tripping the light fantastic and wristily dispatching Luke Wood. A diving Phil Salt prevents a fourth on the trot. This should be fun – handing back over to Jim now – enjoy!
4th over: India 36-2 ( Sharma 29, Iyer 5) Sharma practises his swivel turn with four pulled over fine leg, then six, gloriously into the crowd where a man in a white Tshirt collects it at the second attempt. Then a second consecutive six into the clouds – incredible really, it wasn’t even a clean hit but still cleared the hits. And Iyer completes Mahmood’s misery by square cutting him for four to make it 21 from the over.
3rd over: India 15-2 ( Sharma 12, Iyer 1) India have got a severe case of ants in their pants – two other running mix ups in just the one Dawson over. They’ve struggled to pierce the ring of tight England fielders who are on their game. However Sharma does manage to slam a free-flowing six over the covers.
WICKET! Kishan run out (Brook-Buttler) 0 (India 6-2)
Crazy cricket – Kishan tonks to mid-on where Harry Brook picks up and throws to Buttler who whips off the bails while a stranded Kishan is sprawled in the dust short of his crease. He’s not too happy walking off.
2nd over: India 6-2 ( Sharma 4) An eventful Saqib Mahmood over: a wicket, a wide, a run out.
WICKET! Samson c Banton b Mahmood 1 (India 6-1)
An aggressive drive and a double handed dive-n-grab at backward point by Tom Banton.
1st over: India 5-0 (Samson 1, Sharma 4) India’s opening pair are the two Ss: right handed Samson, left handed Sharma (not that one). The left-armed Luke Wood has a little shake of his wrist at the Finchdale end while Samson waits for something in his eye line to be readjusted. Grabs a single from his third ball and Sharma unfurls a pitch perfect lofted drive for four.
The floodlights are on at Durham and there are sizeable pockets of slightly disappointed India fans who were hoping to see Sooryavanshi. Here comes Harry Brook, leading England onto the field only two days after he lost the Test series with England in that chaotic emotional last day and a bit.
Tanya here, just sitting in for Jim briefly. Do contact me on tanya.aldred.freelance@guardian.co.uk if you have any thoughts. Doesn’t look too hot at Chester le Street today and there might be a spot of rain about.
England XI
England: Jos Buttler (wk), Harry Brook (c), Jacob Bethell, Tom Banton, Sam Curran, Will Jacks, Liam Dawson, Adil Rashid, Luke Wood, Saqib Mahmood
India XI – still no Vaibhav Sooryavanshi
India: Sanju Samson, Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan (wk), Shreyas Iyer (c) Tilak Varma, Harshit Rana, Shivan Duber, Axar Patel, Ravid Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Varun Charkravarthy.
India win the toss and will bat!
Shreyas Iyer says its his second series as captain and he’s excited. The Ireland series is history and they’ve learnt lessons. He says there is a decent amount of grass on the surface. Going with three spinners. Harry Brook would have bowled, so he’s happy too.
Elsewhere, this week’s Spin column written by some eejit:
Root’s early evening ramp off Nathan Smith on Saturday was a beautiful, even emotional moment. Here was the sensible man on the stag do with his top off, dancing on the bar. Here was Root, for one last time the Sundance Kid to Stokes’s Butch Cassidy, joining his partner in running head first into a hail of bullets. Anything for you, old pal.
Root is now the only player who survives from that first Bazball Test at Lord’s in 2022. Further still, he’s seen Cook, Anderson, Broad and now Stokes leave the scene. But he will play on, shepherding new faces with a half an eye on Sachin in the distance. England have one all-time great remaining. His best mate departing in a blaze, Joe Root stands alone among the embers.”
Good news for England ahead of their huge semi-final match against South Africa tomorrow:
Find out more about India’s 16 year old batting marvel:
James Wallace
I suppose we just crack on with more cricket eh?
Ben Stokes may have departed the international scene in a Nottingham blaze a matter of days ago but the circus heads to Durham with a different captain (soon to be the captain?) different opponents and a different coloured ball.
So begins a five-match T20I series against India that will attract plenty of eyeballs around the world, some might even be tuning in for the action on the field.
Will India play Vaibhav Sooryavanshi – The Six Hittin’ Kid – after leaving the teenage phenomenon on the bench against Ireland? That didn’t go so well for the boys in blue, Ireland pulled off a historic 2-0 series sweep on home turf. Beware the wounded tiger?
I have hunch we may well see India field their youngest ever international player at Chester-le-Street this evening, beware in the stands!
Play begins at 5.30pm, we’ll have the toss and confirmed teams at 5pm. Please do get in touch, there’s plenty to discuss, isn’t there?
