Key events
Mohammed Siraj has been given a demerit point and fined 15% of his match fee for getting into Ben Duckett’s face yesterday. The two brushed shoulders, perhaps accidentally, and I don’t imagine many people watching thought anything other than great stuff, but at the same time, I understand the authorities need to draw a line in the sand, and if it’s there, then that makes some sense even if I’d have given Siraj a bonus.
Something I saw then that I’ve never seen before: the sun moved behind a tiny cloud, the only one in the sky, where it remained for at least 30 seconds, and everyone cheered.
Email! “Watching from California for some early morning excitement,” says Neel Pai. “I notice that Ben Stokes looks like Thor. All his wickets look like a thunderbolt from god. For example, on the final wicket yesterday, the ball to Akash Deep looked like there were sparks flying out of the stumps as it flew out of the ground. I am excited to see what will transpire tomorrow. The match is going to swing based on Stokes’ hammer.”
I was in attendance at HQ on Shabbat – if they’re going to put Lord’s in the eruv, Jews are going to walk to it – and as England were toiling in the morning session, we were discussing how Stokes was going to stokes a breakthrough. Seconds later, he nails that run out – as you say, a total superhero.
So, 135 runs or six wickets? The bookies strongly fancy India, and I guess I’m leaning that way too – if England can break the Rahul/Pant partnership quickly, they’ve a serious sniff, but without a bowler able to run through a side, the likelihood is that the tourists finagle the runs they need to take a lead that looked extremely unlikely after Headingley.
Preamble
The feeling is all too familiar. We wake up, feel disoriented as our brain chugs into some sort of action, we realise it’s Monday morning, feel a way, and then … the tingle?
Ah, the tingle: the leaping and soaring inside our hearts and heads which reminds us that something is happening. And something is really happening.
It takes a few seconds to discern what, but we’re into stride pretty quickly – yes, by our lowly standards – because we’ve experienced this same sensation twice in the last few weeks. The pangs of excitement, of wonder, of progress and of distraction, encouraging us to dream, hope and feel; England and India are looking after us.
And, at some point today, one of the two will take a well-deserved lead in a series that is maturing and intensifying into a classic. If we’ve a dog in the fight we’ll have strong opinions about which of the two that should be, but regardless of how it shakes out, we’ll always have the tingle – and really, that’s more than enough.
Play: 11am BST
