Key events
91st over: England 508-4 (Brook 9, Stokes 6) Glorious cover drive from Ben Stokes! That will feel good. Pitched up and smoked away to the fence.
90th over: England 503-4 (Brook 9, Stokes 1) Stokes gets off the mark with a nice clip off his toes. Some time in the middle will do him the world of good too, there was talk he might even play for the Lions in the run up to the India series in order to get some rhythm at the crease. Zimbabwe have been much better in the two overs this morning, a stat going around states that they bowled over fifty per cent of their deliveries down the leg side yesterday.
WICKET! Ollie Pope c Tsiga b Chivanga 171 (England 502-4)
Pitched up and a tiny edge! Ollie Pope goes early on day two, playing away from his body at a decent ball from Chivanga. A late review was called for but the spike was clear for all to see. Trent Bridge gives Pope a hearty ovation and then there’s a loud cheer as Ben Stokes strides out to the middle. Shades of Botham as blond whisps of mullet billow out from under Stokes’ helmet as he takes guard.
89th over: England 499-3 (Pope 170, Brook 9) Blessing Muzarabani from the Pavilion End. Pope tucks off his hip for the first run of the day. It looks like Zimbabwe are going to go short at Harry Brook – there’s been a bit of chatter about that being a potential weak spot for Brook, especially early in his innings against genuine pace.
Ooh beauty! Muzarabani pushes Brook back and then pitches fuller and the ball zips off the surface and carries through at head height to the keeper. Brook was drawn into the stroke and plays and misses. Good, probing first over from the bowler, just one run off it.
Here come the players! Harry Brook and Ollie Pope stride out in beautiful sunshine and Zimbabwe’s players gird themselves for what could be a tough morning. England know there is a bit of weather about this weekend and it is only a four day Test, they’ll throw the blade this morning at the new ball and press the game forward. Buckle up!
Its Sunny. Its Friday. My four-going-on-24-year-old daughter demanded this song three times in a row on the way to school.
Play is about five minutes away at Trent Bridge and indeed around the shires as the County Championship rumbles along. Tanya Aldred is on her way to Grace Road as we speak and is helming the CCLive blog.
And Andy Bull got his Theroux on and went for a wander around Trent Bridge:
Simon Burnton has the Crawley angle covered:
Ali’s report from Trent Bridge pleasingly alluded to The Thick of It on a day that was very much not difficult difficult lemon difficult for England.
There were shades of The Thick of It after Ben Stokes gave his press conference a day out from this one-off Test against Zimbabwe. When the minister – or in this instance the England captain – said Jacob Bethell would be straight back in for the series against India, this apparently referred to the squad and not necessarily the XI.
That Stokes sought to make this clarification through the back channels perhaps said more about the task at hand than England’s true thoughts on the subject. No captain would ever wish to send a player out believing whatever they achieved would be irrelevant, especially not a vice-captain and selfless cricketer such as Ollie Pope.”
Preamble
James Wallace
Well, that was brutal.
Hello and welcome to day two of England v Zimbabwe from Trent Bridge.
England amassed 498 runs yesterday against an increasingly beleaguered Zimbabwe bowling attack who were left a bowler light when Richard Ngarava suffered a probable back spasm and had to leave the field on a golf buggy in the afternoon session. Ben Duckett made a pretty effortless century and Zak Crawley spent some much needed time in the middle to make his first century in an England shirt since his Old Trafford magnum opus in the 2023 Ashes.
Ollie Pope then peeled off a slick century that reminded everyone of his talents but also won’t do that much to lessen the naysayers who think he can’t do it against the big boys of India and Australia. Against the former Pope averages 24 and the latter just 16.
The strawberry blond Surrey man has just been speaking to Ian Ward on Sky and seemed pretty chilled out, actually, admitting that he doesn’t listen to the noise and the notion that his place might be under threat from the wunderkind Jacob Bethell. Pope was that very same wunderkind once, but now has 55 Test matches under his belt and a role as vice captain in the Test side. A double ton here won’t hurt but a score in in the first Test against India in June will provide plenty more succour.
Play gets underway at 11am – in just under 30 minutes, as ever do drop us a line and let us know how you are shaping up this Friday morning.
