Key events
150 to Pope!
81st over: England 469-2 (Pope 152, Root 33) The new ball is available and Craig Ervine takes it right away, hoping it goes better than the one his bowlers were given this morning. But the batters seemed to be limbering up for it just now and sure enough the first delivery, from Muzarabani, is cut for four by Root. The fourth is cover-driven for four by Pope, with one hand off the bat. The fifth is upper-cut for four more as Pope crouches craftily to get under the bounce. And the sixth is on-driven for yet another four, to take Pope past 150. It’s carnage.
80th over: England 453-2 (Pope 141, Root 28) A tuck off the hip takes Joe Root to yet another milestone: 13,000 runs in Tests. He’s the first Englishman to do it and the fifth man in all, joining Tendulkar, Ponting, Kallis and Dravid. All but Tendulkar are withijn Root’s reach: he needs 400 runs to go second on the list.
That single hands the strike to Pope, who celebrates with three fours.
79th over: England 440-2 (Pope 129, Root 27) Blessing Muzarabani is fit to resume, though he may regret it. Pope gets a jammy four, trickling away off the toe of the bat, and follows it with a handsome one, driven on the up through the covers.
78th over: England 430-2 (Pope 120, Root 26) Just one run from the bat, and a leg-bye, off this over from Raza. He alone has kept the run rate below four.
77th over: England 428-2 (Pope 120, Root 25) Pope plays an on-drive off Nyauchi that could go straight into a coaching video. Trent Bridge, too, is a picture – pale blue sky, soft white clouds, green-and-brown outfield.
76th over: England 423-2 (Pope 116, Root 24) The Zimbabweans are dying the death of a thousand cuts. Pope, facing Raza, plays another one with fast hands and gets four for it. Then he almost runs Joe Root out, sending him back and seeing him put in a full-length dive. Root doesn’t seem too bothered: as grandees of the game go, he’s not at all grand.
75th over: England 417-2 (Pope 111, Root 23) Back comes Victor Nyauchi, who put in a hard shift either side of tea. He does well now, going for just a single even though Pope, in party mode now, dances down the track to him.
74th over: England 416-2 (Pope 110, Root 23) Raza goes back to conceding singles. He’s been much the best bowler.
This is the fourth time that England’s top three have all scored hundreds in the same Test innings. In their first 133 years of Tests, they managed it only once – Hobbs, Sutcliffe and Woolley agaunst South Africa at Lord’s in 1934. In 2020-11 they were joined by Strauss, Cook and Trott, saving the day at Brisbane and paving the way for an Ashes win. Twelve years later, Crawley, Duckett and Pope did it against Pakistan at Rawalpindi. And now they’ve done it again. London buses, basically.
73rd over: England 411-2 (Pope 108, Root 20) Even Joe Root is going at a run a ball. Facing Bennett, he plays a delicious little dab for four.
“If they want to keep going,” says Adrian Muldrew, “England’s biggest Test innings and biggest innings win could both be possible. As you know, Tim, the current records were both set at the Oval in 1938. But don’t ask Sam Cook, because by his own admission he don’t know much about history.” Ha.
72nd over: England 402-2 (Pope 104, Root 15) And the 400 comes up too.
A hundred to Pope!
Facing Raza, Pope dances onto the back foot and cuts for four to go to a sparkling hundred. His 103 has come off just 109 balls with 14 fours and a six, flicked over deep square.
71st over: England 396-2 (Pope 99, Root 14) Ervine, finally showing some creativity as a captain, replaces one occasional off-spinner (Madhevere) with another (Brian Bennett). Pope saunters to 99 with a late cut.
69th over: England 389-2 (Pope 93, Root 13) Muzabarani went off the field after bowling that over, so Craig Ervine turns back to Wessly Madhevere’s occasional offbreaks, which went for a flurry of runs earlier while also seeing off Ben Duckett. He drops short now and gets cut for four by Root, for four by Pope, and for two by Pope, who is now in the nerveless 90s.
68th over: England 377-2 (Pope 88, Root 6) After leaking a few singles. Raza tries going round the wicket. Pope counters with a punchy push towards mid-on, which Raza himself does well to stop with a dive.
67th over: England 373-2 (Pope 86, Root 4) Blessing Muzarabani returns and Root brings out his signature shot, the square force that doesn’t seem to involve any force at all.
Meanwhile a dry email has come in from Paul Haynes. “England,” he says, “are down to the bowlers, then.”
66th over: England 369-2 (Pope 85, Root 1) You’re a highly inexperienced touring team. You’ve finally managed to take a second wicket. And who do you find coming in? Joe Root. He gets off the mark with a dab on the off side.
WICKET! Crawley LBW b Raza 124 (England 368-2)
Crawley sweeps, misses and is given out! It looks pretty plumb. He reviews, thinking it might have hit him outside the line, but it’s three reds and he has to go. He departs to a standing ovation after putting together a hundred that was almost old-school.
65th over: England 368-1 (Crawley 124, Pope 85) Crawley takes a single off Chivanga and again pulls up lame, though he’s got a rueful smile on his face. Pope gets a gift on his hips and swats it for four with one-hand.
64th over: England 363-1 (Crawley 123, Pope 81) Crawley calls for the physio, who makes him lie down, does some poking and prodding, and clears him to continue.
“I do struggle with the criticism Crawley gets,” says Tom Barrington, “and this isn’t just because he has got a 100 today, but I think the benefits of his partnership with Duckett at the top of the order outweigh the drawbacks of his patchy form. Yes the average is poor but against high quality opposition (Australia and India) he has become consistent, and the threat of him scoring heavily at the top of the order often puts teams on the back foot against England. He has become a central part of one of the main positives of this current era in finding an opening partnership! Opener is a precarious position, and they are always at risk of a low score facing the new ball, so why not stick with someone who can change the game?
“I will grant that he should be dropped whenever Matt Henry plays against us as he simply cannot play him, rarely have I seen an international sportsman at sea as much as that match-up down in NZ over the winter.”
63rd over: England 359-1 (Crawley 121, Pope 79) Crawley is enjoying the extra pace of Chivanga, cover-driving for four – but hang on, now he’s inside-edged onto his hip and hurt himself. As he plays a chip over mid-off and runs two, he’s limping and wincing, but he’s not coming off.
62nd over: England 352-1 (Crawley 115, Pope 79) Raza is still on, though I think he’s just picked up a warning for following through on the line of the stumps. When he drops short, Pope plays that fast-hands cut of his and Wellington Masakadza, on as a sub, makes a fine tumbling stop to save two.
61st over: England 346-1 (Crawley 113, Pope 75) Respite at last for Victor Nyauchi, who takes his sweater with the unflattering figures of 13-0-74-0. Back comes Tanaka Chivanga, who is faster and therefore probably more to Crawley’s taste. An innocent enough ball goes for four as Crawley’s crisp drive induces a misfield at mid-off. An attempted bouncer goes way wide of leg stump and ends up as five wides. And then a long hop is cut for two. Do you think Craig Ervine may regret putting England in?
60th over: England 335-1 (Crawley 107, Pope 75) Raza continues too, with the spinner’s version of a Variety Pack, and concedes three singles.
Hundred partnership for Pope and Crawley
59th over: England 332-1 (Crawley 105, Pope 74) Poor old Nyauchi continues, making you wonder if he said something to annoy Craig Ervine at the team dinner. Pope plays a glide for two past slip to bring up the hundred partnership off only 17.4 overs.
58th over: England 328-1 (Crawley 104, Pope 71) Crawley has been the junior partner in both these partnerships, unusually for him, but now he lets go and plays a reverse sweep off Raza, which goes for three.
Here’s Will Vignoles, picking up on the interesting line taken by David Reynolds (15:55 below). “Can’t help thinking,” Will says, “that were England to do as David Reynolds suggested, the response would be to castigate them for not showing the sort of ruthlessness that the best teams demonstrate when faced with limited opposition. What are they supposed to do, not hit bad balls for four? That seems like a perfect way to get yourself in a tangle to me.
“Anyway, it’s lovely to have Test cricket back and thanks as ever for the OBO!” Our pleasure.
57th over: England 322-1 (Crawley 100, Pope 69) Pope gives Crawley a hug and then gets on with trying to upstage him, flicking the very next ball from Nyauchi for a nonchalant six.
A hundred to Crawley!
And he gets there with a leading edge as a push to mid-on ends up popping into the covers. Fortune favours the cautious. It’s been a careful innings, understandably, as Crawley has been in awful form for England (barely a run in New Zealand) and Kent (not many more). It has come off 145 balls with 12 fours, some of them sumptuous.
56th over: England 313-1 (Crawley 99, Pope 61) Sikandar Raza, our man with the plug, shoves it in again. Just a single to each batter.
55th over: England 311-1 (Crawley 98, Pope 60) No change at the other end either, so poor old Nyauchi has to carry on trundling in while digesting his cucumber sandwiches. It doesn’t go well. Pope greets him with two savage blows, an upper cut and a flat pull, and then Crawley plays a lordly cover drive, as if facing the first ball of a series from Pat Cummins.
54th over: England 298-1 (Crawley 94, Pope 51) Raza continues after getting the plug in before tea. Pope clips him into the leg side to reach 50 for the 23rd time in 56 Tests. It took him just 48 balls: he set off like a rocket before slowing down, as so often happens, even in this free-scoring era.
The players are out there, and so is the sun.
“As a former Harare resident,” says Mark Hooper, “I hope the Zimbabweans don’t get too disheartened by this. A few moments of great fielding (and some great takes by Tafadzwa Tsiga) feel like small comfort at the moment…”
And here’s a lateral thought. “Wouldn’t this be a good time,” wonders David Reynolds, “for England to practise, hone – and in some cases learn for the first time – the skill of batting patiently for five, six session of a Test match, rather than sadistically emphasise what we already know, which is their dreary ability when possible of bludgeoning the opposition (one is reminded of an unseemly absence of self-restraint in Amstelveen). What is the benefit of building up this first innings total so quickly? Take the time available.”
Point taken, but wouldn’t that be drearier still?
“British Embassy staff in Harare following this one carefully,” says Peter Thomas, “with some conflicted loyalties… will it even last four days? Our ambo in the crowd today.” Love it. Hope the ambo is enjoying the ambience.
“Fairly leisurely progress for England on a comfortable May afternoon in Nottingham,” says Rob Lewis. “Here in Turkey, we are feeling comfy as there hasn’t been an earthquake today. We were rocked in our beds a couple of nights ago, but it was only a 4.0 on the whatever the new scale is called. So it didn’t even trouble the scorers.”
We’ve got mail! “Hi Tim,” says Gareth Wilson. “Re 5 dot balls making a maiden… given that feels very Hundred-y, may I suggest it should be called a KP Nuts ShutOut?” Ha.
Tea: England cruising again
53rd over: England 295-1 (Crawley 93, Pope 49) Nyauchi strays onto Pope’s hip, handing him a freebie which he’s not in the mood to miss out on. Crawley, after taking a few overs off, comes back to the party with an airy cut for two. The pair of them walk off chatting and smiling, the friendliest of rivals.
And that’s tea, with England cruising again after losing Duckett.
52nd over: England 287-1 (Crawley 90, Pope 44) Raza drops short to Pope, who cashes in with a cut for four. The partnership is already 56.
51st over: England 283-1 (Crawley 90, Pope 40) Nyauchi is bustling in as if he hasn’t even noticed the scoreboard. And he bowls five dots! In the circumstances, that should count as a maiden.
50th over: England 282-1 (Crawley 90, Pope 39) A false shot! Well, half-false. Pope plays a paddle and finds the ball from Raza bouncing more than he expected. There’s a top edge but it lands safely on the parched brown outfield.
49th over: England 279-1 (Crawley 90, Pope 36) Ervine gives Muzarabani a breather and brings back Victor Nyauchi, the only seamer on the right side of five an over. He’s done it by bowling outside off with a bit of inswing and he sticks with that plan now, going for just four singles.
If you’ve never written into the OBO, now would be a good time.
48th over: England 275-1 (Crawley 88, Pope 34) Raza does it again, restricting these two to a single apiece. After going for 4.44 an over, he is now the thriftiest bowler of the day.
47th over: England 273-1 (Crawley 87, Pope 33) Muzarabani continues, toiling away on a day when no seamer has yet taken a wicket. Crawley, sensing that it’s been too long since we had a boundary, produces a front-foot pull that is somewhere between dismissive and regal.
46th over: England 266-1 (Crawley 82, Pope 31) Craig Ervine decides that Wessly Madhevere has done his job, so he comes off with the unusual analysis of 2-0-22-1. The move works as Sikandar Raza, bowling round-arm, restores order. Just two singles off the over.
45th over: England 264-1 (Crawley 81, Pope 30) Pope switches to the front foot to drive Muzarabani through the covers, his hands as quick as his feet. And then he gets a bouncer, jumps back and flashes it over the slips for four more.
The run rate in the last ten overs has been 8.3. We need to see the look on Geoffrey Boycott’s face.
44th over: England 255-1 (Crawley 80, Pope 22) Pope stays in the fast lane, cutting Madhevere for four. I’m getting the impression that in the three hours Pope spent waiting to bat, Stokes and McCullum were muttering about the run rate being too slow.
43rd over: England 248-1 (Crawley 78, Pope 17) This could be a showdown between Crawley and Pope for one place in the next Test, with Jacob Bethell expected to return. And Pope is rising to the challenge. He helps himself to two fours and two twos off this over from Muzarabani and races to 17 off nine balls, as if hell-bent on catching Crawley up before tea.
Thanks Rob and afternoon everyone. Game on!
Time for me to hand over to the great Tim de Lisle for the rest of the day. Thanks as always for your company, ta-ra.
41st over: England 236-1 (Crawley 78, Pope 5) The new batter Ollie Pope survives a pretty big LBW appeal first ball. It was missing leg but for a few seconds but his heartbeat must have been a drum-and-bass track. He gets off the mark with a crisp boundary through point next ball.
WICKET! England 231-1 (Duckett c Curran b Madhevere 140)
The offspinner Wessly Madhevere strikes in his first over! Duckett smashed his first two balls for four and six, and was targeting plenty more when he slapped the next delivery straight to Ben Curran at cover. Duckett is frustrated with himself but walks off to a fine ovation from his home crowd. He played a joyful innings: 140 from 134 balls with 20 fours and two sixes.
