Rob Smyth's Blog, page 86

August 22, 2021

Roma 3-1 Fiorentina: Serie A – as it happened

Jose Mourinho returned to Serie A with victory in a dramatic, seesaw game that included two red cards and two assists for Tammy Abraham

9.50pm BST

That’s it for tonight’s blog. Thanks for your company, bye!

9.48pm BST

Napoli 2-0 Venezia was the score in tonight’s other game. A penalty from Lorenzo Insigne, who missed one earlier in the game, and a goal from Elif Elmas settled the match in the second half.

9.42pm BST

Peep peep! It was a bit fraught at times, especially in the first 15 minutes of the second half, but ultimately that’s a more than satisfactory return to Serie A for Jose Mourinho. Jordan Veretout scored twice to settle a dramatic, seesaw game that included a red card apiece, two assists for Tammy Abraham and two Roma goals that were disallowed for offside on the field and then given by VAR.

Fiorentina were really impressive going forward, especially their captain Cristiano Biraghi and the debutant Nicolas Gonzalez. No chance they will finish as low as 13th again this season. It’s too early to say where Roma might finish, but they’ve made a much better start than they did a year ago.

9.39pm BST

90+3 min Vlahovic cracks a good shot from 22 yards that is well held to his left by Rui Patricio.

9.37pm BST

90 min Four added minutes.

9.37pm BST

89 min Terracciano makes a fine save to deny Shomurodov, who was put through on goal by Carles Perez.

9.35pm BST

88 min In other news, there’s been all sorts of trouble during the Ligue 1 match between Nice and Marseille. We’ll have more of that later, I suspect.

9.34pm BST

87 min The matchwinner Jordan Veretout is replaced by Edoardo Bove.

9.31pm BST

84 min A double substitution apiece: Perez and El Shaarway replace Mkhitaryan and Pellegrini for Roma, while Sottil and Saponara come on for Venuti and the impressive Gonzalez.

9.29pm BST

82 min The scoreline flatters Roma a touch, a state of affairs that will doubtless keep Jose Mourinho awake all night.

9.28pm BST

80 min Fiorentina appealed for a foul on Vlahovic in the build up - it was in the Roma area so would have been a penalty - but there was nothing in it.

9.28pm BST

Jordan Veretout gets a second goal against his old club, but it was all the work of Eldor Shomurodov. He rumbled infield from the right, held off Castrovilli and slid a superb pass through to Veretout. He timed his run from midfield immaculately - the run made the pass, really - and slipped the ball calmly past Terracciano.

9.25pm BST

Lovely goal!

9.24pm BST

78 min Cristante runs onto a loose ball but drives well wide from distance. Roma have managed the game pretty well since Fiorentina’s equaliser.

9.22pm BST

76 min Benassi spanks over the bar from the right side of the penalty area.

9.21pm BST

74 min Another change for Fiorentina: Marco Benassi replaces Bonaventura.

9.20pm BST

73 min The relentless Biraghi wins another corner for Fiorentina. He takes it himself, curling a deep outswinger that is headed up in the air by Igor and cleared by Roma.

9.19pm BST

71 min It’s been a helluva start to the Serie A season: eight games, 29 goals, six red cards, VAR checks galore.

9.15pm BST

69 min Tammy Abraham’s race is run. He’s had a quite outstanding debut, especially when you consider he was in quarantine until this morning, and he gets a huge ovation as he is replaced by Elmor Shomurodov.

9.14pm BST

For the second time tonight, VAR is Jose Mourinho’s friend. Mkhitaryan robbed Pulgar near the centre circle, moved forward and flicked a pass outside Igor to Abraham. He drove a dangerous ball across goal that was missed by Mkhitaryan and turned in by Veretout. That’s a second assist for Abraham, who has also hit the bar and was brought down when Dragowski was sent off.

9.12pm BST

66 min They’re still checking.

9.11pm BST

VAR check Hang on, they are looking at the offside, as they did with Roma’s first goal.

9.11pm BST

64 min: Veretout has a goal disallowed for offside! It was made again by Tammy Abraham, but he was slightly offside in the build up.

9.09pm BST

62 min: Abraham hits the bar! This game is all kinds of fun. Karsdorp took a short throw to Pellegrini, who flicked the ball neatly over a defender and half-volleyed a cross towards the near post. Abraham got away from his man and leapt majestically to slam a header off the top of the bar. That was a terrific effort from Abraham.

9.08pm BST

A left-wing corner was played short and worked back to Pulgar. He curled a cross towards the far post, where Milenkovic got the wrong side of Cristante far too easily. He controlled the ball deftly with his right foot and cracked it under Rui Patricio with his left.

9.06pm BST

It’s been coming, and then some!

9.05pm BST

59 min Biraghi destroys Karsdorp on the left and flicks a cross into the middle. It’s half cleared to Pulgar, whose crisp low shot through the crowd is held by the falling Rui Patricio. That was a decent save because he must have been at least partially unsighted.

9.04pm BST

58 min Fiorentina are going to be well worth watching this season. We know all about Vlahovic, and Gonzalez looks an outstanding signing.

9.04pm BST

57 min Mkhitaryan is put through on goal by Pellegrini, but overruns the ball and it goes through to Terracciano. The offside flag went up after that, though I’m not sure even that will have spared Mkhitaryan’s blushes after such a poor touch.

9.02pm BST

55 min: Good save from Rui Patricio! Biraghi’s clipped ball forward is backheaded cleverly by Gonzalez to Vlahovic, who turns smartly but then shoots too close to Rui Patricio.

9.01pm BST

54 min Mkhitaryan runs onto a good pass from Pellegrini but can only stab the ball straight at Terracciano from 25 yards. He didn’t have the legs to get away from the defenders.

8.59pm BST

53 min Pulgar is booked for fouling someone. I’ll be honest, I can’t keep up with all the cards.

8.58pm BST

52 min It’s ten a side. The returning Nicolo Zaniolo, who was booked in the first half for a foul on Gonzalez, has been given a second yellow for another foul on the same man. There were no complaints from Zaniolo, who knew it was a naive challenge.

8.57pm BST

50 min It’s been a good start to the second half for Roma, who should try to put this game to bed at their earliest convenience. Mourinho’s Spurs were hopeless at defending 1-0 leads last season, so he won’t want it to be 1-0 with 15 minutes remaining.

8.53pm BST

46 min Abraham brings the crowd to life with a lovely piece of skill, flicking the ball one side of Igor and running round the other to collect. Nothing comes of it but that was stylishly done.

8.51pm BST

46 min Peep peep! Roma begin the second half.

8.51pm BST

Fiorentina have made a half-time substitution - Gaetano Castrovilli is on for Youssef Maleh.

8.36pm BST

Half-time reading

8.35pm BST

Peep peep! Jose Mourinho’s Roma are a goal up and a man up, though it hasn’t been as comfortable as those bald facts might sauggest. A confident Fiorentina were the better team for much of the half – but crucially not for the 12-minute period in which Bartlomiej Dragowski was controversially sent off and Henrikh Mkhitaryan gave Roma the lead.

Tammy Abraham was involved in both incidents and will be very satisfied with his debut. Another new boy, Fiorentina’s Nicolas Gonzalez, has been the most exciting player on the pitch and is their biggest hope of an equaliser. See you in 10 minutes for the second half.

8.33pm BST

45+3 min Bonaventura is booked for a late tackle on Vina.

8.32pm BST

45 min Three minutes of added time.

8.31pm BST

44 min An excellent move from Fiorentina. The impressive Gonzalez breaks forward from the halfway line and finds Biraghi in space on the left of the area. He cuts the ball back to Maleh, whose shot has the sting taken out of it by Karsdorp. The ball bounces up and is punched clear by Rui Patricio, under pressure from Vlahovic. Zaniolo was booked for a foul on Gonzalez in the build up.

8.28pm BST

42 min Pulgar’s free-kick is headed down by Vlahovic and claimed comfortably by Rui Patricio. Roma break and Mkhitaryan’s deflected cross forces Terracciano to scamper across his line to grab the ball.

8.27pm BST

40 min A quiet spell in the game. Fiorentina, who lost their way for a while after the red card and goal, have started to dominate possession again.

8.22pm BST

36 min Fiorentina are having a good spell. Biraghi’s outswinging corner is headed towards goal by the backpedalling Igor, and Rui Patricio moves across his line to make a comfortable save.

8.21pm BST

34 min: Good save from Rui Patricio! Pulgar clipped a lofted pass to Bonaventura, who pirouetted cleverly away from Vina on the edge of the area and suddenly found himself through on goal. He had so much time that he couldn’t decide whether to shoot from a tight angle or try to give the goal to Vlahovic. In the end he hit a slightly unconvincing shot that was blocked at the near post by Rui Patricio.

8.18pm BST

32 min Fiorentina started this game really well, but they may have to write it off as a bad job. The debatable sending off of Dragowski has changed everything.

8.17pm BST

31 min Zaniolo shuffles infield from the right and spanks a left-footed shot that is pushed away to his left by the diving Terracciano. Good save. It’s so good to see Zaniolo back in the team after all his injury problems.

8.15pm BST

Abraham ran down the left to collect a loose ball before cutting inside and slipping a short pass through to Mkhitaryan. He took it nicely on the half turn and passed it to the left of the substitute goalkeeper Terracciano.

8.14pm BST

It’s been given! Henrikh Mkhitaryan, who had a mixed (euphemism department) relationship with Jose Mourinho at Old Trafford, has scored the first Serie A goal of Mourinho’s spell at Roma. And it was made by Tammy Abraham, who has already had a huge impact on his debut.

8.13pm BST

28 min And still.

8.12pm BST

27 min They’re still checking.

8.12pm BST

26 min: Mkhitaryan has a goal disallowed for offside. It was made by Abraham and finished calmly by Mkhitaryan, only for the flag to go up. It’s being checked by VAR, and it’s extremely tight...

8.11pm BST

24 min: Just wide from Pellegrini! That was a really nice move from Roma. Karsdorp, on the right, acrobatically kept Mkhitaryan’s pass in play before rolled a low cross towards Abraham. He allowed the ball to run past him to Pellegrini, who he whipped a first time shot just wide of the near post from the edge of the area.

8.08pm BST

22 min Roma look more relaxed now it’s 11 v 10, and most of the last few minutes have been played in the Fiorentina half.

8.05pm BST

19 min Fiorentina bring on their substitute goalkeeper Pietro Terracciano. Jose Callejon is the poor sucker who has to go off.

8.04pm BST

Dragowski is off! The red card has been upheld. I think that’s pretty harsh.

8.03pm BST

Ibanez surged out of defence and clipped a smart through pass to Abraham, who knocked it past the outrushing Dragowski and was tripped. It was a heavy touch from Abraham, so I don’t think he would have scored, but the referee had the red card out straight away.

8.02pm BST

17 min: Dragowski sent off! This will be reviewed, but as things stand the Fiorentina keeper has been sent off for fouling Tammy Abraham.

8.01pm BST

14 min Pulgar flips the resulting free-kick over the defence towards Gonzalez. He dives to head the ball back across the area, and it hits a Roma defender before bouncing through to Rui Patricio. At first I thought Gonzalez should have headed towards goal, but on reflection he would have needed the neck muscles of Bruce Banner to do so.

7.58pm BST

13 min Pellegrini is booked for a lunge at Gonzalez. Mourinho screws his face up to the fourth official. At the moment Fiorentina look the more confident side.

7.56pm BST

10 min At the other end, Pellegrini’s corner from the left is helped on by Zaniolo at the near post and bounces right across the six-yard box.

7.56pm BST

9 min Gonzalez’s dangerous cross from the left just evades Callejon, who made an excellent run across the Roma area. Mourinho bounces out of his seat to make a tactical point to his team.

7.52pm BST

6 min Fiorentina have come to play, as we thought they would under the new coach Vincenzo Italiano. They’ve been more like the home team in the early minutes.

7.49pm BST

4 min It’s been a high-tempo start from both teams. Zaniolo does superbly to wriggle away fromt two men on the left but then overhits his cross.

7.49pm BST

2 min “I love Roma,” writes Ruth Purdue. “Have done since the 90s and that Italian football show… He’s going to ruin it, isn’t he?”

At this stage, I just think we need to get behind Tammy Abraham.

7.47pm BST

1 min Peep peep! Fiorentina kick off from left to right.

7.46pm BST

The players are ready to go. Roma are wearing their new New Balance kit, the latest in a long line of beautiful home kits. Fiorentina are in their yellow third strip, which looks better on the TV screen than it does in an internet browser.

7.45pm BST

“I think Jose Mourinho can restore his reputation,” says Yash Gupta. “He seemed to have become static in his tactics since his Inter days; maybe back in Italy he will face the reality that he is still one of the best. Stop creating unnecessary mess and he will be back for sure.”

Those are his biggest problems, man-management and self-sabotage. You can still win major trophies with his tactics, at a push, but you can’t if you walk round looking like this.

7.32pm BST

Whatever happens tonight, it won’t be as dramatic as the game that has just finished in Udine. The final score was Udinese 2-2 Juventus, but that tells about a tenth of the story. Juve, specifically their goalkeeper Wojcech Szczesny, threw away a 2-0 half-time lead. Then Cristiano Ronaldo, who reportedly asked to be left out of the starting line-up amid rumours of a move to Gillingham, came off the bench to head a majestic injury-time winner - only for VAR to spot that a couple of his armpit hairs were offside.

The other 5.30pm (BST) kick-off wasn’t bad either. It finished Bologna 3-2 Salernitana, with all five goals in the second half. Oh, and both teams had a man sent off. What happened to this sophisticated, binary league we all fell in love with while watching Como in 1984-85?

7.15pm BST

Pre-match reading

7.13pm BST

Tammy Abraham starts up front for Roma, who switch from 3-4-2-1 under Paolo Fonseca to 4-2-3-1 under Jose Mourinho. Abraham’s quarantine period only ended this morning. Fiorentina’s big summer signing, the Stuttgart winger Nicolas Gonzalez, also makes his debut.

Roma (4-2-3-1) Rui Patricio; Karsdorp, Mancini, Ibanez, Vina; Veretout, Cristante; Mkhitaryan, Pellegrini, Zaniolo; Abraham.
Substitutes: Villar, Perez, Calafiori, Shomurodov, Reynolds, Mayoral, Kumbulla, Diawara, Bove, Zalewski, Fuzato, El Shaarawy.

7.00pm BST

Hello and welcome to a new season of Jose TV, the comedy-drama that has kept the football world royally entertained for the best part of two decades. This series is being filmed on location in Rome, with Jose Mourinho returning to Serie A 11 years after that surprisingly moving farewell to life at Internazionale. He would take a trophy, any trophy, but what he really wants is to restore his credibility by winning another league title.

Mourinho is in a strange position - he is one of the greatest coaches in football history, yet he isn’t one of the greatest football coaches in 2021. He has lost his way, apparently unable or unwilling to adapt to a changing world, and Roma have taken a gamble in appointing him. Mourinho has taken a punt too. Roma have some good players but they finished seventh last season, 29 points behind the champions Inter. Nobody knows what will happen on the field. The only guarantee is that the spectacle - if not always the football - will be must-see TV.

View more on Rob Smyth's website »

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Published on August 22, 2021 13:50

Southampton 1-1 Manchester United: Premier League – as it happened

United extended their unbeaten run away from home to a record-equalling 27 games, but only Southampton were celebrating at the final whistle

4.07pm BST

Southampton 1-1 Manchester United

Ben Fisher’s match report has landed, so I’ll leave you with that. Thanks for your company and emails - see you for Roma v Fiorentina, 7.45pm sharp, I know where you live.

3.56pm BST

Full time: Wolves 0-1 Spurs Dele Alli’s early penalty has given Spurs a second 1-0 victory under Nuno Espirito Santo. Harry Kane came off the bench, missed a one-on-one and was booked.

3.55pm BST

This little cracker kicks off at 4.30pm

3.53pm BST

Peep peep! Manchester United extend their unbeaten run away from home to 27 Premier League games, equalling Arsenal’s top-flight record, but the only people celebrating are the Southampton fans. It’s been a terrific day for them, a timely reminder of their team’s spirit, intensity and intelligence - and a first look at the exciting Tino Livramento. United were good in patches but sloppy and unconvincing for too much of the game. A draw was the right result.

3.51pm BST

90+4 min The match is petering out, with United unable to get any attacking momentum.

3.48pm BST

90+1 min Pogba is booked for a ludicrous hack at Adams.

3.47pm BST

90 min Five minutes of added time.

3.46pm BST

89 min Greenwood plays a clever pass to Sancho, who sits Bednarek down and lifts a cross that is deflected into the arms of McCarthy.

3.45pm BST

88 min A draw would be a fair result. United had a superb spell after Greenwood’s goal but that aside it’s been pretty even, and Southampton have arguably had the clearer chances.

3.44pm BST

87 min ... and de Gea punches clear, though not entirely convincingly.

3.43pm BST

87 min The indefatigable Armstrong harasses Lindelof into conceding a corner. Ward-Prowse strolls over to take it...

3.43pm BST

86 min “Hi Rob,” says Freddy Davidson. “In these last minutes I think Juan Mata should come on because he can change a game with his creativity, he’s an underrated, class player who has a great left foot and is a magician.”

3.42pm BST

86 min United make their final change: Jesse Lingard replaces Nemanja Matic.

3.41pm BST

84 min McTominay hammers a low cross that flashes through the six-yard box with no United players in there.

3.40pm BST

84 min Shaw makes an important tackle on Livramento, who was haring towards the area after beating Pogba down the left. On this evidence he looks a terrific signing for Southampton.

3.39pm BST

82 min Ward-Prowse’s corner is headed away by Maguire.

3.38pm BST

81 min United have lost all the momentum they had after Greenwood’s goal - or, rather, Southampton have taken it off them. They’ve been outstanding in the last 10 minutes or so and have just won another corner down the right.

3.37pm BST

Wolves 0-1 Spurs Yep, Kane has come on for Son at Molineux.

3.37pm BST

80 min Southampton bring on Kyle Walker-Peters to replace Romain Perraud at left wing-back.

3.36pm BST

79 min Ward-Prowse’s free-kick is straight at de Gea, who decides to punch rather than catch it. Not that it matters, as it didn’t go in.

3.35pm BST

78 min The free-kick is 28 yards out, slightly to the right of centre, and James Ward-Prowse is the only show in town...

3.34pm BST

76 min Maguire is booked for taking out Adams 25 yards from goal. At times today, Maguire has moved like an oil tanker.

3.33pm BST

76 min Another change for United: Fred off, Scott McTominay on.

3.33pm BST

75 min: Another chance for Southampton! Ward-Prowse’s corner from the right is flicked dangerously across goal by Adams, and Armstrong at the far post almost runs the ball. In the end he can only head the ball down into the ground rather than towards goal, and United scrambled it clear.

3.32pm BST

74 min: Vital save from de Gea! Southampton almost take the lead out of nothing. Ward-Prowse robbed Maguire, who took an age on the ball in a dangerous area. Adams picked up the loose ball and slid a lovely first-time pass through to Armstrong in the area. He watched the ball onto his left foot and hit a low shot that was superbly saved to his left by de Gea. As Alan Smith says on Sky, Armstrong telegraphed the shot a little bit. Even so, it was a fine save from de Gea.

3.30pm BST

It’s still Wolves 0-1 Spurs in the other game. No sign of Harry Kane yet.

3.28pm BST

71 min Sancho plays a quick return pass to Wan-Bissaka, who is crowded out by a couple of defenders. Those two have already linked up nicely down the right.

3.27pm BST

70 min A change for Southampton: Moussa Djenepo is replaced by Ibrahima Diallo.

3.26pm BST

69 min Fernandes’s fast, furious free-kick is headed away well by Romeu at the near post. Greenwood picks up the loose ball and shoots well wide from distance.

3.26pm BST

68 min Fernandes is fouled by Djenepo on the right wing. He’ll take the free-kick himself...

3.25pm BST

68 min Southampton are struggling to get out of their third, never mind their half.

3.24pm BST

67 min “The one inclusion by Ole that did not excite me today was Matic,” says Matthew Richman. “I’m a fan of his and he’s not played badly today, but he is consistently the slowest outfield player in a side that seems to only be getting faster. I also would have preferred to see McTominay in there, but I suppose he earned a rest after last week.”

McTominay is only fit enough for the bench apparently.

3.23pm BST

65 min: Vital save from McCarthy! It’s all United now. Sancho finds Wan-Bissaka, whose flat, first-time cross is thumped towards goal by the head of Fernandes. McCarthy gets down to his left to make a desperate save, I think with his face.

3.22pm BST

64 min: Chance for Greenwood! Shaw curls an imaginative pass behind the Southampton defence that just evades the scampering Sancho. He retrieves the ball and lays it back to Fred, whose dinked cross is headed onto the roof of the net by Greenwood. A decent chance, no more than that.

3.19pm BST

62 min We’ve just seen a replay of Greenwood’s goal. I’m pretty sure he kicked the ball against his standing foot, creating an unusual spin that helped it go through McCarthy.

3.17pm BST

59 min: Just wide from Pogba! He’s playing so well at the moment. Greenwood found him on the edge of the D, surrounded by Southampton players. Pogba stopped dead, then suddenly zig-zagged away from a couple of defenders and slipped a left-footed shot back across goal. It beat the diving McCarthy and drifted just wide of the far post.

3.15pm BST

58 min A substitution for United: Jadon Sancho is on for Anthony Martial. He goes to the right wing and Greenwood moves up front.

3.14pm BST

56 min So, that’s five assists already this season for Paul Pogba. Had he played in the same position on the left in the Europa League final, United would surely have won it.

3.13pm BST

It was a soft goal, in truth, not that he’ll care. Pogba tried to play a give and go with Fernades in a very tight space in the penalty the area. He couldn’t take the return ball in his stride but improvised to flick it gently back towards Greenwood, who drove a left-footed shot through the legs of the falling McCarthy and into the net. The keeper McCarthy must have been unsighted because that shouldn’t have gone straight through him like that.

3.11pm BST

Mason Greenwood continues his fine start to the season!

3.10pm BST

53 min There’s a break in play while Djenepo receives treatment. He’s fine. No sign of any Manchester United subs yet, though it shouldn’t be long before we see Jadon Sancho for the sadly ineffective Anthony Martial. They are also missing the dynamism of Scott McTominay in midfield.

3.09pm BST

52 min Livramento drives over from 25 yards. It was well over the bar but the fact he took the shot on is another demonstration of his infectious confidence.

3.08pm BST

51 min Djenepo is booked for pulling back Fred. Southampton’s tactical switch hasn’t change their aggression without the ball. If it stays like this I’m sure they’ll park the bus at some stage, but it certainly hasn’t happened yet.

3.07pm BST

pic.twitter.com/IGylSLtis9

3.05pm BST

48 min United appeal in vain for a penalty when Pogba’s volley hits the chest and/or hand of Salisu. It was a brilliant move from United and a sizzling volley from Pogba. The VAR team quickly decide that Salisu’s arm was in a natural position.

3.03pm BST

46 min Peep peep! United begin the second half. Southampton have switched to a 3-5-2 system.

3.02pm BST

Half-time substitution Jan Bednarek is on for Theo Walcott.

2.59pm BST

“Hi Rob,” says Rick Harris. “Struggling to understand why Solksjaer has made so many changes to the team that stuffed Leeds. Surely this would have been the obvious game to give Sancho his full debut rather than try to get Martial kickstarted? And why buy Varane then leave him on the bench?”

So, to summarise: he made too many changes, and he should have made more?

2.50pm BST

Peep peep! Southampton are ahead through Fred’s unfortunate own goal, though it might have been disallowed for a foul on Bruno Fernandes in the build-up. It was a half of few chances, and for all their possession United rarely looked like scoring. They came from behind to win an astonishing 10 Premier League games last season, including a comeback from 2-0 on this ground, so it’s great to see they’ve started the new season by playing to their strengths.

2.45pm BST

45 min Two minutes of added time.

2.44pm BST

44 min Shaw’s outswinging corner is headed towards goal by Matic, and McCarthy gets down smartly to his left to make a good save.

2.43pm BST

43 min Fernandes cracks the free-kick into the top of the wall.

2.43pm BST

43 min Fred’s still hanging around the free-kick, bless him.

2.42pm BST

42 min Perraud fouls Greenwood just outside the D. The free-kick is 22 yards from goal, slightly to the right of centre, and Bruno Fernandes has cordially invited everyone else to bugger off.

2.41pm BST

40 min Greenwood does well to win a corner off Djenepo. It’s cleared and Southampton break through Livramento, who charges 70 yards down the right before crossing just in front of Armstrong. That was a helluva run from Livramento. Moments later, the last man Maguire makes a vital challenge on Walcott in the area.

2.39pm BST

40 min United have various options on the bench if it stays like this, or gets worse. The obvious one is Sancho for Martial, who has done nothing. That would mean moving Mason Greenwood up front.

2.39pm BST

39 min Fernandes floats a nice pass over the defence towards Greenwood, who slices a volley well wide. It was a tricky chance, even for him.

2.38pm BST

38 min Now Fred is fuming after a corner is given, when he was convinced the last touch came off Perraud. Ward-Prowse’s near-post corner is headed away well by Pogba.

2.36pm BST

36 min Nothing much is happening. United look a bit rattled by the goal, or maybe they’re just burning with a sense of injustice.

2.34pm BST

34 min The goal has been given to Adams, at least for now.

2.33pm BST

31 min Fernandes was booked for his protests. I think that would have been given as a foul last season, though it probably wasn’t a clear and obvious error.

2.31pm BST

Bruno Fernandes thought he was fouled by Stephens in the build up - and he has a case - but the referee disagreed. The ball was moved from Stephens to Djenepo to Armstrong and finally to Adams, whose optimistic left-footed shot from 20 yards took a huge deflection off Fred and drifted into the bottom corner. I’d need to see a few more replays to be sure, but that might go down as a Fred own goal.

2.30pm BST

Edit: it’s a very good spell for Southampton!

2.29pm BST

29 min Djenepo cuts into the area from the left, beats Matic with a stepover but then runs into Fred’s block tackle. This is a good spell for Southampton though.

2.28pm BST

27 min That Greenwood incident has energised the Southampton players, not to mention the crowd, and they have started winning the ball higher up the field again. Djenepo does just that and combines with Armstrong, who curls over the bar from 20 yards. He looks lively, Armstrong, a typical Ralph Hasenhuttl forward.

2.26pm BST

26 min Now Fernandes has a go at the ref after being penalised for a challenge on Perraud. It was a clear foul.

2.25pm BST

25 min If United avoid defeat they will equal Arsenal’s record of 27 away games unbeaten in the English top flight. That was in 2003-04, not 2001-02, since you asked.

2.24pm BST

23 min Greenwood is down holding his face after wearing Djenepo’s elbow on the underside of his jar. The referee stops play, and gets a mouthful from Jack Stephens. The crowd are also unhappy, but Greenwood was definitely elbowed. It wasn’t malevolent; you can, though, understand why the ref stopped play.

2.22pm BST

22 min This is straight to look a bit ominous for Southampton, who are having to work extremely hard defensively. Greenwood’s corner from the right is punched clear by McCarthy.

2.20pm BST

20 min Paul Pogba has been pretty lively. We’ve just seen a replay of a delicious long pass with the outside of the foot that I missed somewhere along the way.

2.19pm BST

18 min Southampton fans are addressing their former player Luke Shaw with a familiar chant. Three words, four syllables; you can probably work it out.

2.17pm BST

16 min United are dominating possession now; in fact, they’ve had 72 per cent in the match, and that includes the first few minutes when they barely had a kick.

2.16pm BST

15 min Vital defending from Livramento, who nicks the ball off Pogba on the edge of the area.

2.14pm BST

GOAL! Wolves 0-1 Spurs (Alli 9 pen) Dele Alli wins and then scores a penalty to give Spurs the lead at Molineux. He’s still only 25, you know.

2.13pm BST

13 min United are having a good spell, with Southampton committing a few fouls in dangerous areas. Another Shaw free-kick finds Pogba, who heads over from eight yards. That was a decent chance, but he couldn’t get quite over the top of the ball.

2.12pm BST

11 min Shaw’s free-kick from the left clears everyone in the middle and finds Pogba beyond the far post. He kills the ball, waits for it bounce and spanks a shot that is blocked by Salisu in the sixy-yard box. I’m not sure McCarthy would have saved that.

2.10pm BST

8 min “Ralph Hasenhuttl squinting into the sun (with his scruffily stubbled face and his sleeves rolled up) looks like Glenn Hoddle,” says Neill Brown, “if Glenn Hoddle was a bare knuckle boxer.”

I’ve heard some ifs in my time - hi auntie! - but that’s right up there.

2.09pm BST

7 min That was an absurd incident. At least two players, Maguire and McCarthy, lost their footing, and then Salisu almost kneed it into his own net while trying to clear. Happily for him, Livramento was on the line and able to clear.

2.08pm BST

6 min: MAGUIRE HITS THE BAR! Fred is fouled clumsily by Perraud, which means a free-kick to United on the right wing. Bruno Fernandes’s wicked ball into the area hits Maguire, who is in the process of falling over, and somehow loops onto the top of the bar with McCarthy stumbling backwards into the net. The rebound drops to Martial, whose header is desperately cleared off the line by a combination of Salisu and Livramento.

2.05pm BST

5 min It’s been a high-energy start from Southampton, who are picking their moments to press on what is a fairly warm day. United haven’t got going yet.

2.03pm BST

3 min Some good early pressing from Southampton, as you’d expect. Armstrong robs Maguire and wins a corner, this time on the right. Ward-Prowse’s outswinger is cleared.

2.02pm BST

1 min Fred gives away a free-kick after 20-odd seconds. The free-kick is 35 yards out, in the inside-left channel, and Ward-Prowse tries to catch de Gea out with a surprise shot towards the near post. De Gea, who was indeed surprised, dives to his right and pushed it behind for a corner.

2.00pm BST

1 min Both teams are set up as expected, with Mason Greenwood playing on the right wing for United.

2.00pm BST

1 min Peep peep! Southampton kick off from right to left.

1.58pm BST

There’s a lovely noise - an authentic noise - as the players walk onto the field. Southampton are in their classy new Hummel kit; United are wearing their blue third strip. Bright yellow accents seal the deal on this already iconic shirt, offering a real burst of colour to make you stand out from the crowd. A ribbed collar locks in comfort to keep you looking and feeling your best in this must-have! We love to see our fans are repping in their United apparel, so be sure to tag us over at @weareunited on IG and use the tag #unitedstyle for a chance to be featured!

1.55pm BST

Wolves v Spurs also kicks off at 2pm, so we’ll keep you abreast of any goals in that game. Harry Kane is on the bench.

1.51pm BST

There was some pretty heartbreaking news in the week, when Denis Law announced he had been diagnosed with mixed dementia. There are no happy endings here, but there is universal love for the most brilliant, charismatic striker United have ever had.

1.24pm BST

Some pre-match reading

1.09pm BST

Southampton are unchanged, which means home debuts for Adam Armstrong, Romain Perraud and Valentino Livramento. Manchester United’s big summer signings, Raphael Varane and Jadon Sancho, are both on the bench. They make two changes from the team that stuffed Leeds, with Nemanja Matic and Anthony Martial coming in for Scott McTominay, who is only fit enough for the bench, and Dan James. That probably means a move to the right wing for Mason Greenwood.

Southampton (4-2-2-2) McCarthy; Livramento, Stephens, Salisu, Perraud; Ward-Prowse, Romeu; Walcott, Djenepo; Adams, Armstrong.
Substitutes: Forster, Walker-Peters, Bednarek, Valery, Redmond, Tella, Elyounoussi, Diallo, Long.

1.00pm BST

The Premier League title race is a marathon and a sprint. José Mourinho changed the rules when he arrived in England and made everyone realise that points picked up before Christmas were as valuable as those won in the second half of the season. Since then, despite the odd exception like Manchester City last season, it has been much harder to make a slow start and win the league.

That’s especially true when, like this Manchester United side, you have yet to lift a trophy of any kind. If United are to win a 21st title this season, they surely need to hit the ground sprinting. So far, so good: they plugged Leeds 5-1 last weekend, bringing back memories of the triumphant 2006-07 season, and will go top if they win at St Mary’s this afternoon.

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Published on August 22, 2021 08:07

August 21, 2021

Manchester City 5-0 Norwich, Leeds 2-2 Everton: clockwatch – as it happened

Jack Grealish scored on his home debut for Manchester City, while Leeds twice came from behind to draw a pulsating game at Elland Road

5.32pm BST

That’s all for today’s clockwatch. If you need another live fix, Brighton v Watford has just kicked off. Thanks for your company and emails, goodnight.

5.31pm BST

Leeds 2-2 Everton

Louise Taylor drew the long straw this weekend - she was at Elland Road to watch a barnstorming game.

5.28pm BST

Aston Villa 2-0 Newcastle

Pete Lansley was at Villa Park to watch Danny Ings score a memorable goal on his home debut.

5.27pm BST

Pep speaks “Really good, more than pleased. It was so nice for the fans to be there. It was the first step for Jack, his first victory at our club and a goal. He was aggressive with the ball and that’s good.

“Gabriel Jesus is an incredible person, he absolutely deserved to be man of the match. He is always ready to help the team in any position. For us it’s a privilege to have him.

5.25pm BST

Man City 5-0 Norwich The stats show that City had four shots on target and won 5-0. Try explaining that to somebody who doesn’t know football when you’ve both had 14 pints.

5.19pm BST

Crystal Palace 0-0 Brentford

Here’s Ed Aarons’ report of the goalless draw at Selhurst Park.

5.08pm BST

Manchester City 5-0 Norwich City

Here’s Richard Jolly’s report on a mismatch at the Etihad, where occasional right winger Gabriel Jesus played a blinder.

5.07pm BST

A quick recap of the full-time scores in the Premier League

4.58pm BST

An important win for Villa after their false start at Watford. Danny Ings scored a spectacular overhead kick just before half-time, and Anwar El Ghazi sealed the win with a second-half penalty.

4.57pm BST

That’s the end of a pulsating match at Elland Road. Everton led 1-0 and 2-1 through goals from Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Demarai Gray; Leeds equalised twice through Mateusz Klich and then Raphinha.

4.56pm BST

Championship full times

4.55pm BST

Brentford’s promising start to Premier League life continues with a decent point at Selhurst Park.

4.52pm BST

There were fve changes from Pep Guardiola before the game and five goals for City during it, including one on his home debut from Jack Grealish.

4.51pm BST

Championship A helluva score at Kenilworth Road: Luton 0-5 Birmingham.

4.48pm BST

“Act II: spoiler alert!” says Simon McMahon. “Hamilton lost. At least Mr and Mrs Dony were in the room where it happened.”

4.47pm BST

Full time: Celtic 6-0 St Mirren Six goals, and six consecutive wins in all competitions for Celtic.

4.46pm BST

Premier League latest

4.45pm BST

League Two Make that Forest Green 6-3 Crawley.

4.45pm BST

Brighton v Watford is today’s last game. Barry Glendenning has the team news.

4.43pm BST

Another City substitute, Riyad Mahrez, gets on the scoresheet. Going to the Etihad is a rough deal at the best of times. Today, with City on a run of three straight 1-0 defeats, Norwich had no chance.

4.42pm BST

Scottish Premiership: Celtic 6-0 St Mirren (Turnbull 84) David Turnbull wins the race with his teammate Liel Abada and completes the first hat-trick of his career (I think). For a midfielder, he really knows how to finish.

4.39pm BST

League Two A scoreline of note at the New Lawn Stadium: Forest Green 6-2 Crawley. Pick those out!

4.38pm BST

Aston Villa 2-0 Newcastle A VAR intervention at Villa Park. Newcastle were given a penalty for a needless foul by Emi Martinez on Callum Wilson, but there was a marginal offside in the build up.

4.35pm BST

Leeds equalise for the second time. Raphinha - who the Sky pundit Michael Dawson has been cooing about all afternoon - got it this time with a high-class finish.

4.32pm BST

Man City 4-0 Norwich Cole Palmer, an exciting teenage midfielder, has come on to make his Premier League debut for Manchester City.

4.28pm BST

Gabriel Jesus, who has had an outstanding game on the right wing, gives a goal to the substitute Raheem Sterling.

4.27pm BST

Full time: Freiburg 2-1 Borussia Dortmund Congratulations to Bayern Munich, who are champions of Germany for the 32nd time.

4.26pm BST

Championship: Stoke 1-0 Nottm Forest (Tymon 66) Stoke, who have quietly had a terrific start to the season, are leading Nottingham Forest through Josh Tymon. As things stand they are third in the table, behind Fulham and West Brom only on goal differnce.

4.25pm BST

This is the Premier League table as things stand. It’s probably best that Steve Bruce isn’t on Twitter.

4.23pm BST

Aymeric Laporte tucks home a loose ball to make it 3-0 at the Etihad. The two teams could probably have settled on that score before the game, and saved their legs.

4.22pm BST

Anwar El Ghazi scores the penalty! Since you asked, he was off the field last week when Danny Ings took a penalty at Watford last weekend.

4.20pm BST

Leeds 1-2 Everton Illan Meslier has just made a vital save from Dominic Calvert-Lewin.

4.20pm BST

Penalty to Aston Villa! Villa 1-0 Newcastle Tyrone Mings’ header hit the outstretched arm of Jamaal Lascelles, and the penalty was given after a VAR check.

4.19pm BST

Championship: Bournemouth 2-2 Blackpool (Yates 60 pen) Hello! Two goals in four minutes for Blackpool at the Vitality Stadium.

4.18pm BST

Championship: Bournemouth 2-1 Blackpool James Husband has pulled one back for Blackpool, while Odsonne Edouard has made it Celtic 5-0 Ten Man St Mirren.

4.17pm BST

Leeds 1-2 Everton “With two quick steps Gray made Dallas look foolish and then slotted a lovely finish past the goalie,” writes Mary Waltz. “And it looks as though i am going to get this post out without Leeds scoring.”

Meanwhile, at Elland Road...

4.15pm BST

Premier League latest

4.15pm BST

Crystal Palace 0-0 Brentford And now Christian Benteke has missed a good chance, heading over the bar from Idon’tbloodyknowwhoitwas’s cross.

4.14pm BST

Leeds 1-2 Everton Demarai Gray is still only 25. He has so much talent, even if we haven’t seen enough of it so far in his career.

4.12pm BST

Demarai Gray opens his legs and shows his class, rifling Everton back into the lead at Elland Road.

4.11pm BST

Championship: Blackburn 1-2 West Brom Chile’s finest, Ben Brereton Diaz, has taken advantage of an error from Sam Johnstone to give Blackburn a sniff at Ewood Park.

4.10pm BST

“Not to be pedantic,” says Justin Kavanagh, “but won’t Marcelo Bielsa’s internal monologue always be delivered to us in the English-speaking world through that lad standing beside him, who I’ve come to think of as the embodiment of Marcelo’s brain in English. Still, at least we have Mary Waltz’s internal monologue to ponder as Leeds go on to…oh crap!

4.09pm BST

Crystal Palace 0-0 Brentford Ivan Toney has missed a great chance to give Brentford the lead, mistiming a header from close range.

4.07pm BST

Peep peep! The second halves are under way. Underway? One word? Two? Three?

3.59pm BST

“I seem to recall Matt Dony saying that he was taking the ever fortunate Mrs Dony to see Hamilton today,” hoots Simon McMahon. “It’s 0-0 at half time between them and Kilmarnock. Act II is always better, mind. And I hear the ice cream is excellent at New Douglas Park.”

3.52pm BST

Half-time reading

3.52pm BST

Peep peep! It’s half time up and down the country. These are the latest Premier League scores:

3.51pm BST

Bundesliga Jude Bellingham has just scored for Dortmund, though they still trail 2-1 at Freiburg with half an hour remaining.

3.50pm BST

Championship: Blackburn 0-2 West Brom Matt Phillips has doubled West Brom at Ewood Park, and ensured the manager Valerien Ismael will be a happy man at half-time. Okay, maybe not happy. Satisfied? Content? Zen?

3.49pm BST

A stunning overhead kick from Danny Ings has given Villa the lead on the stroke of half-time. He is such an accomplished finisher, that lad, and outrageous value at £25m.

3.46pm BST

Leeds 1-1 Everton “Since you’re writing blind, so to speak,” begins my No1 fan Mary Waltz, “here is an Everton update. Rafa had the boys in blue ready for an emotional start from Leeds and they have been quite disciplined in defence and opportunistic in attack. Mina and Bamford have been going at each other like rats in a cage. Except all that has turned into crap, Leeds scored as I typed. Crap.”

3.45pm BST

Scottish Premiership: Celtic 4-0 St Mirren (Turnbull 44)

Two for Liel Abada and now two for David Turnbull. You wouldn’t bet against one, if not both, completing a hat-trick in the second half.

3.42pm BST

Mateusz Klich gets a deserved equaliser for Leeds at a very noisy Elland Road. Sounds like it was a lovely team goal, too.

3.41pm BST

Crystal Palace 0-0 Brentford Bryan Mbuemo has pinged the crossbar at Selhurst Park. Meanwhile...

3.39pm BST

Bielsa 0-1 Benitez Leeds have had 78 per cent of the possession at Elland Road. I’d love to hear Marcelo Bielsa’s internal monologue right now.

3.36pm BST

Championship: Fulham 2-0 Hull The teenager Fabio Carvalho, who looks a player, has scored a fine goal to put Fulham two up against Hull.

3.33pm BST

Championship: Fulham 1-0 Hull The three promotion favourites are all in front - West Brom, Bournemouth and now Fulham. Aleksandar Mitrovic has done the needful at Craven Cottage.

3.31pm BST

Premier League latest

3.30pm BST

Bang!

3.29pm BST

Scottish Premiership: Celtic 3-0 St Mirren (Turnbull 28)

3.28pm BST

Leeds 0-0 Everton: Penalty given Liam Cooper has been booked.

3.28pm BST

Leeds 0-0 Everton: VAR check for an Everton penalty Liam Cooper put hands on Dominic Calvert-Lewin in the penalty area, apparently, and now the referee is strolling over to the monitor to find out whether he made a clear and obvious error.

3.24pm BST

Scottish Premiership: Celtic 2-0 St Mirren Liel Abada has scored his second goal, and as things stand crisis club Celtic are top of the league.

3.24pm BST

Scottish Premiership: Celtic 1-0 St Mirren Now St Mirren are down to 10 men, with Alan Power given a straight red for an antediluvian challenge on David Turnbull.

3.23pm BST

Big Jack scores on his home debut, though apparently he didn’t know too much about. Gabriel Jesus, who is having a stormer on the right wing, hammered a cross that hit the unsighted Grealish and flew into the net.

3.20pm BST

Championship: Bournemouth 2-0 Blackpool Dominic Solanke has scored both goals for Bournemouth, continuing his - and their - strong start to the season.

3.18pm BST

Scottish Premiership: Celtic 1-0 St Mirren Crisis club Celtic, who have won their last five games in all competitions, lead St Mirren at Celtic Park thanks to a goal from the teenager Liel Abada.

3.17pm BST

Ferran Torres thought he’d put City 2-0 up, but Graham Scott was encouraged to go to the VAR monitor to check a possible foul by Bernardo Silva on Milot Rashica in the build-up. He decided it was a foul, and the goal was disallowed, the end.

3.14pm BST

Man City 1-0 Norwich The Premier League have given the goal to Norwich keeper Tim Krul rather than Grant Hanley. As we’re unable to legally watch Saturday 3pm kick-offs, I have no idea what happened, so I’m afraid I can’t help you.

3.12pm BST

Man City 1-0 Norwich City’s goal is another one that would probably have been disallowed last season. It looked for all the world that Gabriel Jesus was 0.0001mm offside in the build up.

3.08pm BST

In a surprising development... Gabriel Jesus - who is playing on the right, not up front has expected - hit a dangerous cross that was put into his own net by Grant Hanley.

3.02pm BST

Championship A very early goal at Ewood Park - Alex Mowatt, who already looks an inspired signing, has given West Brom the lead against Blackburn. When I grow up, I really want to work for Valerien Ismael.

3.01pm BST

Peep peep! The 3pm games are under way. All of them.

2.54pm BST

Here’s more on Liverpool’s ultimately comfortable win over Burnley at Anfield

2.34pm BST

2.33pm BST

Championship: QPR 2-2 Barnsley

The early kick-off in the Championship was a bit of a thriller. Barnsley were 2-0 up at half-time, but QPR - who have been in great form year, never mind this season - grabbed a point through Charlie Austin’s injury-time equaliser. Good lad.

2.24pm BST

The early game has finished at Anfield. If you don’t want to know the score, you’re out of luck: Liverpool won 2-0.

2.16pm BST

Two changes for Leeds from the team that was hammered at Old Trafford. Junior Firpo makes his full debut at left-back and Kalvin Phillips returns in midield. Robin Koch and Rodrigo are left out, with Koch not on the bench.

Rafa Benitez also makes two changes from the Everton side that beat Southampton. Mason Holgate and Andros Townsend are replaced by Yerry Mina and Alex Iwobi.

2.11pm BST

Patrick Vieira makes three changes to the Crystal Palace team that was well beaten by Chelsea last weekend. Conor Gallagher, Joachim Andersen and Christian Benteke come in for Jairo Riedewald, Jean-Philippe Mateta and Jordan Ayew.

Palace have only eight subs, two of them goalkeepers. More rewardingly for the neutral nerd, 10 of their 19-man squad have first names that begin with the letter J.

2.08pm BST

Jack Grealish makes his home debut for Manchester City, one of six survivors from last weekend’s defeat at Spurs. In come Kyle Walker, Aymeric Laporte, Rodri, Gabriel Jesus and Bernardo Silva; out go Nathan Ake, Benjamin Mendy, Fernandinho, Raheem Sterling and Riyad Mahrez. In other news, Kevin De Bruyne is injured.

Norwich, who lost at home to Liverpool last weekend, are unchanged.

2.05pm BST

Ashley Young starts at left-back for Aston Villa, with Matt Targett - still recovering from the twisted blood he sustained at Vicarage Road last weekend - only fit enough for the bench. Jacob Ramsey takes Young’s place on the left wing, and Douglas Luiz replaces Marvelous Nakamba.

Newcastle make three changes from the team that lost 4-2 at home to West Ham. Jamaal Lascelles, Fabian Schar and new signing Joe Willock replace Ciaran Clark, Emil Krafth and Jonjo Shelvey.

2.01pm BST

There’s been another goal at Anfield, and it was a belter. Here’s your clickbait.

1.37pm BST

Liverpool v Burnley is the early Premier League game. The second half has just started, and you will believe the score.

1.30pm BST

Don’t call it a comeback. They been here for years, rocking their peers, putting suckers in fear. But it’s still easy for us, in our ivory tower, to forget the life-affirming power of a full house at Elland Road. This afternoon, for the first time since 8th May 2004, Leeds will play a Premier League game in front of a capacity home crowd. There’s a strong argument that - pound for pound, lung for lung - Leeds supporters are the best in the country. What’s not in dispute is that there will be a helluva racket when they play Everton this afternoon.

That’s one of four Premier League games kicking off at 3pm. With it August, and clockwatch ennui not having yet kicked in, all the matches have a

narrati
story or three to excite us. There are home debuts for Patrick Vieira (Crystal Palace v Brentford), Jack Grealish (Manchester City v Norwich) and all the people Aston Villa bought with the Grealish money (Aston Villa v Newcastle).

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Published on August 21, 2021 09:32

August 16, 2021

India win second Test against England by 151 runs – as it happened

Virat Kohli’s side pulled off a sensational victory at Lord’s, overwhelming England on a pulsating, spiteful final day

Public service announcement: I’ve been going to Lord’s with the same group of friends for decades, and part of our routine involves, on day one at least, visiting Waitrose John Barnes next to Finchley Road tube and running around buying everything to complete the fabled and legendary cricket picnic. Well, on Thursday I reached into the cool bag and realised that I didn’t want to eat whatever I was pulling out because it was cold, and just behind me were rows and rows of tremendous hot food. Of course, the existence of a banquet at one’s feet is a fine feeling, but I’m afraid we’ve reached the point at which it is no longer the best way of performing the necessary gluttony. Thoughts and prayers with you all at this sad moment – but please do point out why I’m wrong and what I’ve failed to consider.

“The thrilling anticipation I’m feeling going into this fifth day decider of a fabulous turnaround Test match,” says Dean Kinsella, “is tempered only by the thought that this Indian tail will not last 5 minutes against the GOAT with a new ball in his hand. I would love Woody to get onto the Lord’s honours board but I feel it will be Jimmy’s morning. His first-innings efforts showed what marvellous form he is in and the barrage of bouncers he withstood while batting won’t have put him in the most charitable of moods.”

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Published on August 16, 2021 11:16

August 15, 2021

India build 154-run lead over England: second Test, day four – as it happened

Mark Wood bowled like the wind, Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane dug in for almost 50 overs – and then England took three vital late wickets

6.58pm BST

Right, that’s it for today’s blog. I’ll leave you with Ali’s match report from Lord’s. Thanks for your company and emails, see you tomorrow. It’s going to be emotional.

6.33pm BST

WHAT. A. BALL!

Moeen bowls Jadeja (3) with a peach - perfectly described by Sir Andrew Strauss on commentary! ️

India 175-6, lead by 148 | #ENGvIND @RuthStraussFdn | #RedForRuth

Watch https://t.co/N5yEvBmzDs
Live blog https://t.co/BQcLeSJCgY pic.twitter.com/2tLMj0S8nf

6.21pm BST

The post-match thoughts of Moeen Ali

“We could have carried on with the spinners but Joe wanted to bowl the seamers so that’s why we came off. There were two parties out there - one wanted to stay on and one wasn’t so sure! It’s going to be a tight game, so 15-20 extra runs tonight could have been crucial. Now Jimmy will have the new ball in the morning.

6.13pm BST

Joe Root will be thrilled not only with the day England have had, but that all six wickets were taken by the change bowlers. There were three for Mark Wood, who revelled in the glad animal action of bowling fast, two to Moeen Ali and one to Sam Curran. Virat Kohli will be equally chuffed that Cheteshwar Pujara (45 from 206 balls) and Ajinkya Rahane (61 from 146) returned to something resembling their world-class best. And all the while, a compelling contest ebbed and flowed. Cricket is the best team sport in the world; cricket is the best individual sport in the world.

6.07pm BST

Ach, that’s a shame. But it shouldn’t really affect the match, in that the draw is now highly unlikely. And after a fascinating fourth day’s play - meandering at times, blistering at others - we have a rare old humdinger in store at Lord’s tomorrow. India will resume on 181 for six, a lead of 154, with an unfettered gentleman by the name of Pant still at the crease.

6.05pm BST

The umpires are discussing the light again ... and they’re off. The crowd responds, somewhat bizarrely, by chanting ‘Roooooooooooooooot’. It’s past 6pm, the official cut-off time, so that will be it for today.

6.04pm BST

82nd over: India 181-6 (Pant 14, Ishant 4) Moeen to Pant, who cuts a single to the cover sweeper. No need to farm the strike at this stage. Virat Kohli, on the balcony, is unhappy and signals to Pant and Sharma that they should nag the umpires about the light. Sharma does, without success, and then slices a couple of runs behind square. England are very chirpy out there, Bairstow in particular. This is tremendous stuff.

5.58pm BST

81st over: India 178-6 (Pant 13, Ishant 2) Although the second new ball is available, England can’t bowl their seamers because of the light so they aren’t going to take it for now. Joe Root continues to Rishabh Pant, who thumps a drive up to long-off for a single. That’s your lot. India lead by 151 in what might be the best Lord’s Test since that epic against South Africa in 2012.

5.56pm BST

80th over: India 177-6 (Pant 12, Ishant 2) Mark Wood comes back on the field, realises he won’t be allowed to bowl because of the fading light (or possibly because he has been off the field for too long) and goes off again. England may have to keep two spinners on, though they won’t mind that with the way Moeen is bowling. Ishant fiddles an edge wide of slip for a couple.

“The gap in quality between India’s number 7 and number 8 is quite something, isn’t it?” says Michael Anderson. “England’s 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 would probably all bat at number 8 in this India team.”

5.51pm BST

Goddim! Moeen has struck again with a stunning delivery. It curved onto off and middle from round the wicket and turned dramatically to beat Jadeja’s defensive push and hit the outside of off stump. After waiting almost 50 overs to break the partnership between Pujara and Rahane, England have taken three wickets in seven overs!

5.50pm BST

79th over: India 174-5 (Pant 12, Jadeja 2) As Root skips through an over, the camera cuts to Mark Wood in the England dressing-room. He doesn’t look in pain but he’s had his right shoulder strapped.

5.47pm BST

78th over: India 174-5 (Pant 12, Jadeja 2) Moeen huries through another over, two from it. There are 12 overs remaining today, 10 of which should be bowled with the second new ball.

5.46pm BST

77th over: India 172-5 (Pant 11, Jadeja 1) Pant misses an almighty hack at Root, bowling round the wicket, with the bowling turning sharply out of the rough to hit Buttler high on the gloves. Rishabh Pant is such a delight; he could bring rock & roll spirit to a game of tiddlywinks.

5.41pm BST

76th over: India 167-5 (Pant 9, Jadeja 0) Moeen deserved that wicket for some very tidy bowling throughout the match. India lead by 140, and the game is well and truly on.

5.40pm BST

A huge wicket for England just before the second new ball! Rahane, pushing defensively on the back foot, thin-edges a delivery from Moeen that skids straight on, and Jos Buttler takes a smart catch. Now. Then.

5.35pm BST

75th over: India 165-4 (Rahane 59, Pant 9) Root replaces Wood, so that means six overs of spin (probably) before the second new ball. Pant, whose positivity extends way beyond big-hitting, steals a quick single and then tries to take another from the non-striker’s end. Rahane sends him back, a wise decision. India lead by 138.

“Even from the recesses of the Corbières in Southern France,” begins Georgie Clay, “I know that what sounds like booing is the crowd calling Root’s name!!”

5.32pm BST

Wood is leaving the field to have his shoulder checked. That’s sensible but also worrying - not to mention frustrating, because he has been in blistering form today.

5.31pm BST

74th over: India 163-4 (Rahane 58, Pant 8) With Pant at the crease, Joe Root replaces himself with Moeen Ali. The pace, mood and noise of the match have changed instantly. Pant edges down to third man, where the diving Wood does brilliantly to save the boundary - but he has damaged his right shoulder in the process.

This is a worry. Wood has a quick word with the physio on the boundary edge and decides to stay on, but he’s clearly uncomfortable and I’m not sure he’ll be able to bowl.

5.25pm BST

73rd over: India 158-4 (Rahane 58, Pant 3) Rishabh Pant, who was lying down on the physio’s bench a couple of minutes ago, pulls his first ball for two and then takes a quick single to keep the strike.

5.24pm BST

Evening Rishabh

5.22pm BST

Mark Wood has got blood out of the stone! On a slow pitch, with an old ball, he somehow got the fourth delivery of his new spell to burst viciously at Pujara, who could only fence it to Root in a wide slip position. Pujara defended so well, making 45 from 206 balls, but that was unplayable. Mark Wood is in the team for exactly that type of breakthrough.

5.14pm BST

72nd over: India 151-3 (Pujara 41, Rahane 58) The Lord’s crowd boo the announcement that Joe Root is coming on to bowl, which is an appalling way to respond to somebody who gave them such entertainment yesterday. His second ball drifts away from Pujara and then turns back in, though it was too wide to cause any problems. A decent start from Root, and that’s drinks.

5.11pm BST

71st over: India 149-3 (Pujara 40, Rahane 57) Pujara almost walks past one from Moeen. He just managed to squeeze the ball on the half-volley and scrunch it past Buttler’s right foot. And now it looks like Joe Root is going to have a bowl.

5.08pm BST

70th over: India 143-3 (Pujara 39, Rahane 53) Rahane, who is playing more a bit more fluently, clips Curran through midwicket for a couple. England look a little flat, and anything before the second new ball will be a bonus. India lead by 117.

5.03pm BST

69th over: India 140-3 (Pujara 38, Rahane 50)

5.02pm BST

68th over: India 139-3 (Pujara 37, Rahane 50) Rahane opens the face to steer Curran to third man for four, a high-class stroke that brings up a commendable half-century - probably match-saving, possibly match-winning. It’s only his second fifty in 16 innings, since he made that pointed century at Melbourne last winter, but he has shown again why he has such a great career record overseas.

4.55pm BST

67th over: India 135-3 (Pujara 37, Rahane 46) Moeen continues and is worked for a single. I know Root has a million things on his mind but I do think he should have a short spell before the second new ball. It would get the crowd going, and if nothing else he might take a wicket through positive vibes. It was no fluke that, when he scored 456 runs against India at Lord’s in 1990, Graham Gooch also picked up an important wicket with the ball and ended the match with a spectacular run-out.

4.54pm BST

66th over: India 134-3 (Pujara 37, Rahane 45) Now then. Curran, around the wicket, beats Pujara with a gorgeous delivery. Buttler celebrates the caught behind, but Curran doesn’t even appeal. Michael Gough says not out anyway. Joe Root has only one review left, because England threw away the first two, and that means he can’t risk it.

Here comes the replay... and there’s nothing on UltraEdge, so it’s a good job Root didn’t review. The noise came from the bat hitting the pad as Pujra pushed forward.

4.48pm BST

65th over: India 131-3 (Pujara 36, Rahane 42) Moeen has changed ends now to replace Anderson, who will have a bit of a break before the second new ball. Rahane whirls a flat, hard sweep for four to inch ahead of Pujara in this compelling race between the tortoise and the tortoise. He gets four off the next ball too, albeit in slightly strnage circumstances. He flicked Moeen to long leg for three and picked up a bonus run when Wood’s throw beat Buttler.

“Settle CC five wickets down but win!” says Anthony Bradley. “Our seconds only need one win from five remaining games to win their league as well. All four junior teams won their respective competitions too. Thirds mid-table but full of juniors.”

4.44pm BST

64th over: India 121-3 (Pujara 36, Rahane 33) Hang on, Anderson’s hair was red, the Freddie Ljungberg tribute. I was getting my skunks confused. Meanwhile, the bleach blond Sam Curran launches into a lone appeal for LBW against Rahane, who pushed forward at a delivery from around the wicket. Michael Gough says not out, so that’s the end of that. Inside edge, probably outside the line. Another maiden. This partnership is now 66 from 41 overs.

4.39pm BST

63rd over: India 121-3 (Pujara 36, Rahane 33) Nope, Anderson continues, and beats Pujara with a good delivery from wider on the crease. The pitch is painfully slow, so even he does find the edge there’s no guarantee it will carry. As if to prove the point, Buttler takes the last ball of the over on the second bounce.

4.35pm BST

62nd over: India 120-3 (Pujara 36, Rahane 32) Sam Curran replaces Moeen, who might be about to change ends. I like this move, because Curran has the personality and optimism to make things happen when they logically shouldn’t. He almost strikes third ball, in fact, when Pujara edges just short of Bairstow in the slips.

4.32pm BST

61st over: India 120-3 (Pujara 36, Rahane 32) Another maiden from Anderson, who has figures of 17-6-22-0. Eighteen years ago, when he was a blue-haired tearaway, his first over in Test cricket went for 17. He’s the Benjamin Button of economy rates.

4.30pm BST

NOT OUT! Rahane was surprised by a ball from Anderson that popped from a length outside off stump and went through to Buttler. Anderson’s appeal was more of an enquiry, and Root wasn’t convinced either - but he reviewed at the last second, presumably out of desperation. There was nothing on UltraEdge and that means England are down to their last review.

4.29pm BST

ENGLAND REVIEW FOR CAUGHT BEHIND AGAINST RAHANE I don’t think this is out.

4.25pm BST

60th over: India 120-3 (Pujara 36, Rahane 32) Oh my, Rahane has been dropped by Bairstow off Moeen! It was a tricky chance, low to his right at point with the ball dying on him, but he’s such a good fielder that you expected him to take it. I think it bounced off the carpometacarpal joint.

4.23pm BST

59th over: India 118-3 (Pujara 36, Rahane 30) Another accurate over from Anderson, but with no movement whatsoever. He might as well save his legs for the second new ball.

I didn’t fancy the draw at all this morning, but it is fast becoming the favourite as the pitch gets slower and lower. In fact, WinViz has it at 47 per cent, with England on 28 and India 25. I wouldn’t have it as such a strong favourite myself, but I’m no meticulously developed algorithm.

4.18pm BST

58th over: India 118-3 (Pujara 36, Rahane 30) The old ball is doing very little for the seamers, so England have 23 overs of hard yakka ahead. It might be time for Joe Root to bowl himself for a few overs and see how far his halo extends.

4.15pm BST

57th over: India 117-3 (Pujara 36, Rahane 29) Pujara continues this orgy of boundaries - two in three balls now - with a flashing back cut off Anderson. That was beautifully played. With the caveat that I haven’t a clue, I think India are slightly ahead now.

4.12pm BST

56th over: India 113-3 (Pujara 32, Rahane 29) Out of nothing, Rahane jumps down the track to swing Moeen to cow corner for four. He didn’t nail it, and it was in the air, but he managed to drag it over midwicket and well wide of mid-on. India lead by 86.

4.08pm BST

55th over: India 108-3 (Pujara 31, Rahane 25) Jimmy Anderson returns to the attack, as he usually does at the start of a session, and troubles Pujara with a bit of extra bounce. The ball rams into the glove and drops safely on the off side. One from the over.

“Thanks for the shout out for Settle CC,” says Anthony Bradley. “Settle CC bowled out Cherry Tree for 64 so if we lose from here…”

4.03pm BST

54th over: India 107-3 (Pujara 30, Rahane 25) Moeen continues after tea, and induces a biggish drive from Rahane that he can only scuff back to the bowler. Two singles from the over.

3.52pm BST

It’s not just cricket

Gerd Muller scored with his shin, his knee and his backside, and sometimes even with his feet

3.44pm BST

The afternoon session in numbers

3.43pm BST

53rd over: India 105-3 (Pujara 29, Rahane 24) Rahane steers a full toss from Curran for a single to bring up a quietly resolute fifty partnership from 175 balls. In the context of the match and their individual form, it’s been thoroughly admirable.

Pujara blocks the last ball before tea, a loopy slower one from Curran, takes his helmet off and smiles as he walks off with Rahane. For the first time in a while, he looks like he’s having fun out there. Niche fun, admittedly, he has 29 from 148 balls after all, but fun nonetheless.

3.36pm BST

52nd over: India 103-3 (Pujara 28, Rahane 23) Time for two more overs before the tea break. Moeen continues his accurate if mostly unthreatening spell... and the moment I type that, Rahane misses a cut stroke at a ball that keeps very low outside off stump. He is beaten again off the last delivery, this time by a bit of extra bounce.

3.33pm BST

51st over: India 103-3 (Pujara 28, Rahane 23) Sam Curran replaces Mark Wood, and his first over is a gem. Pujara edges for four, wide of second slip at catchable height, and then survives a big LBW appeal from around the wicket. I’m pretty sure there was an inside edge... Indeed there was.

“Would be good to have a big shout out for Settle CC today,” writes Anthony Bradley. “The Firsts play in the Ramsbottom Cup final today having already won the Ribblesdale League yesterday for the third year in succession. They are the only Yorkshire side in the two competitions and we have to bear in mind the War of the Roses only finished 400 years ago.”

3.29pm BST

50th over: India 99-3 (Pujara 22, Rahane 22) Pujara survives an LBW appeal from Moeen. It was beautifully bowled, dipping and turning past Pujara’s inside edge, but he was a long way forward and I think he got an inside edge anyway. Replays show it was had the square root of eff all going for it.

“It might be pedestrian progress for India now, but if Pujara and Rahane continue this way up till close of play today and muster a lead of 200, England will certainly be under pressure,” says Gangesh Vadakeyil in Kerala. “Pant and Jadeja can come and blast their way tomorrow morning to set a 300-plus target for the hosts on the last day on a weary pitch. Such an interesting scenario can’t be entirely ruled out.”

3.25pm BST

49th over: India 96-3 (Pujara 22, Rahane 22) Wood rams in a short ball to Rahane, who top-edges a slightly woolly hook for a single. It landed nowhere near Moeen at fine leg, but it wasn’t a particularly convincing shot. Pujara then pulls away with Wood into his delivery stride. “Was it me?” asks Wood to Pujara, who points behind him at an open door to the side of the sightscreen. The rest of the over passes without incident, save Wood moving back over the wicket, and that might be it for this spell. He’s bowled 13 today, four in this anotherwordforspell.

3.19pm BST

48th over: India 92-3 (Pujara 20, Rahane 20) Pujara is using his feet a lot to Moeen, though usually with singles, defence and length-disruption in mind. Three singles from the over, and both batsmen have 20. Pujara has faced 131 balls, Rahane 61.

“This is the mega plan,” says Amod Paranjape. “Bore everyone to sleep and then unleash some singles.”

3.16pm BST

47th over: India 89-3 (Pujara 19, Rahane 18) This is a great example of cricket being both a team and individual sport. A superb match is exquisitely poised; there are two outstanding batsmen, who have been around forever, trying to grind their way out of a desperate spell of form; and they are facing two bowlers who have had a mixed relationship with Test cricket over the years but could be England’s matchwinner on their return to the side.

Wood has moved around the wicket, with a field set for short stuff. Pujara gloves a thoroughly unpleasant lifter round the corner for a couple, just short of the diving Buttler, and then sways out of the way of a well-directed follow-up. A fine over from Wood, which has got the crowd going again.

3.10pm BST

46th over: India 86-3 (Pujara 17, Rahane 17) Rahane shapes to cut a ball from Moeen that turns sharply and ends up hitting either the glove or the bat handle. Transcript of Ravichandran Ashwin’s internal monologue please!

3.08pm BST

45th over: India 85-3 (Pujara 17, Rahane 16) Pujara blots his copybook by hitting a boundary, the first of his innings from his 118th ball. It was expertly played, a crisp flick through square leg when Wood strayed slightly in line.

3.05pm BST

44th over: India 81-3 (Pujara 13, Rahane 16) One of the benefits for India of this very slow partnership - 26 from 21 overs - is that Rishabh Pant is going to come in against an older ball and wearier bowlers. Pujara flicks Moeen for another single to move to 13 from 114 balls. As somebody with some, let’s say, interpersonal shortcomings, I’ve always had a soft spot for these tortoisian labours. Have a look at Nasser in the second innings here. I watched every ball, and you’ll never be able to take that away from me.

3.00pm BST

43rd over: India 79-3 (Pujara 12, Rahane 15) Mark Wood returns in place of Ollie Robinson. Ajinkya Rahane’s beans heat up accordingly - he has a wild slap at a first-ball loosener and is beaten. A more measured quick single later in the over takes India’s lead to 52; then Pujara does well to dig out a beautiful inswinging yorker.

2.55pm BST

42nd over: India 78-3 (Pujara 12, Rahane 14) Rahane survives an appeal for LBW off Moeen. The reason I say ‘off’ rather than ‘from’ is that Moeen didn’t appeal himself, with only Buttler and Root going up behind the stumps. It was comfortably missing leg. Nice bit of bowling though, and it turned off the straight.

2.52pm BST

41st over: India 77-3 (Pujara 12, Rahane 13) Pujara receives a loud ovation upon reaching his hundred - that’s balls faced, obviously. You know exactly how many runs he’s got because it’s at the start of this entry; don’t start playing silly buggers. By the end of Robinson’s over he has moved to 104 balls, though he did well to keep out his 103rd. It came back off the seam and kept a bit low, but Pujara was good enough to block it.

2.48pm BST

40th over: India 77-3 (Pujara 12, Rahane 13) Cheers Geoff, hello everyone. This is sheer delightful Test cricket, a devilishly layered struggle. It’s time for another layer, a first bowl for Moeen Ali in this innings. He starts with a slip and short leg for Rahane, who whaps a single into the leg side. Pujara, on the walk, does likewise off the last ball of the over.

2.46pm BST

39th over: India 75-3 (Pujara 11, Rahane 12) Last over before drinks, and Pujara will give nothing away now. Doesn’t even chase one down the leg side. Does play a nice crisp shot into the covers but Anderson saves. Pujara has had three or four possible boundaries that instead have been fielded, so he hasn’t been quite as sedate as 11 from 96 would suggest. He has been almost that sedate though.

India lead by 48 runs. The partnership is 20 from 14.1 overs.

2.43pm BST

38th over: India 75-3 (Pujara 11, Rahane 12) Thank you, says Rahane: a nice full toss on his leg stump from Curran. Clipped through midwicket for four. He goes past Pujara in this gradual partnership.

2.40pm BST

37th over: India 71-3 (Pujara 11, Rahane 8) Robinson to Pujara, up to 90 balls faced now with another scoreless over.

Samuel Chappell on Twitter asks, “Do we have stats on the lowest score to reach a Cowan Ton?” Which for the uninitiated is facing 100 balls in a Test.

2.31pm BST

36th over: India 71-3 (Pujara 11, Rahane 8) Curran bowls the Kohli ball, but better: tighter to Pujara’s off stump and seaming away more markedly. Cut to footage of Kohli on the balcony: an hour or so later, he’s still shaking his head and muttering to himself. Pujara glances two runs from Curran, then gets a short ball and dusts off the pull shot! You crazy kid. Gets a run.

2.29pm BST

35th over: India 68-3 (Pujara 8, Rahane 8) Eight runs in nine overs since lunch. Robinson starts the tenth, replacing Anderson. Drops short and pulled for four. That’s crisp from Rahane but Robinson is excited too, he has a leg-side trap in place. Midwicket, short leg, backward square, long leg. The short leg is set deep, maybe 10 paces from the bat, and the shot goes over him as Haseeb Hameed crouches in self-preservation. More excitement as Rahane shoulders arms to an in-ducker that hits his pad: outside the line doesn’t matter, but it’s too high.

India’s lead is 41.

2.22pm BST

34th over: India 64-3 (Pujara 8, Rahane 4) Pujara facing Curran, tries the cut. His best shot usually, and this is close to his body but he still almost manages to cut it. Bottom edge into the ground. Gets a little more width but less short next ball, and plays more of a diagonal slash at the ball - good fielding at cover point saves four. Pujara shuts up shop again.

2.19pm BST

33rd over: India 64-3 (Pujara 8, Rahane 4) That’s good from Pujara, lays a little more into a drive and Curran at mid off has to scurry across to extra cover. Only a run but there was intent against Anderson.

Ruth Purdue, I assure you that you’re a kindred spirit with many on the OBO. “I love this graft and battle from the Indian batters. I don’t know if I am the only one, but I do love this part of the game. The bowlers are on top and searching, the batters dogged and fighting to stay in.”

2.16pm BST

32nd over: India 63-3 (Pujara 7, Rahane 4) Mark Wood charges in, with his bodybuilder’s runup and his jockey’s build. Rahane pulls again for a run, Pujara nurdles into the leg side. Wood pings down a sharp bouncer but Rahane is short enough to get under it easily.

2.11pm BST

31st over: India 61-3 (Pujara 6, Rahane 3) Anderson to Pujara, blocking, blocking, blocking.

“I know he wasn’t quick, but how old was Wilf Rhodes when he took his last Test wicket?” asks Ian Andrew. Wilfred took a couple of wickets in his last Test in 1930, when he was 52 years and change. The oldest Test player to this day (and probably forever). He so nearly had a Test overlap with Bradman, which in the degrees-of-separation game would take you from WG Grace to 1948 in two moves.

2.05pm BST

30th over: India 61-3 (Pujara 6, Rahane 3) Another edge from Pujara short of the cordon, again his soft hands keeping him out there. It gives you a sense of how well he plays that even Mark Wood’s pace wasn’t enough to make the edge carry to the slips. And you can see how deliberate it is, because after the edge Pujara is turning around and watching, not to much to see whether it carries but to see whether it gets through for a run. He’s tensing and ready to take off as soon as he’s got the nick. And there is a fumble, and he nearly runs, but calls against it. Does get the single later in the over, that pat to cover again.

2.02pm BST

29th over: India 60-3 (Pujara 5, Rahane 3) That’s better from Pujara, plays the little pat into the off side and gets away from Anderson first ball of the over. Rahane’s turn to soak up some bowling. He’s happy to take a good look at Anderson and nothing more.

1.55pm BST

28th over: India 59-3 (Pujara 4, Rahane 3) Wood bowls short, Rahane plays the pull shot with no hesitation. He’s faced 15 balls and caught Pujara’s score from 52. Che thinks about a run after dropping the ball to point, but decides against. Ducks under a shorter ball. Does find a run after that though, pushed to cover. The glacier begins to creak with movement. India’s lead is 32.

1.51pm BST

27th over: India 57-3 (Pujara 3, Rahane 2) Speaking of him, here is Mr Anderson. He bowled a long spell in the first session, we’ll see how he backs up. Everything in the channel to Rahane, who eventually steps forward to drop and run a single into the covers. Every time Rahane sets off for a run these days, it’s a nervous moment.

1.47pm BST

26th over: India 56-3 (Pujara 3, Rahane 1) Back after lunch, and Root wants to rev up Mark Wood for an immediate burst. He aims at the stumps throughout, making Pujara play, but the man with the bat blocks out the lot and adds another six dot balls to his tally. Three runs from 52 balls.

1.45pm BST

Steve Hudson is in the mood for appreciation. “The fact we are struggling to find older quickies than Anderson shows how extraordinary he is. Hope he comes through the Aussie tour ok and can stick around for another year or so. Still a stroppy bugger too, as shown by his chat with Kohli!”

1.41pm BST

Feel the good cheer spreading around England.

Morning @GeoffLemonSport. This is a delight of a Test, and clear surely to England what happens when you actually have runs to make a game of it. Root, of course, has been sublime, but others have finally supported him. It allows bowlers to attack to positive fields. Who knew?

1.39pm BST

@GeoffLemonSport I know we're not supposed to reward pitch invaders with attention, but this guy was genuinely funny. Curious if you (or OBO readers) know of a better one, or if the rest are just all drunk and naked? https://t.co/CRl1bTZqYD

He was very good. Jarvo 69 is a variation on the original from the 2001 Ashes, the bloke who walked out in full England kit - helmet, pads, gloves - to try to bat in the middle. Might have been the fourth Test. He really looked the part. In some ways, Jarvo looking less the part makes this more amusing.

1.26pm BST

Maybe we can answer the oldest to take a wicket question. For non-spinners, WG Grace and Frank Woolley both played to an advanced age, but they both bowled medium pace. Grace took his last wicket about a decade before his career ended, Woolley four years beforehand. So that would make Grace about 41 and Woolley 43.

Gubby Allen was a proper quick though, and took a wicket in his final Test in Kingston in 1948. He was 45 years and well on the way to 46. That wicket was Frank Worrell out lbw too - handy.

1.16pm BST

While we wait, Andrew Tyacke is playing OBO Quiz. “Regarding the enduring Peter Pan who masquerades as Jimmy Anderson: who is the oldest genuine quickie to take (a) a wicket, (b) a five-for in a Test against a major Test country?”

I can answer the second bit: 20 players older than Jimmy have taken five-fors, but most of them as you correctly guessed were spinners. Bit easier to tweak the ball than rocket it when your limbs are ageing.

1.07pm BST

A fine session for England. Only conceding 59 runs is a big plus, but the three wickets are bigger. Both openers and India’s captain, the three who have made some runs in this series. Pujara and Rahane have battled, and while we know how dangerous Pant and Jadeja can be, it will be too much work left to them if the current pair can’t at least summon a stand worth a hundred or so.

There’s been enough assistance to give the bowlers some joy today, but really for Rohit and Kohli, batting error was the cause.

1.03pm BST

25th over: India 56-3 (Pujara 3, Rahane 1) Robinson to Rahane, down the slope, nailing his pad and Robinson first beseeches the umpire, then beseeches Root for the review. “I thought it was out,” says the bowler. Root waits for timer to run down and then shrugs, as if to say sorry, wish there was something I could do. Ball-tracker says a leg-stump trimmer at best. Rahane sees out the next few balls and that is lunch.

12.58pm BST

24th over: India 56-3 (Pujara 3, Rahane 1) So much rests on this pair, now. Rahane played so well in Australia as stand-in captain. Needs to produce one of those innings today. He’s off the mark promptly, one to square leg.

12.56pm BST

That’s the big one! Curran gets it, and he takes off for a 400m men’s final. Does a lap of the ground. Catches up to Imran Tahir. I wonder how much of that wicket you can give to Michael Gough, whose warning about running on the pitch moved Curran back over the wicket. He’s been trying to swing the ball into the pads but this is the ball that goes on straight. Kohli has had a real problem playing balls that are wider than he needs to play. He does it again, shapes to play the inswing then follows the movement away, nicking to the keeper, and he’s absolutely furious about it.

12.54pm BST

23rd over: India 53-2 (Pujara 3, Kohli 20) Gradual progress for India, as Pujara finds another single, and Robinson gives away another leg bye.

12.48pm BST

22nd over: India 53-2 (Pujara 2, Kohli 20) Sam Curran, zeroing in at the stumps, left-arm around the wicket. Umpire Gough warns him off the danger zone, the opposit of Kenny Loggins, so Curran comes back over the wicket. Pujara doubles his score with an outside edge, then Curran goes up wildly after hitting Kohli’s pad, but the DRS shows it was going over the top. The left-armer was so pumped that he’d got the ball pitching in line that he didn’t think about height, I fancy.

12.43pm BST

21st over: India 52-2 (Pujara 1, Kohli 20) Robinson to Kohli, who uses the bowler’s strength against him: reaches for that consistent line and steers it away, deliberately along the ground, past the slips for four. Robinson though has tricks in his bag, gets another ball to deck up the hill and beat the bat. Next ball, Kohli flicks four. Just past the short leg. Hameed no chance to catch that, it’s past him before his hands can move, but it goes just by his left thigh. Kohli up to 20 from 25, he’s not waiting around today. Lovely bright sunshine now, it looks a perfect day to bat.

12.38pm BST

20th over: India 44-2 (Pujara 1, Kohli 12) Let’s play a game called Will Pujara Score This Over? First ball, half volley, patted away.

Second ball, half volley, patted away.

12.33pm BST

19th over: India 42-2 (Pujara 0, Kohli 11) Anderson finally needs a rest, to fume at mid on in peace, like a gently cooling locomotive. Robinson is back, just hitting a line outside off stump. Kohli happy to let the over pass by. India lead by 15.

“One of the markers of Root’s captaincy is his tendency to often adhere to preformed plans and rarely improvise,” writes in Tom Van der Gucht. “He seems to have a bowling list that he follows diligently. So it was a bit of a surprise to see him venture off piste - to impressive results. Was he emboldened by his batting success to go with his gut instinct, or was this another statistical suggestion from the data crunchers behind the scenes. Is this the new unrootish Root? If so, I like it.”

12.29pm BST

18th over: India 42-2 (Pujara 0, Kohli 11) Sam Curran doesn’t argue with anyone, as best I can tell. He bowls a decent over. Telling though the difference between the two batters. Kohli: drops and runs, off strike first ball. Pujara: soaks up five and hasn’t scored from 31.

12.28pm BST

17th over: India 41-2 (Pujara 0, Kohli 10) Another picture-perfect shot from Kohli: his trigger movement, a half step forward, a square drive that teases Sibley into the fence. The fence doesn’t tease, it smacks Sibley down as he lurches into it. Tried to knock the ball back, missed it, and flew over the rope himself. Picks himself up after some time on the ground enjoying the sun. He’s ok. Anderson follows up with a beauty on the fifth-stump line that beats a push, before Kohli gets off strike to long leg.

There’s quite the exchange between Anderson and Kohli over the next couple of balls, too. I think they almost ran into each other as Kohli was taking the single. Then we can hear Kohli through the stump mic, saying “You swearing at me again, huh? Like you did with Jasprit?” The next ball, it’s something like Anderson asking why Kohli can do what he likes but not others. Kohli responds saying “This isn’t your f***ing backyard.”

12.20pm BST

16th over: India 36-2 (Pujara 0, Kohli 5) Here we go with Sam Curran, still looking eerily like a cartoon burglar with a sack full of candlesticks. Try watching his run-up from the side and see what I mean. He’s around the wicket to the right-handers. Kohli drives a run square, Pujara abides. Yet to score from 23 faced.

12.16pm BST

Test Match Special overseas link? Yes, we can do that.

12.14pm BST

15th over: India 35-2 (Pujara 0, Kohli 4) Anderson will continue, hoping for a chance against Kohli. And Kohli doesn’t mind: as Pujara pushes into the covers, India’s captain is keen to hustle a run. Pujara refuses, then laughs and holds his hand out flat, waving it side to side. 50-50, he’s indicating, as to whether they would have made it. He doesn’t get off the mark next ball, but he does get his thigh pad onto an Anderson delivery to collect four leg byes. India lead by 8. Short leg, square leg and midwicket all wait for Pujara to stop him nudging runs to the leg side, and he plays into that trap a couple of times with no reward.

12.11pm BST

14th over: India 31-2 (Pujara 0, Kohli 4) If you thought Kohli was nervous, he leaves three deliveries from Wood, blocks one, then steps into an overpitched ball and drives it sweetly through the covers for four. That’s some opening remark.

“The bell-ringers were as follows: Enid Bakewell on the opening day, Andrew Strauss on the second, Farokh Engineer yesterday and Deepti Sharma today. Quite the line-up.” Thanks, Aditi.

12.07pm BST

13th over: India 27-2 (Pujara 0, Kohli 0) Thus it’s Virat Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara, India’s blue-ribbon pair, coming together with scores level. Somehow between themselves, Rahane, Pant and Jadeja they need to get a score that will test out England in a chase. At least 200 from here.

Pujara edges a ball from Anderson on the bounce to slip. Soft hands are his trademark, he does that so often. Soaks up the Anderson over and leaves Kohli to start his own day by facing Wood.

12.01pm BST

12th over: India 27-2 (Pujara 0) Wood into his fourth over drops short, and Rohit smashes that for six. Flat over deep backward square into the crowd. Took it on and the sound off the bat was... fat. Wood gets cranky, bowls shorter and faster, over the helmet in the end and Rohit gets under it.

That should be as far as his adventures go against the short ball. But for some reason, from the sixth ball of the over, Rohit tries to repeat the earlier result. Still two catchers out there waiting, and they’ve moved Moeen further behind square. Rohit miscues it. Out deep but dropping short. Moeen runs in and takes a very good sliding catch.

11.56am BST

11th over: India 21-1 (Rohit 15, Pujara 0) Rohit harvests a few runs, a two and a one to the leg side, bringing Pujara on strike. Anderson splices him immediately, on the bounce to gully. It’s going to be tough going for Che.

11.51am BST

10th over: India 18-1 (Rohit 12, Pujara 0) That’s huge for England. India’s opening two have been the biggest contributors, both at Trent Bridge and the first innings here. They’ve been separated early. Cheteshwar Pujara under pressure from a low run of scores comes in at first drop.

11.46am BST

Joe Root’s golden touch prevails. He brought Wood on early and it has worked. Rohit looked comfortable against the fast man but Rahul makes a mistake. Back of a length from Wood, and Rahul stays at home, hangs on the crease and tries to defend from there. A bit of movement from the slope away from the right-hander perhaps. A nick through to the keeper.

11.43am BST

9th over: India 18-0 (Rahul 5, Rohit 12) Rahul pushes carefully at Anderson to find a single to cover. Circumspect.

Bless you, Ollie Brookes. “Didn’t take as long as you’d think. Two games in history have lasted exactly 2,700 balls! South Africa v England at Cape Town in 1949 and Zimbabwe v India at Harare in 1992. Both were drawn, surprise surprise.”

11.38am BST

8th over: India 17-0 (Rahul 4, Rohit 12) Wood straining every sinew, as he always does. You’d expect him to be on for a short spell here, four overs perhaps, to give it everything before Robinson comes back with the ball still newish, the seam still offering him something. He mostly bowls fast and fairly straight, with Rohit happy to defend everything away.

11.33am BST

7th over: India 17-0 (Rahul 4, Rohit 12) Anderson’s patience runs thin, and he convinces Root to go upstairs for an lbw shout against KL Rahul. It didn’t look that great. Lucky for England in the end that umpire’s call has it shaving leg stump, so they don’t lose a review. A couple of runs from the over, guided away behind point.

11.32am BST

6th over: India 15-0 (Rahul 2, Rohit 12) An early intro for Mark Wood, looking to get something going with the new ball and his extreme pace. Both batters handle him alright to begin with, off the pad to deep backward square. Two fielders out behind square for the hook. Wood goes full at 90 miles an hour, and Rohit drives it away through mid on as calmly as you like. That is a shot of top class. Four.

11.23am BST

5th over: India 9-0 (Rahul 1, Rohit 7) Anderson keeps working away at Rahul, has him tangled a couple of times. Beats the outside edge, then nearly takes a glove down the leg side. Getting decent bounce today, Anderson. Another scoreless over.

Speaking of obscure stats, here’s Tim Myles. “In that innings Root faced two hat-trick balls - has anyone ever faced more in a single Test innings? I’m sure someone out there has the answer!”

11.19am BST

4th over: India 9-0 (Rahul 1, Rohit 7) Four balls on line from Robinson, then Rohit has to play something. Drives on the up. It looks ok, gets plenty of contact, but that’s a dicey stroke given the length wasn’t there. The ball opens the face of the bat a bit, so the shot goes through cover point for two. The next delivery, hit much better. Off drive for four. That one is fuller, and Rohit plays the understated forward push that zips past the bowler and beats the chase. There was a no-ball earlier in that over as well.

11.15am BST

3rd over: India 2-0 (Rahul 1, Rohit 1) India’s pair left really well in the first innings, and Rahul does so again here. Some excitement for Anderson when his final ball comes in and hits the pad, but there’s a fair bit of bat involved there. And maybe height. And maybe leg side.

John Kovacs writes in. “Thinking about the Hundred, as I tend to avoid doing, I suppose you could call a Test match ‘the Two Thousand Seven Hundred’ because that’s the maximum number of balls possible in the match (theoretically at least, possibly more if there’s a particularly rapid over rate). But has any Test match in history lasted exactly 2,700 balls? I’m guessing not.”

11.09am BST

2nd over: India 2-0 (Rahul 1, Rohit 1) Ollie Robinson from the Nursery End, the new man with the new ball. He also starts outside leg stump but Rohit can’t catch up with either of those stray deliveries. Robinson finds his way to the off stump eventually, and Rohit is happy to leave through the over.

11.04am BST

1st over: India 2-0 (Rahul 1, Rohit 1) Jimmy Jimmy Jimmy Jimmy Anderson with the new Exocet, KL Rahul with the club. Anderson bowls on leg stump and KL tucks it away for first-ball run. Rohit gets the same ball, same result. Anderson will be irritated. Finds his off-stump line after that, and gets a couple to come back down the hill to Rahul. Lots of bounce though, well over the bails.

11.00am BST

Remarkably, play will get underway on time. Quite the novelty.

10.59am BST

Andrew Benton writes in. “Traipsing back across London town last evening to get my train home (I went neither for the cricket nor the naked bicycle riding), I was surprised by the number of MCC ties I saw - these chaps really are proud members! No-one wears a tie unless they have to, surely? I de-tie the minute I’m out of a meeting... Hoping for a brilliant day’s play!”

Surely no one would wear a tie as visually distressing as the MCC one by natural sartorial preference? It’s all about what it means, not what it is. When imbued with enough meaning, a symbol can preclude the object it is made of, instead of representing it.

10.55am BST

“Morning Geoff,” writes Finbar Anslow. “34 degrees here in Piedmont, the river us calling. Yesterday’s bell ringer was Farokh Engineer. Happy memories of him, Clive Lloyd, and the superb Lancashire team which taught the other counties how to play one-day cricket.”

10.46am BST

Emails have begun. “Any idea who the celebrity 5-minute bell ringer is today?” asks Jeremy Boyce. “Whoever it is has a lot to live up to, given the top entertainment the last two have rung for us.”

Not only do I not know who it is today, I don’t know who it was yesterday or the day before. Someone will have to tell the class what we’ve missed.

10.22am BST

Emma John, meantime, was more interested in looking back at the audience.

10.21am BST

Jonny Bairstow had a bit to say about his captain, having watched a good chunk of that innings from the non-striker’s end.

10.20am BST

Next up, Jonathan Liew did his part.

10.19am BST

Safe to say there’s a fair bit on one J. Root since yesterday. Let’s start with Ali Martin’s wrap of the day.

10.08am BST

I’m here for all your thoughts, musings, or concerns. Cricket-related correspondence will be the most relevant, but you do you. Email and birdphone are in the sidebar.

10.06am BST

Hello again, cricket friends and fiends. What is this? It’s the game that goes for five days. The highs, the lows, the rain, the tea. And we’re only up to day four. Two full days of entertainment to come.

Yesterday was all that and more. Joe Root has made 180 at Lord’s and he did it again. He’s also done a 180 in 2021 on his somewhat indifferent returns in Test cricket over the last few years. This year he’s gone past 1200 runs already and it’s only August. He has six more matches to go. He carried England, all the way up to India’s first-innings score and just beyond.

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Published on August 15, 2021 10:33

August 14, 2021

Chelsea 3-0 Crystal Palace, Leicester 1-0 Wolves and more – as it happened

Trevoh Chalobah scored on his Premier League debut for Chelsea, while there were also wins for newly promoted Watford and Rafa Benitez’s Everton

5.19pm BST

That’s it for today’s blog. A reminder that you can follow Norwich v Liverpool, which kicks off any minute now, with Barry Glendenning. Thanks for your company and emails - bye!

5.16pm BST

Everton 3-1 Southampton Andy Hunter was at Goodison Park to watch Rafa Benitez get off to a winning start.

5.14pm BST

Ahd here’s Jacob Steinberg on an impressive statement of intent from Chelsea

5.11pm BST

Here’s Paul Doyle’s report from the King Power Stadium, where Jamie Vardy charged around like a 24-year-old and scored a fine winning goal.

5.04pm BST

Someone has been digging up Trevor Chalobah’s historical tweets, and I’m glad to report they found this rather touching avowal. Chalobah’s mum died five years ago, when he was 16 years old.

I will make it for you mum...I promise

5.00pm BST

4.57pm BST

The final scores

4.56pm BST

Watford return to the Premier League with a rousing victory. The scoreline doesn’t tell the full story - Watford were terrific for the most part and led 3-0 at one stage.

4.55pm BST

Danny Ings scores a penalty on his Villa debut, but there shouldn’t be any time for Aston Villa to equalise.

4.54pm BST

Jamie Vardy’s classy goal is enough for injury-hit Leicester to get off to a winning start.

4.53pm BST

A smash-and-grab victory for Brighton, who took a bit of a battering for the first 70 minutes before stunning Burnley with two quick goals.

4.52pm BST

And a solid start for Rafa Benitez’s Everton, who came from 1-0 down at half-time to win comfortably against Southampton.

4.51pm BST

A very comfortable afternoon for Chelsea, with Trevoh Chalobah’s cracking debut goal the highlight.

4.48pm BST

Leicester 1-0 Wolves Conor Coady has had a goal disallowed for offside at the King Power Stadium. It was the right decision, albeit it fairly tight.

4.44pm BST

Ayr 1-1 Dundee United “That last email did the trick, Rob,” says Simon McMahon. “United have equalised via the penalty spot, and Ayr are down to 10. Just gotta ride it.”

4.39pm BST

That should be enough for Everton. Dominic Calvert-Lewin has put them 3-1 up with - Houchen alert - a diving header from Richarlison’s cross.

4.38pm BST

Blimey, what a turnaround at Turf Moor. The substitute Alexis Mac Allister, just on as substitute, finishes smartly from Pascal Gross’s cross. Burnley had plenty of chances to put the game to bed; now, all of a sudden, they are 2-1 down.

4.36pm BST

The latest scores

4.34pm BST

Abdoulaye Doucoure has put Everton in front, and Goodison is going mad. It’s turning into a pretty good day for Rafa Benitez.

4.32pm BST

Neal Maupay, who was run over for James Tarkowski’s opening goal, has equalised for Brighton. Meanwhile, at Goodison...

4.31pm BST

“Dundee United, a week after inflicting a first league defeat on Rangers since Covid became a thing, are today being made to look like a Sunday pub team by Ayr United of the Scottish Championship, who they currently trail 1-0,” weeps Simon McMahon. “Ronan Keating was right, life is a rollercoaster.”

4.29pm BST

Norwich City v Liverpool The team news is in from Carrow Road. You can read all about it with Barry Glendenning.

4.29pm BST

A brilliant goal from John McGinn gives Villa a soupcon of hope at Vicarage Road.

4.25pm BST

What a day for Watford! Cucho Hernandez, who has only just come on as sub, crashes the ball in off the post to make it 3-0!

4.22pm BST

Watford 2-0 Villa “Villa look like a side with a purpose in this second half and are in the ascendency,” says Neill Brown. “However, there’s been a few niggly challenges that have resulted in bookings for players of both teams, so I’d be surprised if this finishes XI v XI. Good, lively game though.”

I could get used to this working arrangement, where the readers do all the work and I smile and say thanks.

4.21pm BST

Burnley 1-0 Brighton “How was that Burnley goal allowed to stand?” says Espen Bommen. “I mean, I hate VAR and would love to see it binned, but it’s here, isn’t it? After watching that I’m not sure because that is absurd. I know they wanted to use it more sparingly and let things go, but come on! They also said it would be harder to get penalties, and if this sets the standard for what you are allowed to do as a defender, things will be interesting.”

That’s one word for it. I’m sure it’ll settle down after a few games, but for now it looks like the referees are overcompensating.

4.18pm BST

A charming moment at Stamford Bridge: Trevoh Chalobah, 22, has scored on his Premier League debut for Chelsea. It was a cracking goal, too, rifled into the bottom corner from 25 yards. Chelsea may have found a player.

4.15pm BST

Everton 1-1 Southampton “In addition to the goal, Richarlison deserves praise for playing in the opening match after being in action all summer for Brazil,” says Mary Waltz. “The man has basically played without a break since the end of last year’s Premier League schedule.”

4.14pm BST

The latest scores

4.14pm BST

Leicester 1-0 Wolves I’ve just noticed that Conor Coady is trending. I’m sorry, I can’t go there, I’d rather not know.

4.07pm BST

Everton 1-1 Southampton “That Richarlison goal is precisely why Rafa signed Townsend,” says Brad Wilson. “For that exact play. More please!”

I’ll pass it on.

4.07pm BST

Watford 2-0 Aston Villa The Villa left-back Matt Targett, who was given a first-half chasing by Ismaila Sarr, has been taken off at the break. Jacob Ramsey replaces him.

4.05pm BST

Everton are level right at the start of the second half. It was a good finish from Richarlison, who steered Andros Townsend’s cross past Alex McCarthy, it says here.

3.48pm BST

Peep peep! It’s half-time in the Premier League games, and these are the latest scores:

3.48pm BST

Leicester 1-0 Wolves “Lovely finish by Vardy but Ricardo made it with a fantastic run and cross,” says Graham Randall. “Vardy - what a joy. Best player we have ever had.”

I love how much he has improved since turning 30; very rare that happens.

3.45pm BST

“Re: Ings and Armstrong,” begins Hugh Molloy. “There’s something hugely satisfying about a team selling their top scorer for big money and successfully replacing him with a younger and cheaper option from the league below. As the Lion King would have it, it’s the circle of life.”

Yep. It might be an illusion but it feels like Premier League clubs are shopping in the lower leagues a lot more these days.

3.44pm BST

Leicester 1-0 Wolves Jamie Vardy’s goal was apparently a beauty, flicked cleverly past Jose Sa from Ricardo Pereira’s cross.

3.43pm BST

This is turning into quite a day for Watford. Emmanuel Dennis plays in Ismaila Sarr, whose shot takes a deflection and loops over Emi Martinez.

3.42pm BST

The old man is off the mark!

3.42pm BST

On Sky Sports, Paul Merson is purring about how well Chelsea have played in the first half. Christian Pulisic has doubled their lead, clipping home a loose ball after Mason Mount’s cross was pushed away by Vicente Guaita.

3.39pm BST

Everton 0-1 Southampton “Since you are writing blind so to speak,” begins Mary Waltz, “I will give you a brief description from my legal NBC feed. Everton had a few nice choices but Keane decided to dawdle on an attempted clearance, Armstrong picked his pocket and had a 1v1 on Pickford and neatly tucked into the Everton goal. Sigh.”

I might put that on my CV. ‘Rob Smyth, blind freelance writer. I just want to work.’

3.37pm BST

Leicester 0-0 Wolves And although Leicester have been on top at the King Power, Adama Traore has just missed a great chance after destroying the Leicester defence.

3.36pm BST

Burnley 1-0 Brighton Burnley have been much the better team, giving Brighton all sorts of problems from set pieces in particular.

3.36pm BST

“I’m legally watching Watford v Villa all the way from locked-down Melbourne,” says Neill Brown. “First thing to note is it is Graham Taylor day at Vicarage Road. Second thing is that Watford have started really well and Sarr has been a constant threat, creating openings almost every time he has the ball. Villa have come back into it in the last five or ten minutes but Watford are well worth their 1-0 lead.”

Sarr is such a fine player, and so much fun to watch. Nice to hear it’s Graham Taylor day, and worth reminding everyone that he managed both Watford and Villa to second-place finishes in the top flight. It’s a bonkers achievement, that.

3.31pm BST

Everton 0-1 Southampton Richarlison has been booked for diving in the Southampton penalty area. The Everton regulars on the liveblog are worryingly quiet. It’s 3.31pm on the first day of the season!

3.29pm BST

45 - Since the start of 2019-20, only Ivan Toney (55) has scored more goals in the top four tiers of English football than Adam Armstrong (45). Prolific. #EVESOU

3.28pm BST

It was a matter of time before Chelsea scored, and Marcos Alonso has done so with a delicious free-kick. He has his flaws, but by flip his left foot has an almighty sweet spot.

3.27pm BST

Chelsea 0-0 Crystal Palace Still no goals at Stamford Bridge, though Chelsea have had approximately 110 per cent of the posses- hang on, scratch that.

3.25pm BST

Here’s more on the continuing woes of Wayne Rooney’s Derby County™

3.24pm BST

“I fear for the sanity of whoever designed those Everton and Southampton training tops,” says Matt Dony. “Was the inspiration taken from an old tv, half tuned in? A shocking piece of cloth. I’m happy to see Benitez back in the league, and I’m looking forward to seeing what he does with this squad. They played some excellent football last season, obviously not in a Rafa-stylee, but there’s clearly a decent amount of ability for him to play with.”

Those tops were specially designed, Matt, to show support for the LGBTQ+ community and help to fight discrimination in football. Discrimination, Matt. You see, hummel launched the collaboration with Saints, alongside Everton and Danish side Brøndby IF, to celebrate the LGBTQ+ community as part of Copenhagen 2021 World Pride and the EuroGames taking place in the company’s home country of Denmark. More than one in five LGBTQ+ people have experienced homophobia or transphobia, while a report from Kick It Out has revealed that reports of abuse based on sexual orientation in professional football have increased by 95% in the past year.

3.22pm BST

Adam Armstrong, who has the unenviable task of replacing Danny Ings, has made a fine start with an accomplished finish at Goodison Park. It stemmed from a mistake by Michael Keane, who faffed and was robbed by Che Adams. The ball ran through to Armstrong, who did the necessary with aplomb.

3.19pm BST

The latest Premier League scores

3.19pm BST

Burnley 1-0 Brighton It sounds like James Tarkowski is doing his rounds at Turf Moor. Having mauled Maupay for the goal, he has since flattened Bissouma and been booked for elbowing Maupay.

3.17pm BST

Leicester 0-0 Wolves Jamie Vardy has had a goal disallowed for offside. Wolves are playing a high line, so Vardy is making plenty of runs in behind. Even at 34, he’s one of the fastest forwards in the league.

3.14pm BST

Huddersfield 0-1 Fulham Aleksandra Mitrovic has scored one of the most farcical goals in football history, according to Alan McInally on Sky Sports. You might want to keep an eye out for that on Twitter, when it appears legally of course.

Goal 9' #htafc 0-1 #FFC

A really poor moment leads to the first for Fulham.

Sorba Thomas overhits a back-pass and, in an attempt to keep it in, Ryan Schofield's clearance hits the sliding Mitrovic and goes in.

Big question mark on whether the ball went out of play.

3.12pm BST

An early goal for promoted Watford at Vicarage Road! Their new striker Emmanuel Dennis got it, scoring at the second attempt after good play from Ismaila Sarr. At least I think that’s what happened. We’re not actually allowed to watch the 3pm games, because Guardianistas are law-abiding, morally superior folk, so I’m doing my best to paraphrase the words of people who are - legally or otherwise - watching the match.

3.10pm BST

“Hi Rob,” says Simon McMahon. “League Cup action in Scotland today and tie of the round is at Somerset Park in Ayr where Dundee United, effectively Scottish league champions after last week’s surprise, though thoroughly deserved, win over previously invincible Rangers, are the visitors. The other ties are Livingston v St. Mirren and struggling Dundee v Motherwell.”

3.09pm BST

How on earth has that Tarkowski goal not been ruled out by VAR? Two hands on Maupay shoving him to the floor, a clear and obvious foul. Ridiculous decision. #BHAFC #BURBHA

I’m sensing rancour.

3.04pm BST

James Tarkowski heads Burnley ahead from Ashley Westwood’s corner, though by most accounts he should have been penalised for running over Neal Maupay. You’ve missed VAR, haven’t you.

3.02pm BST

There’s a VAR check going on. It’s back!

3.00pm BST

Peeeeeeeeeeep peeeeeeeeeeeeeep! The 3pm games are under way.

3.00pm BST

“Any news about why Kante isn’t in the Chelsea squad?” asks Julian Menz.

It’s a precaution, apparently - he probably would have played if it was, say, a Champions League final.

2.50pm BST

Ten minutes to kick off, so time for me to grab some coffee. See you back here, 3pm sharp.

2.49pm BST

“I know as an Evertonian I am supposed to be congenitally gloomy, but...” says Brad Wilson. “That starting lineup looks decent especially in the midfield, where I think Townsend and Gray are solid bargain pickups. Might have more pace than last year’s unit. Especially if Doucoure can get forward. Ok, there is very limited depth and who knows how tired Olympic hero Richarlison is, but, for now, optimism! COYB!”

2.44pm BST

His name is

Robert Paulson
Bruno Lage

His first @premierleague game as our head coach! pic.twitter.com/DvOGzxjQi2

2.41pm BST

Championship It’s been another miserable day for the team we are contractually obliged to refer to as ‘Wayne Rooney’s Derby County’. They were 1-0 up at Peterborough going into injury-time, and they still lost.

2.40pm BST

2.36pm BST

“What do we think of Everton’s starting eleven, you didn’t ask?” says Matt Burtz. “It’s about as strong as it could be considering who’s available. Does this mean that I have confidence in Rafa Benitez? Absolutely not. We all know how hostile Goodison can potentially be towards either team, and only a solid performance today from the home side will keep the ire directed at Southampton. I could see this game going either way, really.”

I fear a little for the sanity of Everton fans this season. I don’t think they’ll struggle - Benitez is far too good a coach for that - but I’m not sure how soul-stirring the experience will be.

2.31pm BST

Manchester United 5-1 Leeds United was the final score in the opening game of the day, with Bruno Fernandes welting a hat-trick and Paul Pogba creating four goals.

2.21pm BST

The summer signings Emmanuel Dennis, Peter Etebo and Juraj Kucka all start for Watford. Villa’s XI also includes three new boys: Emi Buendia, Ashley Young and Danny Ings.

Watford (4-3-3) Bachmann; Cathcart, Kabasele, Ekong, Masina; Cleverley, Etebo, Kucka; Sarr, Dennis, Sema.
Substitutes: Foster, Ngakia, Rose, Sierralta, Louza, Gosling, Deeney, Fletcher, Hernandez.

2.17pm BST

Nine months after suffering that horrific head injury at the Emirates, Raul Jimenez is back in the Wolves starting line-up. Leicester make one change from the Community Shield win over Manchester City, with Luke Thomas in for Ryan Bertrand at left-back. Wolves’ new goalkeeper Jose Sa starts, as does Francisco Trincao, who is on loan from Barcelona.

Leicester (4-2-3-1) Schmeichel; Ricardo, Amartey, Soyuncu, Thomas; Tielemans, Ndidi; Perez, Maddison, Barnes; Vardy.
Substitutes: Ward, Vestergaard, Albrighton, Choudhury, Praet, Dewsbury-Hall, Soumare, Iheanacho, Daka.

2.14pm BST

Rafa Benitez’s two main summer signings, Demarai Gray and Andros Townsend, are in the starting line-up. Southampton can see Everton’s two debutants and raise them - Romain Perraud, Tino Livramento and Adam Armstrong all start.

Everton (4-4-2) Pickford; Coleman, Holgate, Keane, Digne; Gray, Allan, Doucoure, Townsend; Calvert-Lewin, Richarlison.
Substitutes: Begovic, Mina, Kenny, Branthwaite, Delph, Davies, Iwobi, Gordon, Broadhead.

2.10pm BST

Both teams have a pretty familiar look, though Brighton give a debut to the Zambian midfielder Enock Mwepu. There is also a return for Shane Duffy, who spent last season at Celtic.

Burnley (4-4-2) Pope; Lowton, Tarkowski, Mee, Taylor; Gudmundsson, Westwood, Cork, McNeil; Rodriguez, Wood.
Substitutes: Hennessey, Collins, Pieters, Bardsley, Thomas, Brownhill, Richardson, Barnes, Vydra.

2.06pm BST

Romelu Lukaku, who rejoined Chelsea a couple of days ago, is not in their matchday squad. But Trevoh Chalobah, the younger brother of the former Chelsea midfielder Nathaniel, starts at centre-back.

Marc Guehi, who left Chelsea in the summer, makes his Crystal Palace debut.

1.56pm BST

Make that five goals in the first 23 minutes of the second half...

1.55pm BST

This is typically brilliant from Paul Doyle, a man who couldn’t write a boring piece if he tried. And believe me, he’s tried.

1.53pm BST

There’s also a full programme in the EFL this afternoon. You can follow the goals as they go in on our live scores page.

1.52pm BST

Make that four goals in the first 15 minutes of the second half at Old Trafford.

1.46pm BST

It’s been a cracking start to the second half at Old Trafford, with three goals in the first 10 minutes. Our Barry has more.

1.30pm BST

The EPL is back! Yep, hello and welcome to live coverage of the first full day of the 2021-22 Premier League season. There’s a feast of top-flight soccer ahead, with five 3pm kick-offs and all sorts to look forward to: three new managers, umpteen new players, ten new kits, five full stadiums, a newly promoted team, the champions of Europe* - and did I mention FIVE FULL STADIUMS?

It’ll be a Premier League-heavy clockwatch, with all eyes - well, both - on these games:

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Published on August 14, 2021 09:19

August 13, 2021

The Joy of Six: Leeds United v Manchester United matches

Before the renewal of an old rivalry on Saturday, a look at classics from a 1930 Elland Road rout to Cantona rubbing noses in it

Eric Cantona had a mixed time on his returns to Elland Road. He won two and lost two; he scored a penalty and missed a penalty. That miss, a genuinely shocking moment after he’d scored 15 out of 15 in competitive games at United, came during the first half of what turned out to be his last game at Elland Road. It was never likely to be his last word.

7/9/1996. 4-0 against Leeds at Elland Road. Eric Cantona salutes Leeds fans @90sUtd #MUFC pic.twitter.com/GndYvQG0cy

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Published on August 13, 2021 03:35

August 10, 2021

Carabao Cup: Derby sneak past Salford, Blackburn out in first round – as it happened

Derby came back to draw 3-3 with Salford before a penalty-shootout win, while Blackburn lost at home to Morecambe

10.43pm BST

10.06pm BST

That’s all for tonight’s blog. Thanks very much for your company and emails, apologies for the goals I missed. Night!

10.05pm BST

“Well,” says Mary Waltz, “Rangers’ invincible status crapped out fast.”

10.03pm BST

The last of the full-time scores

9.52pm BST

Full time: Rangers 1-2 Malmo (agg: 2-4) A desperate night for Rangers, who go into the Europa League play-offs after losing to 10-man Malmo.

9.51pm BST

More full-time results

9.49pm BST

Derby have sneaked through on penalties! Ryan Allsop saved from Luke Burgess, the only man to miss a penalty, and Louie Watson calmly put Derby through to the second round. They had to come from 2-0 and then 3-2 down, with the debutant Ravel Morrison swishing a spectacular late equaliser.

9.47pm BST

More full times

9.43pm BST

Full time: Crawley 2-2 Gillingham (9-10 penalties)

Gillingham have won an epic penalty shootout to go through to the second round.

9.41pm BST

Yet more full times

9.40pm BST

Penalties it is.

9.39pm BST

More full times

9.37pm BST

Full time: Blackburn 1-2 Morecambe A glorious win for Morecambe, who have come from behind to beat their nearish neighbours at Ewood Park.

9.33pm BST

Rangers 1-2 Malmo (agg: 2-4) Rangers have 16 minutes to score two goals and take the tie to extra-time.

9.31pm BST

Full time: Crawley 2-2 Gillingham There’s no extra-time tonight, so this match - and a few others, no doubt - will go to penalties.

9.30pm BST

GOAL! Peterborough 0-4 Plymouth (Camara 84) I bet Sir Alex Ferguson is thrilled he travelled down to London Road for this game.

9.29pm BST

GOAL! Rotherham 1-2 Accrington (Bishop 86)

9.28pm BST

Ravel Morrison equalises with a spectacular debut goal! A tame free-kick hit the wall and bounced back towards Morrison, who cut across a sweet first-time shot that went through the hands of the keeper and into the top corner.

9.26pm BST

GOAL! Crawley 2-2 Gillingham (Davies 90+7) Oh my word. Crawley, who went behind in the fifth minute of injury time, have equalised in the seventh minute of added time!

9.26pm BST

GOAL! Blackburn 1-2 Morecambe (Phillips 84) Morecambe have come from behind to lead at Ewood Park! Adam Phillips rammed a penalty straight down the middle, and Morecambe are six-minutes away from a famous victory.

9.24pm BST

GOAL! Stoke 2-0 Fleetwood (Souttar 77) And a thumping header from Harry Souttar has doubled Stoke’s lead at the bet365 Stadium.

9.24pm BST

GOAL! Crawley 1-2 Gillingham (Phillips 90+5) Daniel Phillips has won it for Gillingham!

9.23pm BST

GOAL! Mansfield 0-3 Preston Scott Sinclair’s second goal has sealed victory for Preston.

9.22pm BST

A big twist at Ibrox as 10-man Malmo score twice in five minutes!

Two excellent finishes from Antonio Čolak have the Swedish side in a fantastic position up 4-2 on aggregate now pic.twitter.com/TXhyqjHFG2

9.21pm BST

Derby 2-3 Salford In the interest of balance, Derby’s penalty was also pretty iffy. I forgot to mention this at the time because I’m trying to watch 472 football matches simultaneously.

9.20pm BST

MORE BLOODY GOALS!

9.19pm BST

Josh Morris gets his second goal, hammering the ball into the bottom-right corner, and Salford are back in front!

9.18pm BST

PENALTY TO SALFORD! It’s a bad decision, as the foul was clearly outside the area, but Salford have a great chance to regain the lead.

9.17pm BST

GOAL! Rangers 1-2 Malmo (agg: 2-4; Colak 57) Rangers are now in all sorts of bother. Ten-man Malmo have come from behind to lead 2-1 on the night and 4-2 on aggregate. The Croatian striker Antonio Colak has scored twice in five minutes, and the only positive for Rangers is that the away-goals rule has been abolished. That means they only need two goals to take the tie to extra-time.

9.16pm BST

Colin Kazim-Richards drills an excellent penalty into the bottom corner to bring Derby level.

9.14pm BST

GOALS GALORE!

9.13pm BST

GOAL! Rangers 1-1 Malmo (agg: 2-3; Colak 52) Oof. Malmo might be down to 10 men but they’re ahead again in the tie. Antonio Colak has walloped past Allan McGregor, and Rangers are again on the brink of the Europa League.

Here’s the earlier red card, by the way.

An absolutely MASSIVE moment as Malmo go down to 10 men!

A second yellow for Innocent as the ref finds him guilty, and it means Rangers will have a man advantage in the second half pic.twitter.com/bSzpScayjC

9.10pm BST

GOAL! Shrewsbury 1-2 Lincoln (Udoh 69)

9.06pm BST

Dylan Bahamboula has pulled one back at Boundary Park: it’s Oldham 1-2 Tranmere.

Oldham, Boundary Park, the League Cup... I’m suddenly feeling warm and fuzzy. I cannot wait for this book.

9.05pm BST

“Gerald Sithole?” sniffs Mac Millings of the Gillingham goalscorer. “Bonke Innocent?? Dean Bouzanis??? This is supposed to be a family website. I expect better from the Guardian.”

Don’t cancel the messenger, Millings. It’s not my fault Stefan Kuntz has come out of retirement to play for Deportivo Banta.

9.04pm BST

“Ipswich are down one-nil?” says Peter Oh. “Is there an Ed Sheeran album title that describes that goal difference?”

Erm, I don’t know. Is there?

9.00pm BST

GOAL! Bristol Rovers 0-1 Cheltenham (May 58)

8.59pm BST

Full time: Hartlepool 0-1 Crewe A fine win for Crewe, who were down to 10 men for most of the game.

8.59pm BST

Derby 1-2 Salford In the first eight minutes of the second half, Derby have had - and you’ll like this - 94 per cent of the possession.

8.58pm BST

More goals!

8.56pm BST

Full time: Cardiff 3-2 Sutton United A cracking match at the Cardiff City Stadium has come to an end. Marley Watkins, making his Cardiff debut, scored twice as they came from behind to win.

8.55pm BST

GOAL! Blackburn 1-1 Morecambe (Stockton 52) Cole Stockton larrups the ball into the roof of the net to bring Morecambe level at Ewood Park!

8.53pm BST

GOALS! Shrewsbury 0-2 Lincoln (Bishop 52); Hull 0-1 Wigan (Humphrys 50)

8.53pm BST

GOAL! Shrewsbury 0-1 Lincoln (Hopper 49) Tom Hopper, no relation of the old Factory band, has put Lincoln ahead.

8.51pm BST

Cardiff 3-2 Sutton What a chance for Sutton to equalise! The Cardiff keeper Alex Smithies has flown from his line to make a fine save from Harry Beautyman.

8.50pm BST

8.49pm BST

GOAL! Cardiff 3-2 Sutton (Rowe 90) Sutton haven’t given up - Coby Rowe has scored after a helluva scramble in the Cardiff area.

8.49pm BST

Rangers 1-0 Malmo: Innocent sent off! Malmo are down to ten men at Ibrox. Bonke Innocent has been given a second yellow card, a harsh decision by all accounts, on the stroke of half-time.

8.46pm BST

GOAL! Crawley 1-1 Gillingham (Ashford 55) And Sam Ashford has equalised against Gillingham.

8.44pm BST

GOAL! Cardiff 3-1 Sutton (Murphy 84) Cardiff are heading through to the round of 50.

8.37pm BST

Good goal? Goalkeeping error? Have your say!*

GOAL! Derby 1-2 Salford

The comeback is on! Isaac Hutchinson finds the bottom corner with a great finish just before half-time!

Watch live on Sky Sports Football ⚽ pic.twitter.com/FZfCpmccVC

8.36pm BST

It’s half-time in most of tonight’s games. If you don’t want to know the scores, DON’T CLICK THIS SEDUCTIVE LITTLE LINK WHATEVER YOU DO.

8.35pm BST

GOAL! Stoke 1-0 Fleetwood (Surridge 45) Stoke’s new boy Sam Surridge has scored his second goal in as many games to put them ahead at the bet365 Stadium. It was a good finish, a smart close-range volley from Tom Ince’s cross.

8.34pm BST

Derby 1-2 Salford Louie Sibley, no relation, has smacked a rising drive against the post for Derby. In fact, replays shows it was a magnificent save from Tom King, who just managed to divert the ball onto the post.

8.32pm BST

Reading are playing Swansea tonight, which brings us neatly onto the news that Scott Sinclair has put Preston ahead at Mansfield just before half-time.

8.31pm BST

Derby are back in the game. Isaac Hutchinson drags a precise shot on the turn into the net from the edge of the area; it’s his first goal for the club.

8.29pm BST

Here’s the second one!

GOAL! Derby 0-2 Salford

The Rams concede a second just six minutes after the first, as Josh Morris curls in this stunner from 25 yards out!

Watch live on Sky Sports Football ⚽ pic.twitter.com/aBnX3ro8Yl

8.29pm BST

GOAL! Oldham 0-1 Tranmere (Foley 40)

8.27pm BST

Goals goals goals

8.25pm BST

Confirmed: Ibrox did go berserk

Listen to that bloody glorious noise.

Ibrox ERUPTS!

Alfredo Morelos puts Rangers in front on the night and levels the tie up at 2-2 on aggregate pic.twitter.com/9G5vXmDSHC

8.20pm BST

GOAL! Peterborough 0-2 Plymouth (Hardie 33) Ryan Hardie has bagged his second, slamming a losoe ball into the net from six yards. Plymouth are giving Peterborough a bit of a doing.

8.19pm BST

GOAL! Rangers 1-0 Malmo (agg: 2-2; Morelos 20) Alfredo Morelos has given Rangers a deserved lead on the night, heading home from Ryan Kent’s wicked cross. The tie is level on aggregate, and I’d imagine Ibrox is going berserk.

8.17pm BST

GOAL! Reading 0-1 Swansea (Latibeaudiere 16) Joel Latibeaudiere has put Swansea ahead at the Madejski with a firm far-post header from a left-wing corner.

8.15pm BST

“Optimism is overrated,” chirps Mary Waltz. “I have rooted for Everton for years. I had accepted my fate with mid-table finishes and the occasional upset again one of the big boys. but last year I swallowed the Kool-aid. Carlo was the saviour and after the brilliant fast start I envisioned a Champions League finish. Which only made the slide down the table more painful. Bin optimism. I have returned to setting my sights on mid table. Toffee with burnt fingers.”

8.14pm BST

The goals are starting to fly in: Millwall have come from behind to lead Portsmouth, ten-man Crewe are ahead at Hartlepool and Paul Osew has put AFC Wimbledon 1-0 up at Charlton.

8.11pm BST

GOALS! Peterborough 0-1 Plymouth (Hardie 23); Stevenage 2-1 Luton (Coker 26)

8.11pm BST

GOAL! Sheff Utd 1-0 Carlisle (Brewster 24) Rhian Brewster, who has had such a miserable time at Bramall Lane, has finally scored his first goal for the club. It was a pretty simple finish, rolled into the net after Billy Sharp’s shot was saved.

8.10pm BST

GOAL! Cardiff 2-1 Sutton (Watkins 50) This is a great story - the Wales international Marley Watkins, who only signed a short-term contract at Crrdiff earlier today, has scored his second to put Cardiff ahead against Sutton.

8.07pm BST

GOAL! Blackburn 1-0 Morecambe (Dolan 22) Tyrhys Dolan slams a far-post header into the net and celebrates with a double somersault.

8.06pm BST

GOAL! Millwall 1-1 Portsmouth (Malone 21) Scott Malone follows up to equalise for Millwall.

8.03pm BST

GOAL! Derby 0-1 Salford (Turnbull, 8)

Wayne Rooney's men trail at Pride Park!

Watch live on Sky Sports Football ⚽ pic.twitter.com/iJ6MsgHtdO

8.03pm BST

Back to that Harrogate forfeiture. Under Carabao Cup rules, they had to rearrange the fixture against Rochdale, which was postponed because of a Covid outbreak, before the next round. As they were unable to do so, Rochdale go through.

8.01pm BST

Josh Morris makes it two for Salford! He moseyed infield from the right, on his left foot, and shaped a long-range curler that bounced over the right hand of the diving Ryan Allsop. He probably should have saved it, but he didn’t and Derby are in all sorts.

8.00pm BST

Harrogate have forfeited their tie against Rochdale The EFL have confirmed that Rochdale are through the round of 50. But enough of that, because...

7.59pm BST

GOAL! Forest Green 1-0 Bristol City (Matt 11) Another Championship team are behind - a smart first-time finish from Jamille Matt has put Forest Green ahead against Bristol City. Matt finish, blahdeblahdeblah.

7.57pm BST

There’s also a huge game at Ibrox tonight, though I’ve no idea whether we’re allowed to talk about it. Let’s call it the Scottish game: Rangers v Malmo for a place in the Champions League play-offs. Malmo lead 2-1 from last week’s first leg, and don’t forget the away-goals rule is with the dodos.

7.56pm BST

Pre-season optimism, redefined

“Crumbs!” chirps Charles Antaki. “How’s football started? I don’t think I’m ready for it yet. Can we not have a bit more lingering, rumour-ridden, arrivals announcement-heavy, analysis-light, ante-room-to-the-action prevarication and delayed gratification? Because when it starts, Arsenal are out to lose their first three games and end up on match day three at the bottom of the league. So no rush.”

7.55pm BST

Salford City have taken the lead at Pride Park! A corner from the right was flicked on at the near post and headed in with appreciable glee by the unmarked Jordan Turnbull.

7.51pm BST

GOAL! Ipswich 0-1 Newport (Abraham 4) Tammy Abraham’s brother Timmy has given Newport the lead at Portman Road with a deft close-range volley.

7.51pm BST

GOAL! Stevenage 1-1 Luton (Jerome 5) Can people please stop scoring goals? Cameron Jerome has headed Luton level from Henri Lansbury’s free-kick.

7.50pm BST

GOAL! Stevenage 1-0 Luton (List 2) Elliott List has given Stevenage an early lead against Championship side Luton, running onto a long ball and going round the keeper to score.

GOAL! Millwall 0-1 Portsmouth (Hackett-Fairchild 4) Right, there’s no way I’m going to be able to keep up with every goal. But this is worth mentioning, a ferocious 20-yard strike from Reeco Hackett-Fairchild at the Den.

7.48pm BST

Cardiff 1-1 Sutton Marley Watkins, who only signed a short-term contract this afternoon, has equalised for Cardiff. It was, sad to say, a bit of a howler from the Sutton keeper Dean Bouzanis.

7.47pm BST

Derby v Salford is under way

And here are the teams I forgot to give you an hour ago. Yep, that is the Ravel Morrison.

Here's tonight's team as @morrisonravel comes straight into the starting line-up! #DCFC pic.twitter.com/IPQcS1b99b

STARTING XI

Here is the side for tonight's Carabao Cup game at Derby!

♦️ 4 changes
♦️ Ash Eastham back © #WeAreSalford pic.twitter.com/ipYCMtlhcI

7.42pm BST

Crawley 0-1 Gillingham Gerald Sithole, who is tantalisingly close to a delightful bit of nominative determinism, has given Gillingham an early lead at Crawley.

7.31pm BST

Birmingham v Colchester

Fifteen-year-old Jobe Bellingham, yes relation, is on the bench for Birmingham tonight.

Happiest I’ve ever been! Enjoy every second of the experience, dreams come true. pic.twitter.com/sviKnkgdrZ

7.18pm BST

Cardiff 0-1 Sutton The first goal of the night has been scored by Donovan Wilson for EFL Cup debutants Sutton. A shock could be on. All together now: ‘And Golley... and Rains... and a goal!’

7.09pm BST

Pre-match reading

6.59pm BST

In other news

6.47pm BST

A couple of teams are already through to the second round, having played their first round games before the league season started. Bournemouth hammered MK Dons 5-0, and Huddersfield beat Sheffield Wednesday on penalties after a 0-0 draw. There are also a handful of games to be played tomorrow, and Harrogate v Rochdale - which was postponed because of Covid case at Harrogate - will either be rescheduled, forfeited or simulated on Football Manager 2022.

6.30pm BST

Hello, good evening and welcome to live coverage of the first round of the Carabao Cup. There are 54 EFL clubs in action tonight, all hoping to advance to the round of 50 (don’t ask) and keep alive their dream of becoming the team that loses to the team that loses to the team that loses to Manchester City in the final on 27 February 2022.

The tie of the night (ie, the one on TV in England) is Derby County v Salford City. We’ll have updates from that game and... something from the others. I’ll level with you, I haven’t worked out how we’re going to cover 27 games simultaneously. Before I do that, While I do that, here’s a full list of tonight’s games, all 7.45pm kick-offs unless stated. Do with it what you will:

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Published on August 10, 2021 14:06

The Fiver | It’s been another big day for those who have shares in Jim White

Sometimes The Fiver struggles to believe the horrors that continue to occur in a supposedly civilised society. We are three days away from a new Premier League season, yet still nobody has published the definitive piece that quantifies how much we should expect Jadon Sancho to improve Manchester’s United Expected Goals. There’s no time for such soulful analysis because, although the new season is almost upon us, transfers are still the only thing anyone is talking about.

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Published on August 10, 2021 08:11

August 8, 2021

Day five of England v India washed out by rain with first Test drawn – as it happened

India were chasing 209 to win at Trent Bridge but persistent rain meant there was no play and the first Test is drawn

4.41pm BST

So now then

That’s it for today’s blog. It’s been an unsatisfying end to a fine Test - but on the plus side, England have set off on a new unbeaten run, and we only have to wait until Thursday for the second Test. Good day!

4.38pm BST

Get the man a brolly! ☔

Player of the Match and England captain Joe Root felt his team had a real chance of victory before rain had the final say in #ENGvIND

What a he scored, by the way!

Scorecard https://t.co/XEDHaMGCF8 pic.twitter.com/2MibRTHk8E

4.34pm BST

“At the start of the year, I would have agreed with you about it being too soon to throw Hameed back in and risk all the progress he has made, but he’s been pretty solid all season now, culminating in a 100 against the Indians, so why not?” says Andrew Cosgrove. “I am increasingly coming to the conclusion that Tom Abell is the answer atNo3. He has been one of the best No3s in the championship this year. He’s well used to coming in at 5/1 in the third over and then watching a procession of wickets at the other end, before marshalling the tail to a competitive score, so he’ll fit right into this England team. His dibbly-dobblies are unlikely to be as effective at Test level, but it wouldn’t hurt to have that option. And finally, he’s a decent captain. I wouldn’t advocate bringing him in and making him captain immediately, but at some stage it surely would be worth giving Root a go at just being the best No3 he can be without having to worry about everything else.”

I’d argue that, after four torrid years, Hameed needs more credit in the bank - and more subconscious security - before he returns to Test cricket. If England were going anywhere other than Australia this winter, I’d be more inclined to bring him back. But I think an away Ashes series would be too much, too soon; they could destroy him.

4.21pm BST

“Hameed & Burns to start at Lord’s,” says John Starbuck, “but drop Lawrence and have five proper bowlers from Robinson, Curran/Mahmood, Broad, Leach and Anderson. If that’s what India would do, why not us too?”

If we had their top five, I’d be all for it. As it is I think England need to pad out the batting as much as possible. They need to decide what Sam Curran’s role is, though - there were times in this game when he felt like a No8 batsman who bowls a bit.

4.19pm BST

The Player of the Match is Joe Root

“The weather has robbed us of what could have been a very entertaining final day. It’s been a great Test to play in - and I assume to watch as well - and that bodes well for the rest of the series. Hopefully we can take some of the good stuff from this week to Lord’s.

4.13pm BST

Virat Kohli speaks

“It’s going to be an exciting series - England v India is always a blockbuster. It’s most likely we will play four seamers and one spinner throughout the series, but we will be adaptable depending on the conditions.”

4.07pm BST

Hameed, or not Hameed

“You were just a tick ahead of me in turning towards Lord’s - grieving for this game obviously, but excited by the idea that after four years and nine months in the wilderness all of us who follow OBO will resume the Haseeb Hammed years!” says Pete Salmon. “I feel like its been a huge journey for all of us – there are of course people, even cricket followers, who haven’t ridden his every third ball duck, scratchy 30, and teasing 77 in five hours against Hampshire as though the world depended on it, but for those of us who have, I feel like this redemption is a shared one. I don’t care who they drop, any five of the top six will do, but let the Hameed Years begin!”

3.57pm BST

It’s over/You don’t need to tell me

Play has been abandoned and the first Test ends in a draw.

Scorecard/Clips: https://t.co/s8ctdMUblv

#ENGvIND pic.twitter.com/ETyyNRVZ1k

3.55pm BST

“Lord’s selection,” says Andrew Thomas. “I remember a time when, if the selectors were in doubt, the answer was to drop Ramprakash.”

Or, failing that, recall Ramprakash. Actually, as time passes I get more rather than less angry about the way Ramprakash was handled, particularly 1992. On reflection, that year did irreparable damage. He wasn’t treated brilliantly in 1993, either, or 1994, 1995, 1996 and 1997.

3.53pm BST

I won’t lie to you, it’s not a JFK moment. On reflection, I’m not sure why I bothered with the capital letters. Bloody breaking-news culture. Anyway, the umpires have surrendered to the inevitable, and the first Test is drawn. Joe Root’s glorious innings wasn’t in vain after all.

3.51pm BST

“Loving the OBO community today,” says Toby Sims. “I’ve been up and down for 20 years and there’s some been great stuff today. If any OBOers are are north Kent, East Sussex/Surrey way, I’m happy to come out for a quiet pint, local match, wild swim or a walk to keep the nerves down. Been there, still there. Happy for the OBO to pass on my email. Also - can the rain go away!”

You tell me now, after I’ve moved from Kent to Orkney. Yeah, cheers. Thanks a lot. No, really: thanks.

3.49pm BST

And so to Lord’s Assuming this match is over, what would be your England team for the second Test? Let’s stick to the 17-man squad that they picked for the first two games: the XI here plus Hameed, Leach, Bess, Wood, Pope and Overton.

3.46pm BST

“Much appreciating the wide-ranging conversation during the rain,” says Peter Bower. “It occured to me that a charity T20 cricket match, with both teams in full fancy dress (and listed on the scorecard as the characters they are dressed as) could be wonderfully entertaining. Imagine Machiavelli bowling wicked spin to a batsman like Hercules, weiding his club. Or Medusa bowling against Marie Antionette. Hours of fun. Imagine Guy the Gorilla batting at no 11.”

Beefy has already done enough for charity, surely.

3.42pm BST

Ian Ward says there are puddles all over the outfield. With that, and the news that Nasa are hiring people to watch Netflix for a year, I’m off. Seeya! Bye!

3.40pm BST

“Afternoon Rob,” says Matt Emerson. “I’ve taken No 2 son to Trent Bridge today for his first taste of Test cricket. I’m telling him to treat this as a metaphor for life…”

A metaphor for life? You’ve been listening to Don’t Tell Me The Score, haven’t you? (If you haven’t, I can unequivocally recommend it.)

3.31pm BST

It’s a little brighter at Trent Bridge, though there is no suggestion of an inspection just yet. The exasperating thing is that the forecast is extremely good from 7ish. I won’t lie to you, I have no idea what it says in the playing conditions, but I suspect somebody, somewhere is going to lose their temper before the day is out.

3.09pm BST

“Just reflecting further on our philosophical discussion today, and the way that the OBO and cricket can be a metaphor for life - keen anticipation, inclement weather, covers laid, removed (and replaced), hopes for further play, wry observations, idle distractions, questions asked, small acts of kindness between strangers,” says Brian Withington. “And for those of a more spiritual persuasion, let’s not forget the wisdom and compassion of the great but humble facilitator in the cloud. Nice going, Geoff.”

Thanks very much.

2.57pm BST

Sky’s Ian Ward reports that it has been “hammering down” for the last 15-20 minutes. Even if it does stop raining this instant, forever, I’d imagine the outfield will be prohibitively wet for the next hour or so. Like I said, nine per cent.

2.56pm BST

Weatherwatch You’ll never guess!

2.53pm BST

“Must say that all the talk from the media in England about Indian being favourites today made me queasy (they have a lot more to lose in this game than England),” says Digvijay Yadav. “When the coverage started it seemed that bowling conditions were perfect for England but as the day wears on, India’s task becomes clearer - give it a thump and if a few wickets fall then shut up shop.”

India need 157 more to win. If we can get 16.4 overs in, it’s game on.

2.50pm BST

Thanks Geoff, hello everyone. The forecast is for dry weather from - and you’ll like this - 7pm. But it’s not beyond the realms that we will get some cricket during the ICC-approved hours of play. Let’s just say there’s a nine per cent chance, okay?

2.44pm BST

Right, that’s it for me. Thanks so much for your company, which was sorely needed and provided with generosity in quality and quantity. Time for me to watch the rest of the rain in quiet contemplation, after handing over to your friend and mine, Rob Smyth.

Oh, and guess what? Ali Martin just texted two words. “Bright sunshine!”

2.42pm BST

I’ll let Robert Wilson have the last word. I’m sure he’s not used to that.

“In response to Damian Clarke’s mild protestations of love for me (the word ‘slightly’ does NOT belong to the form), I’m tempted to go full Dylan Moran and say ‘Gimme Cake. Where’s my cake?’ Is it time to set up an OBO matchmaking service with you and Adam Collins as yentas? Or perhaps we should just have an evening of OBO erotica? I can pump out Viv Richards and Robin Smith slash/fic at the drop of a hat and have a four page thing about Peter Beardsley that would curl your eyebrows and make your socks roll up and down simultaneously.

2.41pm BST

Still raining, still raining... but you know what? The rainy days on the OBO can be some of the best. I wish we didn’t have an exciting Test result being washed away but it’s still been fun.

A couple of emails on that theme. Here’s a very nice one from Robert Ellson.

2.30pm BST

A lovely contribution in the emails from Sam, following on from earlier.

“Thank you for your reply to Aditi. I have known the slow and pulsing ache of depression in myself and too many others. I have also asked that question on many, many occasions. Fortunately the answers have gently revealed themselves over time, sometimes hiding away but then coming back with friends. For some I have known that didn’t happen. I find it quite poignant that your beautiful reply was in a place where I have found much comfort over the years, yet was quite unexpected. Thank you. I hope the sun shines on this game eventually, and for you and others when the sky darkens.”

2.21pm BST

Ok, I thought that would be as good as it might get. The covers are going back on.

2.15pm BST

At Trent Bridge, there will be an inspection in 15 minutes. Which will be 2:30pm Nottingham time.

2.14pm BST

Might as well do another sport before we get inundated with cricket. Sport climbing! My new favourite along with the rhythmic gymnastics. (Seriously. They were both amazing.) This is via Ross Moulden, re the Olympic blog.

“I appreciate it must have been incredibly difficult to keep an eye on so many things at once while providing quality updates, and I thought you did a fantastic job, along with the rest of your colleagues. One thing I especially liked was the enjoyment and enthusiasm you seemed to have to for watching sport climbing for the first time. I thought I’d send you a link in case you want to see more of Janja Garnbret’s ridiculous ability to cakewalk climbs everyone else is struggling with.

2.06pm BST

There might be more rain coming, as per the Met, but Ali Martin says the covers are being removed. So we might as well enjoy this wonderful moment, considering it may be all we get.

2.04pm BST

Re our baseball metaphor, Håkan Burden emails with a good bilingual one.

Swedish: Det duger inte att bara ställa skorna på plan, man måste göra jobbet också.

English: It’s not enough to put your shoes on the pitch, you need to make the effort as well.

2.00pm BST

Phil Sawyer writes in about the important subject of Bad Horse.

“Oh, Geoff, why did you have to post the Thoroughbred of Sin? Now I’m going through the full song list as I drag my hungover frame around Sawyer Towers doing chores. Incidentally, the company who supplied the bad Doctor’s goggles and gloves are very friendly and happy to ship a set across the pond, although it’ll cost you a fair whack. Erm, so a friend tells me...”

1.49pm BST

On our philosophical topic, a practical message comes in from Olly.

“I am writing this from a psychiatric hospital which is full of people with lots of mental health and addiction issues. The one piece of advice I’d give is to ask for help. Speak to your GP and they will provide you with multiple options, including the well known Samaritans but also probably some local help. Do not bottle it up and be ashamed, depression is an illness and can be treated with medication and counselling like many other illnesses. I know this is heavy for the OBO but we all need to be there for each other.”

1.46pm BST

It’s still raining. Emma John references my favourite part of Trent Bridge. “There are people actually waiting in the Hadlee waiting area. I have never seen that before. I always thought those three seats under the stairwell in the Radcliffe Road stand were an existential joke.”

1.44pm BST

“I’m an American who got interested in cricket because I like the words. I asked the other day what ‘pants’ are and got an answer. Told a baseball fan friend, and she wrote this:

Dennis Eckersley, a hall-of-famer who played for Boston and other teams and now does color commentary for the Red Sox has his own lingo, and his expression for somebody who strikes out looking, meaning they didn’t swing the bat at a third strike, is “a pair of shoes”. Meaning he just stood there. Unique expression to Eck. Sounds like it could transfer to Cricket...

1.32pm BST

More punchy Parisians, what is it with that city? Mike Gibb this time.

“So-called physicist David Holder is forgetting to take relativistic effects into account. As the ball will be travelling a small fraction of the speed of light, the ball will fore-shorten, rendering it more dense. A sensitive batsman will pick this up as a heavier ball.”

1.27pm BST

Onto matchmaking then, as I try to make people happy. This for Damian Clarke.

“After thirty-one years of monogamous devotion to my wife, I have never once even considered another human being with thoughts of possible dalliance (well, apart from Dr. Alice Roberts, and that is obviously forgiveable). But may I say that I am surprised to find that I may just be slightly in love with Robert Wilson.”

1.23pm BST

“Any philosophical advice to someone who’s depressed and doesn’t know what to do with her life?”

Well. Hello Aditi, thanks for giving me something to think about during the rain. That’s a good question, and a perennial one.

12.57pm BST

The Met Office prediction has now changed to a thunderstorm at 3pm (that’s bad) but clearing to 10% likelihood of precipitation after that. In Jim Carrey limo-driver style, I’m saying there’s a chance.

12.54pm BST

“How many overs do you think India would need to try and chase the score down?” asks Vincent Barreto with acuity. “Go into one-day mode and hope for 30 or so? Send in Pant and Jadeja to try and whack their way to the figure and if it doesn’t work out play for the draw?”

We’re not quite at that point yet, because the last session can go to at least 7pm with the delays, and once we’re into the last hour then 15 overs have to be bowled, so it might be possible to get something like 45 overs into a long third session.

12.45pm BST

Here’s another level. Robert Wilson has just emerged into the fray from Paris, fists swinging, proclaiming that it’s metaphysics or nothing.

“I’d like to riposte to sweetly irascible physicist, David Holder, who would like us to stop using the term ‘heavy ball’ for the deeply insufficient reason that there is no such thing. As a metaphysicist of no little repute may I suggest that this is the merest of mechanicalism. Of course there’s a heavy ball. Because that’s how it feels, morally and emotionally. And such things beat Newtonian laws of motion into a cocked hat. And that’s without dealing with the ‘accusing ball’, the ‘false hope leg-hop’, the ‘short-of-a-length sociopath’ or my favourite reverse swinger ‘the nameless sensation of guilt’. The matchless Shane Warne’s entire career of epic piffle and persiflage is proof that metaphysics steals physics’ lunch money every day of the week.”

12.42pm BST

Science Fight just reminded me of Dr Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, for some reason. Bad Horse, Bad Horse.

12.39pm BST

Ah ha. Some rumblings in the lab. Here is Hugh Molloy.

“The physicist has neglected to take into account that the ball not only has linear velocity but also rotational velocity. Some bowlers such as Bumrah use a whippy flick of the wrist to apply back spin which will slow the ball off the pitch unlike someone like Flintoff who bowls from the shoulder with far less spin so is quicker off the pitch. Also, a spinning ball interacts with a surface differently because the spin reduces the contact time with the bat. Spinning balls skid off hard surfaces more, i.e. a bat, whereas a less spinning ball gives more of a thud, or heavy feeling.”

12.37pm BST

“Now pooling it down,” writes Ali, which is a bit of presumably Brum vernacular with which I’ve not had the pleasure of being acquainted. It makes sense.

12.32pm BST

“It’s been raining all day here in Sydney too,” writes Arthur Graves. Poor old Sydney, that’s all that it needs. “I reckon the slow over rate penalty would work if it was increased. Set the amount of overs per full day at a minimum (80). Then reduce runs got by the bowling team at five per over under that. If that doesn’t do the job, increase it to ten per over. At some point the reduction in runs will find a sweet-spot all on it’s own.”

I’d say it has to be runs added as extras rather than subtracted - we can’t make runs disappear that have actually been scored. But yes, that’s a method. Again, it can only work if the batting side’s avenues to waste time are closed first.

12.30pm BST

Ali Martin: “Bright sunshine has broken out ... for how long, we know not. The direction the wet stuff is coming from remains filled in.”

12.23pm BST

The mysterious TM has been reading. “This over-rate chat reminded me of a passage in Derek Pringle’s memoirs about quirks of the era and fines for players and counties for not achieving what would be 19.5 hours per hour. In one match against Middlesex they were well behind and so with the collusion of John Emburey who was pals with Graham Gooch they got the over-rate up to 48 an hour with Goochie completing an over in 18s. So, err, it can be done.”

Imagine, 19.5 an hour. The golden fingers of God shining down onto the fields of Kent or Worcestershire. A holy promised land.

12.16pm BST

Big news, the reverberations of which will be felt through the ages. My colleague Ali Martin has front row seats at the Bridge.

“The all-important lunch is being taken at 12:30, so nowt before 1.10pm. It’s a pretty bleak scene, covers on. They’ve not even started the mop-up during the little dry spells as they’ve known more is coming.”

12.11pm BST

David Holder is putting the foot down.

“Good morning to you from alternately sunny and very wet Warrington! Why don’t we have a minimum of 30 overs per session? The players would have to eat into their lunch and tea breaks; this would affect both the bowling side (who would want to rest their bowlers) and the batsmen (who would like to put their feet up too). If either side procrastinates they’d lose that time at the intervals. Also, as a physicist, please can people stop referring to bowlers bowling ‘a heavy ball’ when the batsmen suggest it hits the bat harder than they’d expect for the speed of the bowler. The only variable that will affect the force of the blow is its velocity... nothing else.”

12.07pm BST

The rain has just got harder at Trent Bridge.

12.07pm BST

What else to fill your time? I could direct you to a couple of long Final Word interviews that we did recently, which were special.

We spoke to Clare Connor in one episode, initially about the Hundred and what it was for, but then went very deep into her story, life, achievements.

11.59am BST

Speaking of the Olympics, if you have memories of Roy and HG from the Sydney games, I wrote this last week on a special book written by one of their creators.

11.58am BST

While we’re waiting, you could also be keeping one eye on the last gasps of the Olympic blog, as I’ve been doing. Writing this thing was the single most difficult and interesting task I’ve had in this line of work: trying to cover up to 20 sports in a five-hour session, trying to watch four screens at once while checking results elsewhere, having to learn the rules of judo or sport climbing or whatever else while live on the keys, because however diligent you were there was no time to prepare for everything. Good times.

11.45am BST

Onto other things, here’s Andrew Benton. “May we have your expert take on the Bangladesh T20 series victory? Wrapped up inside the minimum number of games, does this signal the beginning of a major decline for Australia, the start of a phenomenal rise for Bangladesh, or is it just a blip in the world of averages?”

Go on, then, I’ll bang on. I don’t think it tells us anything new. It just reminds us that Australia has mostly been pretty bad at T20 International cricket for some reason, and that Australia has been especially bad on slow spinners’ wickets for more obvious reasons. In the 2016 T20 World Cup, most of the pitches were similar and Australia struggled. Ditto in the UAE in 2018, and the Caribbean recently.

11.32am BST

Maybe the most uniformly annoying penalty for a bowling side would be that until they catch up the rate, the batters in the middle get to choose who bowls.

11.31am BST

@GeoffLemonSport re over rates, tickets are refunded really easily straight back onto the cards that bought them now. Would be super simple to refund 1/90th back to paying fans for every over lost. I also like the Hundred rule re fielding restrictions.

Yep, this does work pretty well in the white ball stuff. Not quite the same for red, though the earlier idea of taking one fielder off the field completely has its charms. There would still be times when that would hurt bowling teams less than others, like if the 10 and 11 were batting. But every penalty will be variable in its effect. A team defending 500 won’t care if they concede a few penalty runs, if it lets them optimise their wicket-taking potential.

11.28am BST

Kim Thonger’s suggestion: “I’ve thought for some time that the penalty for slow over rates should simply be restricted run ups, say 5 metres, until the bowling side gets back to the required rate.”

This would definitely be funny. And in this house, we respect the Liebke Equation that funny cricket > good cricket.

11.19am BST

“In answer to Phil Rutovitz, who seems to think India should reach 209,” writes Jen Oram, “start of Day 5 against NZ, India (only the third innings, not the last) have 64 for 2. Shortly thereafter Kyle Jamieson has them 72 for 4. They make 170. That’s without input from the weather, which seems to be disrupting India’s batting rather more than England’s.”

11.18am BST

Nathaniel Rogers takes his turn down memory lane.

“I remember getting back from a stag do on a Sunday morning in 2004, switching the telly on and being told Headingley were offering tickets at £10 to watch 80 remaining overs after lunch against New Zealand. So off I went with the lass and a couple of mates and got to watch Flintoff and Jones racing each other to 50 and then 100, with Jones getting his only Test century and Flintoff holing out on 96 ish trying to hit a six. Must have been 110 overs that day. Cant have finished till after 20:00.

11.15am BST

Right on cue, Emma says the rain has got heavier in Nottingham.

11.13am BST

“Why cant they have a running counter as to how far behind the over rate a team is (allowing for injuries etc) and at the top every hour, have them field with one man less for that period of time? Fines won’t work. Fines haven’t worked,” writes Shankar Mony.

Spot on. The penalty must be in play, and significant enough to draw a response. Fielding restrictions is one, run penalties another. But again, the batting side’s contribution has to be monitored and accounted for.

11.08am BST

“On the subject of slow over rates, why not penalise the offending bowler by giving him or her a yellow card that would mean being unable to bowl during the next, say, 20 overs or 90 minutes?” asks Darryl Accone.

Because it’s not really down to one bowler being too slow. At 30 overs a session, each over should take four minutes on average. Take out time for drinks and wickets falling and so on, and call that three and a half minutes. That doesn’t mean that every over must be three and a half minutes. I’ve timed Ravindra Jadeja bowling overs in 70 seconds, sometimes. Which means his fast bowlers can take longer. Even having a slow morning session with the quicks is alright if the spinners make it up later in the day. The thing is, nobody bothers making up the deficit now.

11.02am BST

Good English morning to John Starbuck.

“Hello there. If we genuinely need more recovery time for bowlers teams should be picked with at least six who are able to turn their arms over. It upsets our idea of a balanced side but look what happens when a real all-rounder is missing. Also, at least two of the bowlers should be spinners able to take on a longer workload, which is one reason why over-rates have been going down. Like a Tory dazzled by money, too many selectors are obsessed with speed. Speed costs time.”

10.51am BST

So the scheduled start time will not be met. Sorry.

10.50am BST

“Apparently my piece from yesterday has really pissed off the weather gods,” says my colleague Emma John from Nottingham.

10.46am BST

“Surely only one job for Chris Silverwood this morning,” writes Peter Salmon. “Tell Stuart Broad he’s thinking of replacing him with Jack Leach at Lord’s.”

Rather, the key factor has been identified by Isabelle.

Stuart Broad since the onset of the pandemic...

• with headband: 33w for 519r @ 15.7

• without headband: 6w for 244r @ 40.7

The only statistics you need, tbh.#ENGvIND pic.twitter.com/zKn5Jb5aSK

10.42am BST

Andrew Goldie casts his mind back.

“I raced home from school in 1979 hoping for an exciting denouement to England v India at the Oval - it had been four pretty turgid days in a rain-affected series. Switched on he telly, the big Oval scoreboard focussed on 160. I felt flat. It was going to be a dull draw. Then it pans out. That was Gavaskar’s not out score. India, chasing 438, were on course for a win. The last hour of that match was possibly the most giddying watch I’ve ever seen, as all four results were possible, everyone was trying not to panic, only a controversial low catch at extra cover that did for Viswanath put the India win out of the picture, and it finished 429-8.”

10.40am BST

@GeoffLemonSport ok so I know that England has a theoretical chance of getting a draw or even winning, but how likely do you think it really is that India will not manage 157 with 9 wickets in hand and a full day to play?

Absolutely! Well, not the draw, unless it rains. Take rain out of the equation, there’s no way that India bats a day and doesn’t make 157. But it’s very possible, with many many precedents, to be bowled out for that sort of score on the final day of a Test. Just takes a wicket or two early and suddenly the whole side slides away.

10.38am BST

I’m being told by comrades at Trent Bridge that the outlook weather-wise is not good. The Met Office has the dark cloud icon coming in at bang on our start time, 11am. And the precipitation odds don’t drop below 30% all day.

10.31am BST

We do already use the early start in Australia and other places, though only when there are overs lost to weather and such, not when lost to teams just not bowling enough.

Some people try to cast slow over rates as the obsession of old fogeys, but as a relatively young fogey it’s still a problem. It’s easy to say that 8o or 90 overs a day doesn’t matter if the cricket is good. There’s logic to that. But at its base, you need to set a minimum amount of play for a match to be fair and a result to be likely.

10.23am BST

Can’t argue with any of this, Anand.

@GeoffLemonSport
Can't we make our glorious sport gloriouser by
1.Having a reserve day for all tests (board(s) pay all costs due to slow rates if we play on day 6)
2.Starting earlier(weather permitting)to make up for lost time
3.Shorter lunch, tea breaks on interrupted days#obo

10.00am BST

As ever, the lines are open via email or the birdphone. Just ring and ask for Geoff. I’ll take it in my room. Claudia, stop listening!

10.00am BST

Good morning, afternoon, or evening, and welcome to (whisper it gently) day five. That’s right, just say it to yourself. Find a quiet room in the house, stand in the furthest corner, and allow the self-satisfaction of sounding out the syllables. You can share it later, but this moment is just for you.

The fifth day. The finest treat of Test cricket. The thing that no other forms can offer. For four days we’ve veered between rain and sun, light and shade, frustration and absorption. We’ve been off, we’ve been on, and so has the game. Wrestling back and forth with some deep ranks of quality bowling and a couple of batting performances of admirable resistance.

So here we are: with nine Bumrah wickets and one Root century in the bank, ahead of the closing chapter. India at 52 for 1 need a further 157 runs to reach the 209 required for victory. They lost that wicket last night to some wicked Stuart Broad bowling - KL Rahul, the top-scorer from the first innings. Rohit Sharma and Cheteshawar Pujara are at the crease.

That Indian batting lineup looks imposing down to Pant and Jadeja but the engine room of Pujara, Kohli, Rahane struggled in the WTC final against New Zealand, and struggled again in the first innings here. India might be favourites to win, but that could very easily change.

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Published on August 08, 2021 08:41

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