05:54
“Talking of batting freaks,” emails Ben Nichols, “Keith Daniels of Cranham Cricket Club hit a century last week. This is notable because he has now hit a century in seven different decades. Not bad!”
That is fantastic, I love stuff like that.
05:50
“Babar Batfreak!” says Matthew Jones. “That made me laugh. Are we allowed nicknames in 2020 though? I hope so.”
I think we can manage.
05:48
The 1990 Nat West final was a particular brute – poor old Northants lost the toss, it’s September so Lanky stick them in, and five DeFreitas wickets later, they’re 39-5.
05:43
Wasim is on Sky talking about Lanky in the 80s and 90s. What a team they were; in one-day stuff especially, but but for the Manchester rain, they would’ve won the Britannic in 1987, actually the year before Wasim arrived. But the hitting they had lower down the order was spectacular – nearly every bowler could blacksmith it miles, whether Watkinson, Austin, Foley, DeFreitas, Hayhurst, Chapple, Martin, Allott – even Flat Jack. Marvellous.
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05:36
“There seem to be a few batting freaks around at the moment,” emails Ian Copestake. “(Well, Smith) but unlike the parenthesised one Babar actually appears to be supremely watchable and not a batting car crash drawing spectators to view in fascination and horror at how something so tick-filled can produce runs. Enjoy!”
What I love about Babar – and Smith, and Kohli – is that he seems unaffected by pressure or hype. He knows what’s expected of him because he expects it of himself because how can he not, so just turns up and gets it did.
05:34
“Be interesting to see who Root goes with first up,” tweets Manvir Singh. “Woakes looked the most likely vs Babar and is probably England’s best bowler in England when the ball gets old.”
As per the below, I’m almost certain it’ll be the alte kackers, but I’d probably go with Broad and Archer.
05:26
I guess another possibility for England is to bowl dry. But my sense is that they’ll go after attacking lines from the off, because if they let these two just bat, things will get very difficult indeed – even before we recall that they’re a batsman light, and respond badly to scoreboard pressure.
05:19
I wonder whether England will go at the batsmen this morning. We’ve got to assume that Joe Root will start with Anderson and Broad, but after that, I’d not be surprised to see Archer send down his special brand of teeth-seekers, nor to see Stokes bully his carcass into the same. Whoever wins this session will be set up for the series, which is to say that, in my educated opinion, “the first hour is crucial”.
04:27
Preamble
The feeling of watching someone be good at something is an intense one, and underpins the enduring popularity of elite sport. But the feeling of watching someone be really good at something – someone making that something into an expression of their personality, an extension of their self, an elevation of their soul – underpins the enduring popularity of being alive, its own kind of morality that is somehow both calming and exhilarating, moving and amusing, mortifying and affirming.
To watch Babar Azam bat is to experience all this and more, and how England handle that could well decide this Test match and this series. If they can dismiss him this morning, they will be set; if they cannot, they will find themselves in major trouble.
But they have plenty of scope to impose themselves. Stuart Broad and Jimmy Anderson bowled very nicely in yesterday’s first session, while Jofra Archer looked extremely grooved and Chris Woakes extremely handsome. As such, yerman – and his pal– can expect a thorough examination over the next couple of hours. And should England fail, they will at least get to enjoy the thrill of watching Babar Batfreak do his thing.
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