Cricket

Well, get to go to bed early, anyway.

Certainly, if Root is going to get them all in boundaries.

Going to bed safe in the knowledge that Root and Stokes will calmly bring this home.

Has there been a 50 partnership where Stokes has made a lower contribution?

Not complaining, these two can get us close to the win.

Root ticking along at a run-a-ball,
Stokes nursing his gammy knee through to lunch.
Just(!) 90 needed.
120-4 in an odd session.

You're in for a treat.

What a match. I did NO work at all this afternoon in NZ. Shut the office door, pretended I was in a meeting and watched every ball!

Wellllllll. Shit.

I went to bed at about half past midnight, assuming it was a done deal in our favour.

That's awesome for the game though.

Much prefer that to grinding it out and winning at all costs.

Looking forward to the highlights tonight.

Where can one find these highlights?

We've been watching the highlights at 8pm on BT Sport.

Day 5 highlights aren't up here yet: https://www.bt.com/sport/watch/highlights but you need a BT Sport subscription to see them.

I'm sure there are other highlights elsewhere, someone will be along soon enough...

Well. Test cricket. Bloody hell.

Hindsight and all that, but enforcing the follow-on was a mistake. Which is a shame as I'm normally all for it, but Williamson was due a score and I'd have preferred to see him try and make that score with some scoreboard pressure to deal with rather than the 'nothing to lose' situation he was in. Also think you need 300 or so in the bank to properly enforce a follow-on with that much time left in the game. Hopefully it doesn't put them off follow-ons in future.

Even with hindsight the follow on was the right thing. It led to a classic match - and as Stokes has said - they are in the entertainment business - and boy did this provide it!

Had brooks not been runout without facing I reckon we'd have made the runs easy. Haven't seen the full highlights - but wonder how many quick singles were lost to Stokes knee too!

What a game though. Wonder if we'll see ticket sales stay strong for England tours. That has to be real aim here. Seeing empty stadiums in Pak and WI is so disappointing - maybe the people will come when there is chance of history every game.

Also serves as an amazing example of how good fielding can win matches (or poor fielding can lose matches). Obviously it's not this simple, but highlights that a dive that turns a 4 into a 2 and could have possibly turned the match the other way.

The other factor against the follow-on (assuming they're trying to win and not just entertain) is the fact Broad and Anderson have a combined age of over 75, which can't have helped. I think if they'd skittled NZ out for 130 in 35 overs, that's one thing. But 200+ in more than 50 overs potentially was too many in the legs. Neither of them had much impact in the second innings.

Did Stokes know he was crocked during the first NZ innings? Imagine he would have planned to bowl a bit more than he could.

I dunno, but that makes the decision to bowl again even more misjudged if he did. Something about it felt wrong at the time (which I voiced earlier on the thread). For me, if you're enforcing a follow-on, you don't want to bat again or, at the very least, only bat for a few overs to get 40-odd. They were only 224 behind and were invited to bat again on a day three pitch. Against old bowlers and potentially one part-time bowler (Stokes) down. It made for a terrific test match, but I don't think it was tactically a great move versus, I dunno, going in to bat again and teeing off royally to stick another 350 runs on the board.

E2a: I'm usually the first to criticise a side for not enforcing a follow-on, but this time felt like the time Flintoff did it in Australia.

It was a wide though.

80/1 draw

What were the odds on a tie?
Which almost happened

Much prefer that to grinding it out and winning at all costs.
Looking forward to the highlights tonight.

As stokes said its all about entertaining fans not winning
Free highlights on BTSport youtube

What were the odds on a tie?
Which almost happened

The one bookie I looked at (randomly via Google) didn't list odds for the tie. I've never seen them list odds for a tie for a Test match, only for ODIs where there isn't some kind of super over or other tie breaker.

26 mins of highlights here: https://youtu.be/rVMHOFVK_R0

Bangladesh/England ODIs free to stream on the ECB website

Meanwhile India/Australia is going to be a fucking mess

Bangladesh/England ODIs free to stream on the ECB website

Only to registered supporters only, and the link to register (for free) takes you to a log-in that can only be used by existing accounts.

Some SJCC fixtures out. Frantic calendar checking/rearranging going on.

U13 means another set of rule changes, 19 yard wicket and they now play LBW (which will mean they will start to appeal on any and every ball.)