“,”elementId”:”c3b17a79-bc6e-4be0-96e7-b139b77534f7″},{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”
Joe Root’s unbeaten 153 helped them to 435 for eight declated, then Jimmy Anderson and Jack Leach took three wickets apiece as New Zealand slipped meekly to 138 for seven. They trail by 297 runs and will probably be asked to follow on tomorrow morning. Thanks for your company and emails – morning!
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Urgh. It’s not heavy, but it is wet, so the players are heading off the field. New Zealand trail by 297.
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And that’s Blockbusters. Bracewell is too early on a defensive stroke – the ball may have stopped in the pitch – and gives Broad a simple return catch. New Zealand are falling in a heap.
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A comfortable catch for Broady ☝️
New Zealand are struggling here in Wellington… #NZvENG pic.twitter.com/lir4m1G5XB
— Cricket on BT Sport (@btsportcricket) February 25, 2023
\n”,”url”:”https://twitter.com/btsportcricket/status/1629319417505935361″,”id”:”1629319417505935361″,”hasMedia”:false,”role”:”inline”,”isThirdPartyTracking”:false,”source”:”Twitter”,”elementId”:”af8f21e0-498e-41dd-8342-22f6ac2b0d65″}),”attributes”:{“pinned”:false,”keyEvent”:true,”summary”:false},”blockCreatedOn”:1677294729000,”blockCreatedOnDisplay”:”22.12 EST”,”blockLastUpdated”:1677297574000,”blockLastUpdatedDisplay”:”22.59 EST”,”blockFirstPublished”:1677294868000,”blockFirstPublishedDisplay”:”22.14 EST”,”blockFirstPublishedDisplayNoTimezone”:”22.14″,”title”:”WICKET! New Zealand 103-7 (Bracewell ct and b Broad 6)”,”contributors”:(),”primaryDateLine”:”Fri 24 Feb 2023 23.50 EST”,”secondaryDateLine”:”First published on Fri 24 Feb 2023 15.45 EST”},{“id”:”63f975fa8f08305414a37739″,”elements”:({“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”
33rd over: New Zealand 96-6 (Blundell 12) The perfect end to another dominant session from England, who picked up four top-order wickets for 84 runs. Will Young fell to a snorter from Jimmy Anderson, Tom Latham and Henry Nicholls both paid the ultimate price* for having the effrontery to reverse sweep Jack Leach, and Daryl Mitchell was snaffled memorably by Ollie Pope on the stroke of tea.
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* Losing your wicket isn’t actually the ultimate price, is it. But that’s given me a helluvan idea to increase the appeal of five-day cricket. Who wouldn’t want to watch Squid Test?
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Ollie Pope takes a stunning catch on the stroke of tea. Mitchell pushed defensively at a ball that bounced enough to hit high on the bat, and Pope – who was almost on the pitch at silly point – thrust out his right hand to take a marvellous reaction catch. That was brilliant.
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Another reverse-sweep, another soft dismissal. Nicholls gloved it onto the arm, and Pope reacted superbly at short leg to take a one-handed catch to his left.
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It's that man again 🤩
Leachy with another breakthrough after Ollie Pope's fantastic reactions 🔥
Henry Nicholls is gone for 30… #NZvENG pic.twitter.com/n8cTfDfIQd
— Cricket on BT Sport (@btsportcricket) February 25, 2023
\n”,”url”:”https://twitter.com/btsportcricket/status/1629303474520219648″,”id”:”1629303474520219648″,”hasMedia”:false,”role”:”inline”,”isThirdPartyTracking”:false,”source”:”Twitter”,”elementId”:”91167c78-1008-48e7-a27d-6d63b06d7f01″}),”attributes”:{“pinned”:false,”keyEvent”:true,”summary”:false},”blockCreatedOn”:1677290973000,”blockCreatedOnDisplay”:”21.09 EST”,”blockLastUpdated”:1677293239000,”blockLastUpdatedDisplay”:”21.47 EST”,”blockFirstPublished”:1677291060000,”blockFirstPublishedDisplay”:”21.11 EST”,”blockFirstPublishedDisplayNoTimezone”:”21.11″,”title”:”WICKET! New Zealand 77-5 (Nicholls c Pope b Leach 30)”,”contributors”:(),”primaryDateLine”:”Fri 24 Feb 2023 23.50 EST”,”secondaryDateLine”:”First published on Fri 24 Feb 2023 15.45 EST”},{“id”:”63f969768f08ea98983ac0e7″,”elements”:({“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”
Latham walks off shaking his head. I can understand why, but I don’t think Aleem Dar had any other choice – the evidence was not conclusive either way, so he had to stay with the on-field decision.
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Controversy here 👀
Latham has been hit on the glove and has been given out caught behind…
Leach picks up his first ☝️#NZvENG pic.twitter.com/ERbrVKyv1o
— Cricket on BT Sport (@btsportcricket) February 25, 2023
\n”,”url”:”https://twitter.com/btsportcricket/status/1629298647786553345″,”id”:”1629298647786553345″,”hasMedia”:false,”role”:”inline”,”isThirdPartyTracking”:false,”source”:”Twitter”,”elementId”:”884b6163-38b0-4924-9d74-4cc68a66fbfa”}),”attributes”:{“pinned”:false,”keyEvent”:true,”summary”:false},”blockCreatedOn”:1677289846000,”blockCreatedOnDisplay”:”20.50 EST”,”blockLastUpdated”:1677293250000,”blockLastUpdatedDisplay”:”21.47 EST”,”blockFirstPublished”:1677289894000,”blockFirstPublishedDisplay”:”20.51 EST”,”blockFirstPublishedDisplayNoTimezone”:”20.51″,”title”:”WICKET! New Zealand 60-4 (Latham c Root b Leach 35)”,”contributors”:(),”primaryDateLine”:”Fri 24 Feb 2023 23.50 EST”,”secondaryDateLine”:”First published on Fri 24 Feb 2023 15.45 EST”},{“id”:”63f95aec8f086ef9d795ac27″,”elements”:({“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”
Another one! A beauty from Anderson, a forward push from Young, a nick off the shoulder and a simple catch. You know when you’ve been Jimmied.
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OHHHHH JIMMY JIMMY
He is on the money today 💰
James Anderson is far too good 🔥#NZvENG pic.twitter.com/YN3uMYyUSo
— Cricket on BT Sport (@btsportcricket) February 25, 2023
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7th over: New Zealand 12-2 (Latham 7, Young 1) Will Young, back in the team in place of the fourth seamer, gets off the mark with a nudge for a single. Latham hits the first boundary of the innings, a slash over the slips, played with conviction. That’s more like it. But as the players troop off for lunch, NZ have undone most of the good work they put in earlier. Jimmy Anderson has 4-1-9-2 and England are on course for their whole-winter whitewash. Time for some toast.
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The big one! Williamson flirts outside off and instantly regrets it as he gets a nick through to the keeper. His tally for the series is 9 runs at an average of 3.
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Ooh, good ball – Devon Conway plays and misses. Or does he? Ben Foakes thinks he’s heard something, there’s a noisy debate, Ben Stokes is up for a review, and there’s a spike on UltraEdge! Poor Conway wanders off, shaking his head.
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First act: England 21-3 off 6.4 overs. Bazball on the brink.
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Second act: England 302-0 off 60.3 overs. Bazball back in business.
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Third act: England 112-5 off 20 overs. A T20 innings, bit of a mess, but Joe Root carries his bat.
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87.1 overs: England 435-8 (Root 153, Leach 6) Root plays one last lovely shot, a well-timed whip for four. As warm applause rings around this very round ground, Root waves his bat and runs off, because Stokes was just waiting for that milestone.
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The ball after being dropped by Tom Blundell behind the wicket, Robinson steps away and gives the gentlest kind of catching practice to mid-off.
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81st over: England 401-7 (Root 142, Robinson 2) Southee takes the new ball, gets it to bounce and beats the bat a couple of times. Root thinks “sod it”, plays a flat pull for six – that rifle sound again – and follows up with a reverse scoop for four. The players take drinks, with England probably still on top but suddenly giving New Zealand a sniff.
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You miss, I hit. Bracewell tosses it up, Broad hits thin air with his sweep and up goes Rod Tucker’s finger. Broad reviews, rapidly but fruitlessly.
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One brings two! Foakes takes a stride forward, falls over and presents his fellow wickie Tom Blundelll with an easy stumping. Who on earth described him as sober?
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Wagner strikes! Stokes has a big swing, looking to clear the ring again, but can only give a simple catch, a few yards to Kuggeleijn’s right at mid-off.
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Got him! After all those edges, Brook finally middles one but doesn’t keep it down. It heads for Henry’s midriff and he does well to take a juggling catch. So after all that we have a thumping anti-climax, as Brook misses out on his first double hundred. Ah well, it’s good for the game.
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67th over: England 323-3 (Root 107, Brook 186) At the other end it’s Tim Southee, the second most threatening bowler so far. Root, standing well outside his crease again, plays a couple of defensive shots and then decides he’s had enough of this and reverse-scoops for six. That takes the partnership to 302.
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Hello everyone and welcome to the latest instalment of the OBO. Ben Stokes’s England bandwagon, which had a prang yesterday morning, is back in the fast lane.
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At the wheel is Harry Brook, who just can’t stop making big scores at high speed. Yesterday we flagged up the record for most runs by any batsman in his first nine Test innings, just as Brook entered the top five. By the time the day came to a soggy end, he was No 1. He has hammered 807 runs in those nine innings – the first man ever to reach 800 so fast, eclipsing Vinod Kambli of India on 798 – and he’s still in, threatening to add a few more.
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Brook already has 20 sixes in his six Tests, the same as Lance Klusener, the fearsome South African hitter of the Nineties, managed in 49. No previous batsman from any country has averaged two sixes per Test: the closest is Shahid Afridi of Pakistan with 52 in 27 (average 1.93). Until Brook came along, the closest playing today was Shimron Hetmyer of West Indies, who has 27 sixes from 16 Tests (1.69), just ahead of Rishabh Pant of India, who has a mathematically satisfying 55 from 33 (1.67). Brook’s average is 3.33. Yes, the man hits sixes at twice the speed of Pant.
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There are 732 batsmen who have made 750 runs in Tests, and Brook has the highest strike rate of them all. His 807 runs have come off 812 balls, so his strike rate is 99.38. The next best (by Afridi) is 86.97. That 99 is a classy touch, making Brook the Bradman of the bish-bosh era. His actual Test average is even higher, at 100.87, but we mustn’t get too excited about that as it’s inflated by a not-out in this innings. When he finally gets out, his average will plummet – to a minimum of 89.67.
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His hot spell won’t last forever, of course. Brook has already had one bad patch in his international career, during last year’s T20 World Cup, when the bouncy Australian pitches bothered him and he mustered only 56 in five innings. He may be just a bilateral-series bully. He may be no more than the new Kambli, or the new Jonathan Trott (on speed).
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But to my untrained eye he seems really special, because everything happens so fast, from his grasp of length to the way his hands fly into the shot – everything except his choice of stroke, which often comes deliciously late. His hitting is astonishingly clean. He’s a phenomenon: let’s enjoy it while it lasts, while sparing a twinge of sympathy for any Kiwi supporters in the house.
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Play starts half an hour early today, to make up some of the time lost to the rain. There are more showers forecast, but they don’t look too bad. Do drop by at 10.30am local time, 9.30pm GMT, to see if Brook can get his first double hundred (in professional cricket, never mind Tests). It shouldn’t take long.
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Key events
Stumps
Yep, that’s it, play has officially been abandoned for the day. It’s mildly frustrating for England, but they are still on course for their 11th victory in 12 Tests after another dominant day.
Joe Root’s unbeaten 153 helped them to 435 for eight declated, then Jimmy Anderson and Jack Leach took three wickets apiece as New Zealand slipped meekly to 138 for seven. They trail by 297 runs and will probably be asked to follow on tomorrow morning. Thanks for your company and emails – morning!
Play needs to resume by 5am GMT, and the prospects aren’t great.
Still drizzling in Wellington. Latest possible start time is 6:00pm NZT. #NZvENG https://t.co/o1h6YmmIvV
— BLACKCAPS (@BLACKCAPS) February 25, 2023
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On this day 30 years ago…
The covers are going back on, so there that goes. I suspect we’re done for the day.
Some of the covers are coming off, although there’s still a bit of mizzle in the air. The umpires are having a chat this very same moment.
“May I recommend something from the timeless Nick Drake to help in these early hours?” says Morgan Edwards. “His dulcet tones should prove quite the soundtrack to a 4am shift. Perhaps Black Eyed Dog, Pink Moon or Parasite. I won’t be held responsible for you falling asleep on the keyboard.”
“Waiting to board a flight from Manila to Kuala Lumpur,” says Spencer Robinson. “Tell us the batsmen who survived maiden overs from you. We need to know.”
Nobody deserves that level of public shaming. Cancel culture is bad enough but you’re suggesting something truly barbaric.
On BT Sport, Alison Mitchell isn’t optimistic that there will be any more play today.
4am listening
“Morning sir,” says Alan Leece. “Innocuous maidens are never really so as they can be part of an attack that strangles runs and allows the strike bowlers to take wickets of pressured batters.
“Perhaps Mullally was unfortunate in not having reliable wicket takers alongside. Very few have the likes of Branderson. Maidens are maidens. If the batter chooses to leave them they may be applying their own pressure.”
I suppose the point I was trying to make about Mullally (or whoever) is that some maidens include four or five deliveries so wide that the batters can just ignore them. I’m not sure that builds anywhere near as much pressure as, say, an over that compromises four forward defensives, a play-and-miss and a nervous leave. But it’s fair to say maidens aren’t my Mastermind subject; I’ve bowled about two in my life.
Rain stops play
Urgh. It’s not heavy, but it is wet, so the players are heading off the field. New Zealand trail by 297.
42nd over: New Zealand 138-7 (Blundell 25, Southee 23) Southee crunches a yorker back at Broad, then misses an extravagant cut at a wider short ball. It’s pretty clear where Southee sits on the good time/long time spectrum; a single takes him to 23 from 18 balls.
41st over: New Zealand 135-7 (Blundell 24, Southee 21) Here’s a list of the top runscorers across the two series, home and away, between England and New Zealand in the last 10 months. Blundell has been terrific, with 540-odd runs at an average of 77, and so far in this innings he has looked comfortable. He gets four more with a classy back-foot drive through backward point off Leach.
The leading wickettaker, since you asked, is Jimmy Anderson, with 21 at an average of 14.
“I’m not familiar with the small batting pad subterfuge (sadly rendered obsolete by DRS),” says Brian Withington, “but I guess another example of sportswear gaming the rules would be the way that boxers’ ‘shorts’ waistbands have crept up the torso over the years (‘doing a Cowell’), presumably to minimise the body shot target area by increasing the referee’s perception of the ‘low blow’ zone.”
It can’t be long before someone strolls into the ring looking like this.
40th over: New Zealand 131-7 (Blundell 20, Southee 21) Southee has a lusty mow across the line at Broad and top-edges over the leaping Foakes for four. He nails the next attacking stroke, pinging Broad into the crowd at cow corner. That’s the 78th six of his Test career, which puts him level with MS Dhoni.
That is some 𝗖𝗟𝗘𝗔𝗡 hitting 🏏
Tim Southee now equals MS Dhoni for number of Test match 6️⃣s with 78… #NZvENG pic.twitter.com/1qoa2odbMt
— Cricket on BT Sport (@btsportcricket) February 25, 2023
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39th over: New Zealand 120-7 (Blundell 19, Southee 11) Southee has decided to try to hit his team back into this. I think that’s the right approach – New Zealand might as well try to disturb England’s equilibrium.
“It was interesting to see both your good self and some other media commentators purring over Robinson’s maidens, whereas at the ground it felt like his first 22 balls were poor, letting the batters leave easily,” says Paul Cockburn. “Maidens are such a deceptive metric. He wasn’t unplayable; he just didn’t need to be played. But ball 23 came along, and I’ll get my coat…”
That’s interesting. From, er, 12,000 miles away, it felt like even the leaves were uncomfortable for the batters. Totally agree about maidens though – from memory Alan Mullally used to be good at bowling innocuous spells of 6-2-8-0.
38th over: New Zealand 118-7 (Blundell 19, Southee 9) Southee deposits Broad high over the leg side for six. That’s his 77th in Tests, which puts him 23 ahead of the next-best lower-order batter – Broad himself.
37th over: New Zealand 111-7 (Blundell 19, Southee 2) Blundell, who has been left alone on the burning deck, rocks back to cart Leach over midwicket for four. Good shot.
36th over: New Zealand 105-7 (Blundell 14, Southee 1) “Whilst I’m thoroughly enjoying these barnstorming, Bazballing performances, I can’t help but feel a little aggrieved that I have to find something else to entertain myself with, given this match could well be wrapped up inside three days (just like the first),” says Morgan Edwards. “The first two India-Australia Tests were also wound up inside three days. That’s eight days of the pure form lost to the ether! Yes the Women’s T20 World Cup has been a good watch, and I’ve been able to catch some of the Pakistani and Bangladeshi T20 leagues, but nothing can replace the five-day format. What are we to do?!”
While it’s not quite the same as live sport, I plan to spend the next few years of my life lost in the DM Mordecai rabbit hole. All are welcome, yes indeed.
WICKET! New Zealand 103-7 (Bracewell ct and b Broad 6)
And that’s Blockbusters. Bracewell is too early on a defensive stroke – the ball may have stopped in the pitch – and gives Broad a simple return catch. New Zealand are falling in a heap.
A comfortable catch for Broady ☝️
New Zealand are struggling here in Wellington… #NZvENG pic.twitter.com/lir4m1G5XB
— Cricket on BT Sport (@btsportcricket) February 25, 2023
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35th over: New Zealand 103-6 (Blundell 13, Bracewell 6) Bracewell sweeps Leach round the corner for four to take New Zealand into three figures.
34th over: New Zealand 98-6 (Blundell 13, Bracewell 1) Stuart Broad replaces James Anderson after tea. I’ll be with in a second, just as soon as I manage to force a compression sock onto my swollen foot.
A quiet over from Broad, two from it. The new batter Michael Bracewell is off the mark.
“I can’t help but notice how tired you are commentating in the early hours in England,” says Will Anderson. “As a Pom living in Australia, I’d be happy to stand in and pretend to be you. So you can catch up on some zzzzzs!”
Malkovich Malkovich Malkovich.
“I wonder what my contemporary Richard Hadlee might make of this?” says David Broadhurst. “That great all-rounder might not like the current scorecard. In any case, thanks to NZ for their commitment to cricket.”
On the subject of the great man, look at his performance against England in this game: 99 from 81 balls on a vile pitch, then match figures of 35-15-44-8.
Catch of the day
What on earth 🤯
This is 𝗨𝗡𝗕𝗘𝗟𝗜𝗘𝗩𝗔𝗕𝗟𝗘 from Ollie Pope 🔥
The perfect to finish the session! #NZvENG pic.twitter.com/hehHIe5UO0
— Cricket on BT Sport (@btsportcricket) February 25, 2023
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“In defence of my wrist-strap pedantry, Mitchell has a discrete sweat band on left wrist (not right) that he wears very close to a smaller glove strap,” says Brian Withington. “Although the latter is still a little too generous for my liking it nevertheless achieves the desirable goal of reducing the area that qualifies as glove. Also it is very distinctively differentiated by the use of a chequered black and white pattern to aid the discerning DRS reviewer in coming to a ‘not out’ decision.”
Interesting. I suppose it’s worth looking into. Didn’t somebody wear smaller pads so that the umpire would think the ball was hitting higher than it actually did when there was an LBW appeal?
Tea: New Zealand trail by 339 runs
33rd over: New Zealand 96-6 (Blundell 12) The perfect end to another dominant session from England, who picked up four top-order wickets for 84 runs. Will Young fell to a snorter from Jimmy Anderson, Tom Latham and Henry Nicholls both paid the ultimate price* for having the effrontery to reverse sweep Jack Leach, and Daryl Mitchell was snaffled memorably by Ollie Pope on the stroke of tea.
* Losing your wicket isn’t actually the ultimate price, is it. But that’s given me a helluvan idea to increase the appeal of five-day cricket. Who wouldn’t want to watch Squid Test?
WICKET! New Zealand 96-6 (Mitchell c Pope b Leach 13)
Ollie Pope takes a stunning catch on the stroke of tea. Mitchell pushed defensively at a ball that bounced enough to hit high on the bat, and Pope – who was almost on the pitch at silly point – thrust out his right hand to take a marvellous reaction catch. That was brilliant.
32nd over: New Zealand 94-5 (Mitchell 12, Blundell 11) The last ball of Anderson’s over is flicked crisply through midwicket for two by Mitchell. I thought that would be tea but it looks like there is time for another over from Jack Leach.
31st over: New Zealand 90-5 (Mitchell 9, Blundell 10) It’s a quiet spell, with New Zealand batting for tea – one more over after this – and Leach still trying to work out the best pace for this surface.
Here’s Brian Withington. “Returning to the 15th over and the splendid observation by the appropriately named Martin Saville about the proliferation of ‘ll’ in the NZ scorecard (he preambles breathlessly): prompted by a recent episode of University Challenge and a quick peek at Wiki, may I observe that the digraph
It’s 2.34am on a Saturday morning, and suddenly I feel a long way out of my depth.
30th over: New Zealand 89-5 (Mitchell 9, Blundell 9) Mitchell and Blundell made four century stands during the last English summer, usually when New Zealand were in a bit of bother, so England won’t feel like they have blown the innings open until they end this partnership. They’re still in a helluva position, mind, with a lead of 346 and an ocean of time in which to turn dominance into victory.
29th over: New Zealand 86-5 (Mitchell 8, Blundell 7) Mitchell, groping defensively, is beaten by a vicious delivery from Leach that turns and, more importantly, bounces prodigiously. Not bad for a day two pitch in New Zealand.
“Are there any stats on the number of times the reverse sweep is attempted against the number of dismissals it results in,” says Johnny Goodyear. “Suspect it is a (horribly) statistically dangerous option etc.”
It’s a copout, but it really does depend on the individual. For eg, if I’ve read the CricViz data correctly, AB de Villiers was 131 for nought on the reverse sweep in Test matches and Joe Root is 209 for three. At the other end of the scale, Henry Nicholls is 40 for three and Jos Buttler 73 for five.
28th over: New Zealand 84-5 (Mitchell 6, Blundell 7) After a fine spell of 7-4-4-0, Robinson gives way to Anderson. Blundell, who is batting outside his crease, drives stylishly through mid-off for four.
27th over: New Zealand 80-5 (Mitchell 6, Blundell 3) A maiden from Leach to Mitchell.
26th over: New Zealand 80-5 (Mitchell 6, Blundell 3) Blundell times Robinson through point for two. The TV commentators are praising Stokes, yet again, for his captaincy – it sounds like he deliberately left a huge gap at point which tempted both Latham and Nicholls into the reverse sweep.
“Latham’s dismissal once again makes me wonder why in an era of DRS that batting gloves still have such generous wrist straps,” says Brian Withington. “Surely better to sport a separate sweatband and a smaller glove strap? Some of us worry about these things when we’re not misidentifying bat makers …”
I’m all for marginal marginal gains, but I’m not sure my brain can process this at 2.13am on a Saturday morning. Would you be able to have a separate band? Doesn’t it help protect the wrist?
25th over: New Zealand 78-5 (Mitchell 6, Blundell 1) Nicholls played really well, making 30 from 38 balls, and he’ll probably wonder whether there was any need for such funky stuff. Then again, modern batters don’t really see the reverse sweep as unorthodox.
The new batter Blundell is beaten by a ball from Leach that grips and bounces sharply outside off.
WICKET! New Zealand 77-5 (Nicholls c Pope b Leach 30)
Another reverse-sweep, another soft dismissal. Nicholls gloved it onto the arm, and Pope reacted superbly at short leg to take a one-handed catch to his left.
It's that man again 🤩
Leachy with another breakthrough after Ollie Pope's fantastic reactions 🔥
Henry Nicholls is gone for 30… #NZvENG pic.twitter.com/n8cTfDfIQd
— Cricket on BT Sport (@btsportcricket) February 25, 2023
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24th over: New Zealand 77-4 (Nicholls 30, Mitchell 6) Of those who have scored at least 500 Test runs against England, only Don Bradman and Stewie Dempster have a higher average than Mitchell’s 85. It almost drops to 76 when he chases a wide one from Robinson and is beaten. The next ball jags back extravagantly to hit Mitchell high on the pad. This is a classic interrogation from Robinson
23rd over: New Zealand 75-4 (Nicholls 30, Mitchell 4) Nicholls sweeps Leach firmly behind square for four, a shot so rewarding that he repeats it later in the over. Fine batting from Nicholls, who has quietly raced to 30 from 36 balls.
Meanwhile, I see Will Young is trending, but I don’t think it’s because he nicked a jffa from Jimmy Anderson earlier in the day.