creeeeeeeekeeeeeet

[Worthy4England]

Won the toss, elected to bat, so I guess we won't see the new, new bowling lineup until maybe after tea. Would be good to set a decent total this one. Nothing wrong overall with 1st test batting, albeit a couple of fails on the way.

[TANGODANCER]

Crawley a magnificent duck..Great.

[Worthy4England]

Yeah. Wouldn't want Root coming in after 30 overs or owt daft. He wouldn't know how to bat in that situation! It does seem that Crawley is an all or nowt. 0.0.0.258.0 etc. Average 50. He's had 35 innings or so and hit 50% of his test runs in 4 of them...

[TANGODANCER]

137-2 at this moment is a tidy start. Joe Root on 81 not out once again playing a captain's role.

Edit. Now 225-22 . Root on 116 not out. Keep it going lads.

[Worthy4England]

Another good knock from Joe and good second violin front Lawrence. Pity to lose Lawrence just short at the end, but handy position to get to 300 tomorrow!

[Worthy4England]

Decent morning. Stokes joined the party. Best start we've had for a while.

[TANGODANCER]

369-3 right now. Good stuff. Need our bowlers to be on song too.

[TANGODANCER]

400 on the board, Ben Stokes with a century, Jonny Bairstowe ticking along nicely. Well done lads...

[Worthy4England]

Aye - good to see Stokes back in amongst the runs.

[TANGODANCER]

431-6. All six wickets by different bowlers.

[TANGODANCER]

431-6. All six wickets by different bowlers.

482-6. Where are you thinking Joe will declare?

[Worthy4England]

431-6. All six wickets by different bowlers.

482-6. Where are you thinking Joe will declare?

Looked like he was looking for 500+ and so it turned out. Give credit to our batting, but there were very nearly 3 x 100's on our innings, which suggests there's not many demons in the pitch.

[TANGODANCER]

Bowlers not faring as well as the batters. 188-3 W.I. and looking solid in reply.

[nicholaldo]

Rory Burns must be sick. Three test series in a row against the three best Test teams in the world and then he gets dropped while his replacements bat on roads.

[Worthy4England]

Rory Burns must be sick. Three test series in a row against the three best Test teams in the world and then he gets dropped while his replacements bat on roads.

Agree with the sentiment. But he averaged 13 v Aus. Whichever angle you want to come from, you can understand us having a look. He didn't manage average of >30 last time he was in WI.

[Prufrock]

And the two openers have each had 2 scores out of 3 so far under 10. Rory has shown enough to think he might have made that 3/3.

[Worthy4England]

And the two openers have each had 2 scores out of 3 so far under 10. Rory has shown enough to think he might have made that 3/3.

Happy to give Lees a bit more time. After the last three series, just trying to take some shine off the ball is a start. Crawley is too inconsistent. Big 100 followed by 5 ducks isn't a test opener. But I get why they're persisting with him, because when he's on song, he can clearly bat. Just doesn't happen often enough.

[Bruce Rioja]

Rory Burns must be sick.

Not half as sick as we are of him.

[nicholaldo]

Well in, Saqib Mahmood. Off the mark at last.

[Worthy4England]

Well in, Saqib Mahmood. Off the mark at last.

We're probably going to need 400 in the second to ensure a draw!