The highest part of the ground offers a vantage point that reveals both less and more as England and India battle it out There’s a long view from the top of the Edrich stand, these days. Make the mountainous climb to the new highest point of the Lord’s ground, and you can see out over blocks of flats, past London’s southwestern sprawl, all the way past the river. The green ridge of a wooded hill rises from the horizon like a mirage – that can’t, surely, be Richmond? – and gives you the sense that you’ve discovered your own private periscope above the crowded city.Kumar Sangakkara, MCC’s current president, officially opened the new Compton and Edrich stands on the first...
Both Indian openers showed grit and talent against a home attack that, James Anderson aside, looked largely disorientatedRohit Sharma arrived in Australia a week before Christmas and immediately went into 14 days of hard quarantine. Marooned in his Sydney apartment while his teammates were playing in Melbourne, once he had completed his daily regimen of exercise there was little to be done except to watch television and think. So that was what he did. As his teammates battled hard against the Australian pace attack of Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc, Sharma watched intently, hour upon hour, working out their methods, working out his own.The Sharma who finally emerged from quarantine was a smarter, more circumspect, more thorough batsman...
The tourists’ selection gambit at Trent Bridge paid off and put down a marker for Lord’s – they will know they have a combination that worksIndia are notoriously slow starters in Test series and when the first ball was bowled at Trent Bridge it was easy to assume this would again be the case. Most of the players may have been in the UK since the start of June but they have seen very little action since the World Test Championship final – some travelled, some took breaks from the grind in parks and restaurants and football matches – and with only one practice game, they should have been rusty. Except, they were switched on.England were even more underprepared than...
The first match may have ended in a soggy draw but the sides generated enough excitement to suggest this series will provide a welcome advert for Test cricketThe batsman hit the bowler straight back over his head, a sweetly timed, powerfully struck shot that surely ranked among the biggest seen in these conditions. We’ll never know how far it might have travelled – a six surely, but into the stands or out of the stadium? – because of the wall in the way. As it was, the ball bounced off brick and into the outstretched hand of the fielder standing in a position that somehow combined silly-mid-off with long-off. One hand one bounce. The batter was gone.It was the best...
The forecasted deluge of rain never came, and England overcame a sticky start to put on a show worth savouring The forecast had said it was going to rain. Had insisted, in fact, with the stubborn assurance of the friend who tells you that the last train definitely doesn’t leave till midnight. At stumps on day three it confidently predicted conditions that would keep the players in their dressing rooms for most of the day. By morning it revised its estimate to a major downpour at lunchtime. Related: Fine Root century gives England hope as India chase 209 for victory Continue reading...