England’s captain lives up to his cliche against New Zealand but cricket remains a secret party in apathetic NottinghamIn Gedling, an unnamed resident was awarded £100 in compensation by the council over missed garden waste collections. There was dismay in Bulwell at the announcement that the local branch of Boots would be closing in August. Meanwhile, a furious mother from Huthwaite accused Thorpe Park of “ruining” a family holiday by banning her from its Stealth ride on account of the fact that she only has one arm. “Having to get off the ride was very degrading,” said Lisa Johnstone, “and made my son nervous.”Clearly, a busy news day in Nottingham. Perhaps it was hardly surprising, given everything else going on...
Ben Foakes and Joe Root excelled in the Lord’s win that provided plenty of talking points besides the hefty price of ticketsAfter slipping in his socks in the Oval dressing room last summer and ruling himself out for three months with a torn left hamstring, Ben Foakes might have been forgiven for thinking a prolonged Test career was not to be. Over the course of three-and-a-half years, before last Thursday, he had played just 11 Tests, all of them abroad, as England threw the gloves between Jos Buttler and Jonny Bairstow like an undecided suitor. But at Lord’s, Foakes finally got to play a Test at home, and he was quietly excellent. He let just one bye whistle past, organised...
After three days of absurdist back and forth, the first Test ended with England calmly and efficiently knocking off the runsWhen the Jubilee Line tube is within a few stops of St John’s Wood on a Lord’s weekend, there tends to be some indistinguishable moment the personnel completely changes. Should you drift into your phone for a fraction too long you might then look back up and the general public throng will have been replaced by men in tailored suits, one arm holding on to the rails, staring each other square in the eyes, networking intent lurking underneath the gleam. This year New Zealand fans are there too, in 20‑year‑old Black Cap shirts as a sign they come in peace,...
The former captain can now concentrate on his batting and he produced the most enjoyable of his 26 centuries for EnglandThe rain was hard enough to wake the sleeping on Sunday morning, and it was easy to imagine the players were up early to check the weather. It looked a good day for bowling – damp, dark and overcast, as if the English summer had got lost somewhere in the west after sunset the previous evening and was still trying to find its way back around to the ground. Tim Southee and Trent Boult, who have played a lot of cricket here in the past 14 years, knew that conditions don’t get much better for men in their line of...
The towering bowler’s almost mythic qualities will be a major hurdle for England to negotiate if they are to win at Lord’sIt was around a quarter to five, with Joe Root and Ben Stokes settling in and nerves just beginning to jangle, that Nasser Hussain on Sky Sports urged New Zealand to bring Kyle Jamieson back into the attack. Alas, on this occasion his timing was slightly unfortunate. For as the camera homed in on Jamieson at long-leg, the giant fast bowler was just in the process of stifling a large yawn.You couldn’t blame him, really. For one thing, he had already put in quite the shift earlier in the afternoon: eight back-breaking overs that had ripped out England’s top...