Cricket

Joe Root is looking like, well, Joe Root!

Eng 227-6 with Root on 76.
If he can turn this into a century with this tail,
that will be one of his more accomplished tons.

Please Joe. I beg you.

Roooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooot

Yesssssss!

Woke up at 6.20, looked at the score and thought: "Well, that's that match gone." Extraordinary turnaround. To lose just two wickets in the second two sessions was an exceptional performance. And I know people won't like this, but it was done with applied, patient, sensible batting; not souped-up T20 stuff.

Pitch appears to have calmed down a lot, though, which is a little worrying. But at lunch, I'd have taken 250 all out, so having those extra runs on the board may prove crucial.

Incredible first day. Might watch the whole of it 'as live' this afternoon.

I don't think the pitch is going to get any easier to bat on - if they can get to around 350 I'd say that's a very good score

I hope you're right, but it definitely calmed down after lunch. It shouldn't get easier and you'd think those visible cracks in it are only going to get worse as they're exposed to more sunlight/heat. I reckon we've already got a decent score and anything above 330 will be a bonus. Just got to hope our bowlers can put it in the right spot often enough.

Feeling relaxed whilst watching England bat in India?

A pleasant and unusual experience.

Nice.

Followed by 5 mins of fairly stupid cricket. Ah.

My apologies for the jinx.

Jimmy!

Bit good this Jaiswal fella isn't he?

Yes Bash

Bash Bash Bash

BASHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

wow - bash!

Beaut of a catch by Joe Root in the slip.

I don't want to say it, but we'll have to work pretty fucking hard to lose this game from here.

#futureburn

This is glorious

Thank God

Wish I'd gone for the lie in this morning!

Hey ho.

It's ..... poised.

Let's go.

Double duck for Pope.

FFS

Also, why do batsmen review jaffas like that? It's so selfish for the team.

Brutal timing by Duckett

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