England v West Indies: second Test, day four – live | England v West Indies 2024

68th over: England 327-3 (Root 75, Brook 108) Sinclair whirls away and England tick along serenely, five runs off the over with a minimum of fuss from the two Yorkshiremen.

67th over: England 322-3 (Root 72, Brook 106) Joe Root purring towards three figures, collecting eight runs off Jason Holder on both sides of the wicket.

66th over: England 314-3 (Root 64, Brook 106) Time for spin as the somersaulting Kevin Sinclair comes on to bowl. Root and Brook work into the gaps to keep the scoreboard ticking. Snap! Brooks cracks the wrists under a full ball and slots it in-to-out over the infield for a remarkable four. Some shot that, eleven runs off the over. West Indies need to break this partnership if they are to keep a foothold in this game. Well durrrr…

65th over: England 303-3 (Root 58, Brook 101) Holder gets a ball to jag and lift under newly cloudy skies in Nottingham. He likes what he sees and moves another slip into position.

“He was the future once” David Cameron said of Tony Blair at PMQs back in the day. Putting their politics aside (I don’t care for either of them), I wonder if Root feels a bit Blair batting with Brook these days…”

I was thinking along similar lines, James Walsh*. Though I reckon these two will be batting together for England for a good few years yet.

*Was just trying to think up a witty line to do with the Blair/Brown Granita pact but failed miserably. Gray Nicolls pact? Root uses a New Balance? Oh forget it.

64th over: England 300-3 (Root 55, Brook 101) The only time Brook looks slightly vulnerable is against the short ball. He occasionally gets caught in two minds and can end up having a bit of a flap. Alzarri Joseph slams one into the middle of the pitch and causes a bit of indecision from Brook, the ball flying past the keeper too, resulting four byes. 300 up for England, the lead is 259 and it is time for a drink.

63rd over: England 293-3 (Root 53, Brook 100) Root tickles a single off Jason Holder. Brook’s ton came off just 118 balls with 12 fours. TMS’ Andy Zaltzman chimes up to say that this is just Brook’s 14th Test match and only five previous England players have scored five hundreds within their first 14 Tests, most recently Andrew Strauss.

This has just given my melon a twist though:

62nd over: England 292-3 (Root 52, Brook 100) Root clips a couple through square leg to go to a fifty of his own – his 63rd in Test cricket. Remarkable, and he’s got Brian Charles Lara in his sights:

Century for Harry Brook!

61st over: England 288-3 (Root 49, Brook 99) The ball has gone out of shape for the umpteenth time and is going to be changed. That switcheroo did for Ollie Pope yesterday but Root has a good look at the new orb, playing out a patient maiden from Jason Holder.

60th over: England 288-3 (Root 49, Brook 99) Brook has played this open faced glide shot particularly well in this innings. He does it again off Alzarri Joseph with something approaching nonchalance to go to 99.

59th over: England 284-3 (Root 49, Brook 95) Three more singles to England, the lead up to 243 with no alarms and no surprises so far this morning.

Guy Hornsby is mellow, man.

“I’m absolutely with Martin (over 54) and the mellowing over time. I was never the most parochial England fan but it was easier to wish opponents I’ll when you didn’t know anything about them. It also helped that the first Aussie side I was the late 80s larrikin top 6 that no Englishman could love. While franchise cricket looms over all, it’s also meant players know each other, and we see much more of them on social media and the likes of the brilliant The Test, where the opponents are likeable, real people. And getting to know so many other fans of cricket of all stripes along the way (hat tip to the Final Word podcast for that, and all its wonderful nerds) means I appreciate a much wider cricketing world, players, teams and all watching the game is much less stressful and more delightful. It’s all good place to be, and makes me wish West Indies make a game of this.”

58th over: England 281-3 (Root 47, Brook 93) A chip down the ground for four sees Harry Brook enter the 90s…

57th over: England 275-3 (Root 47, Brook 88) Shamar Joseph surprises Root with a well directed short ball, the batter getting into a bit of a tangle as the ball whooshes past his grille. A couple of singles takes the England lead to 234 runs. A few of you in touch about what might be a decent target or carrot to dangle for Stokes and co if it gets to declaration time. I think they’d want a target of 380/400 runs minimum and maybe even more than that. The pitch still looks good and the ball skims to the boundary once the infield is beaten. Trent Bridge of course was the scene of one of BazBall’s finest moments so far:

56th over: England 272-3 (Root 45, Brook 87) Cowabunga! Brook plays a contender for shot of the day before 11:30! A drive down the ground on the up off Jayden Seales. The ball whistling back past the bowler and thudding into the advertising hoardings. Brook is thirteen runs away from a maiden century on home soil.

55th over: England 265-3 (Root 42, Brook 83) Root opens the face to glide a boundary down past point and both batters pinch a single to add a couple more onto the lead.

54th over: England 259-3 (Root 37, Brook 82) Harry Brook taps a single to bring Joe Root on strike for the first time this morning. Root defends back towards Seales with a full blade and then shoulders arms to a wide-ish length ball to end the over.

“One of the great consolations of ageing I have found” emails Martin O’Donovan-Wright, “Is that even as an England supporter I am happier with a genuine contest than a facile victory, even if such a contest should end in English defeat. In that vein, I’d like England to add no more than about a 100 or so runs this morning, leaving WI a target of approximately 320, which i think would be optimum for a balanced scrap for the spoils. As Galeano said about football, “I give thanks for the miracle, and I don’t give a damn which team or country performs it.” (Unless we’re playing Australia, natch.)

53rd over: England 258-3 (Root 37, Brook 81) Brook really does look in good touch. Positive in both attack and defence. Yesterday’s terracotta terroriser – Shamar Joseph – glides to the crease and bowls full, targeting the stumps and front pad. A muted appeal as a full one thunks into Brook’s ankle but he was well outside the line. A flick off the pad brings Brook two runs and he pinches the strike from Root with a single off the last ball.

“Good morning James, here’s what I would like today: I’d like Harry Brook to ease his way to a delicious 130 odd, not out, while an entertaining clatter of wickets at the other end take the declaration question off the table. A lead of 340 sets up a cracking finale which the West Indies get the better of some time tomorrow afternoon, thereby setting up a belter for next week. Please and thank you.”

You aren’t the only one David Horn…

52nd over: England 255-3 (Root 37, Brook 78) The players spill out onto the pitch in bright sunshine. Jayden Seals has ball and bustles in to bowl at Harry Brook. The cameraman pans to Zak Crawley on the England balcony tucking into a Sunday morning bacon sarnie. Wonder how many times he’s thought about his dismissal yesterday? Evidently consoling himself with some fried pig.

Brook opens the face to guide nicely for two runs, England are off and running on day four. Shot! Brook follows up with an imperious cover drive for four. Hold the pose, lad.

I can see James Anderson prowling around the outfield with his bowling mitt. It still feels very weird to me.

Forgive the shameless pluggery but I just wrote something about Jimmy’s farewell that also served as a paean to my favourite band. There’s about ten minutes before we get going if you want a bit of misty eyed musing to go with your morning coffee.

“Memorise the bathwater, memorise the air
There’ll come a time I’ll want to know I was here
Names on the doorframes, inches and ages
Handprints in concrete, at the softest stages”

Most days during my daughter’s bath time I think of the above lines, tapping as they do into a particular kind of parental melancholy but also the more universal sense of time slipping by, sometimes unappreciated, and of trying to live in the moment.

The title of that song popped into my head last week at Lord’s. It’s called ‘Weird Goodbyes’. It was wasn’t it? There was a sort of awkward pageantry about Jimmy Anderson’s final Test, a prolonged farewell in a one-sided contest that you sensed the man himself was at odds with.”

Bright skies with a bit of mottled cloud at Trent Bridge. It looks a picture. There are ten pound tickets available for Day Five (tomorrow) which could well be a snip if today follows the same pattern as the previous three. A couple of early wickets would certainly put the hen ‘mongst the chickens.

Simon Dennis has come up trumps with the TMS overseas link:

https://m.youtube.com/live/_A0jIm5YZag?cbrd=1

Catch up on yesterday’s action with Ali Martin and Simon Burnton:

Preamble

James Wallace