Indeed - I just said to a friend on facebook "when was the last time two innings were completed on the first day"I'm trying to hold off my optimism until England have batted a few dozen overs. If we bat as badly as we did at Lord's we could be bowling again before the close of play!

On the subject of which Tom Westley, of Essex, scored a virtual run a ball 108 today, admittedly not in the four day format.We're already more than a third of the way to their total for the loss of Lyth who appears to be a dead man walking at the minute despite looking a world beater in the county game. His best hope may well be a lack of other openers knocking on the door by scoring heavily at county level. Shame he is struggling as when on form he is really good to watch and can be very destructive.




Bat as much of tomorrow as possible, and just build whatever lead we can, there's no rush. If we can make 400 we're in a strong position, regardless we'll still need another excellent bowling display.
I'm hoping Root and Bairstow will be able to bat 'proper' test innings and leave the swashbuckling and massive lead-building to Stokes, Buttler and Ali.I have a horrible feeling that we will throw this match away. My concern is that we have a middle order more suited to 50 0ver type cricket and have not got the concentration and discipline to bat for hours.


I thought this morning that we'd need 350 to turn the screw, pretty sure I'd snap their hand off if offered 300 now!