Crawley plays tip and run to cover then Duckett thumps the ball off the back foot uppishly close to mid-on. Prasidh tries to get there but it falls to earth before he could conceivably catch it and yorks him to go for four. India contend Duckett has knocked the ball out of shape but it goes through the rings straight after that delivery and again two balls later when they ask the question again.
Maiden for Bumrah to Duckett, mixing up his lengths. Duckett takes on the opportunity to cut but doesn’t cover the movement sufficiently and the ball clips the cue-end, hits the deck then carroms to slip. Chalk, please!
Yorkshire switch the lights on. In the words of my Indian father who spent 52 years in the West Riding: ‘It’s like Diwali in here. Do you think I’m made of brass?’
The weather looks fine at the moment. It is cloudy, breezy and cold, so a normal summer’s day in Leeds. Stands are filling up. It is £20 for adults and £5 for kids so good value. In the first summer of Bazball, grounds offered free entry but counties found that people snapped up tickets online and then didn’t show up forcing them to turn away people at the gate who could see the ground was half full.
Siraj’s turn to send down a peach, using wobble seam to get the ball to jag through Crawley’s gate on the drive, whistle past the inside edge and the top of off. Crawley moves his guard a foot further forward. Lots of noise from the fielders. They’re a young side and seem a happy, supportive gang. In the last series in India 18 months ago, one always got the feeling that Rohit could be a bit headmasterly with the younger players, showing his exasperation in face and gesture.
Siraj nips another back in at the end of the over, pinning Crawley on the top of the three cross-fingers of the knee roll. Crawley’s height kept Chris Gaffaney’s index finger holstered.
Please spare a thought for Dilip Doshi, the Indian left-arm spinner who has died. He was the gentlest of men – a Jain by religion – and gentle of pace, a flight bowler, who took 114 Test wickets. In 1980 he not only took 101 first-class wickets for Warwickshire – a spinner taking a hundred wickets in an English season! – he also helped them to the Sunday League title. A very successful businessman too but he never flaunted it, except for a fine suit, or his cricket achievements.
After taking a single to mid-on off the last ball of Siraj’s over, Crawley now faces Bumrah for the first time and he watches a shooter that was fortunately to wide to hurt him go by. It does hurt Pant, though, as it hits him on the end of a finger as he tries to scoop the ball up. Pant, the ICC has ruled this morning, has been given a demerit point for his show of dissent on Sunday when chucking the ball into the ground after the umpires refused to change it.
Crawley square drives Bumrah for three and Duckett picks the inswinger and turns it with the movement through square leg for a single.
Steady start today. The ball has misbehaved a bit from the Kirkstall Lane End, but the good news for England is that it’s all been a bit far outside the right-hander’s off stump, so far.
Crawley opens the face to drive Siraj who is troubled by the gale as he fulfils the second best quick’s eternal, infernal duty of ‘uphill into the wind’. He doesn’t commit to the stroke and it slides off the face for two through point.
After a couple of cautious, conservative pushes and pokes, Crawley dances down and has a might wipe across the line, looking for cow corner. I would say he’s obviously watching Pant but that’s not the case with Zachary Quack, he can have a rush of blood and launch a solo counter-attack at any moment.
The heavy roller cannot neuter Bumrah who pulls another jaffa out of the bag to Duckett. Perfect length from round the wicket then ragging off the upright seam to screech past the edge. His pace is good, breaching 89mph now. Duckett is concentrating diligently, defending well, looking to hit anything fullish on middle through midwicket but reining back the power so as not to chip the ball with his bottom hand or close the face too soon. Maiden.
Siraj starts proceedings from the Football Stand End where Ravid Jadeja will get through plenty of work today. Crawley gets off strike firts ball with a thick inside edge, squirting to square leg as he jabs his bat down on a near-yorker outside off.
Ravi Sahstri informs us that Dilip Doshi was a great friend of Sir Mick Jagger. There’s a book in that.
Duckett gets up on his toes to steer a shorter one from Siraj through point for a single.
Because there’s so many fewer people in the ground, you can hear things out in the middle quite clearly. And after those first two balls, India’s fielders are very chatty.
Now the trumpeter plays his version of Jerusalem. Bumrah starts round the wicket to Duckett, fast and full and he plays with soft hands, blocking and nudging until Bumrah pulls his length back and Duckett punches it through the covers for four off the back foot. Lovely shot.
Michael Atherton, with the help of Sky’s stats wiz Benedict Bermange, says that no side that has scored five individual centuries has ever lost a Test before.
Goodness me! Bumrah pulls out an absolute ripper, a fast off-break that angles in to Duckett, squaring him up and then jagging a good six inches to beat the edge. It moved so violently that the bowler is certain Duckett edged it but there was actually a big gap. Too good for thee, me and Bradman.
Jasprit Bumrah is at the top of his mark at the halfway up the hill at the Kirkstall Lane End. Ben Duckett on strike.
And observing a minute’s silence for DR Doshi.
Now comes Jerusalem over the Tannoy.
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England vs India, first Test day five live: Score and latest updates from Headingley – The Telegraph
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