DAY 1 Wednesday 24 July: CAPITALISING ON THE WORLD CUP
So … normal service. This game is not being shown on terrestrial TV which is probably just as well because unless you were wearing a green shirt with a shamrock on it it wasn’t the greatest advert for cricket. England looked and played like a B team. Stokes and Buttler were having a rest, Wood and Jimmy are unfit and Archer is somewhere between Barbados and Heathrow. The good thing was that Jason Roy was making his Test debut. Ollie Stone got his reward for carrying the drinks round Sri Lanka which disappointed Somerset supporters who would have like to have seen Lewis Gregory on the scoresheet.
The new normal was the weather which reached 30o. That wasn’t too bad for me because I was high in the Edrich stand under the press box in the shade with a refreshing breeze but Irish and his brother, John, flown over from Belfast for the event, were in the open and baking and required copious bottles of Sauvignon blanc to keep their liquids up. For the first time for a long time, perhaps ever, I arrived at the ground in my full away strip of shorts and bright shirt, which was helpful because Posh Margaret picked me out right away. The ground was pretty much full with plenty of Irish, mainly wearing the Irish rugby strip.
Root won the toss and batted. The guy next to me who had a radio in his ear asked if I wanted a useless piece of information: the Ireland team have played more games at Lord’s than the England boys, due, no doubt, to the number of Middlesex players in their side. The value of this gem was to become apparent in the course of the next 23.4 overs.
Out marched the two Old Whitgiftians – I am an alumnus. Normal service: Roy followed a beauty from Murtagh which moved massively off the seam and was caught behind for 5. By the time he finished his first spell of 7 overs, Murtagh had used all his knowledge of the slope and took five wickets. Were England out to bad shots? I don’t think so. May be Bairstow driving down the wrong line but mainly it was due to disciplined line and length from Murtagh. As national humiliations go being bundled out for 85 before lunch was probably overshadowed by events unfolding at Westminster but, still, it was no pleasure to have to meet a jubilant Irish at lunch.
Three rapid pints at lunch with Irish plus the heat made my afternoon rather soporific so my memory is confined to the moments when I managed to lift my head from my chest. Normal service was resumed when Broad bowled … too wide, too many balls that could be left, too many loopy bouncers. Stone, though, was quick – in the nineties – and Sam Curran was his usual aggressive self with the contorted face. Ireland weren’t going to crumble in the way England had, though at 45-2 there was hope. But a good partnership of 86 between Stirling and Balbirnie made sure that Ireland had a substantial lead. In the end they crashed through 200 and finished, at 6.45pm, on 207 and a lead of 122.
England had one over. Jack Leach’s main contribution after 3 expensive overs was to come out with Rory Burns as nightwatchman and survive an over from Murtagh.
The predominant feeling of everyone was ‘what will Starc and Cummins do to us?’ Credit to the Irish – we certainly won’t be needing 5 days to get a finish!
DAY 2 Thursday 25 July: ENGLAND’S NEW OPENER
Our seats in the Grandstand were under cover … relief. Steve joined me, hot foot from the Russian embassy where he was sorting out his visa. Irish and brother John weren’t far away and nor was Katy. Plenty of conviviality therefore at lunch and tea. Irish told me that he’d heard that Leach was the first England player to have batted number eleven and opened on the same day since 1890. He almost the first to have done that and the first nightwatchman to score a ton. Rory Burns prodded and poked for another innings of 6. Sitting square of the wicket his weird crouching stance peering round like a crab was very obvious. It reminded me of Morgs in his last Test in Dubai when he too seemed to be doing knee exercises. Roy came in and it was not long before he was smashing fours and sixes round the ground. Meanwhile, Jack Leach kept ahead of him and batted like an opener. Belying his county average of 10 he defended with a straight bat, left judiciously and even drove very sweetly. Messages from Somerset friends were raining in: “Leach to open for England!” ‘Twas not to be. Roy was bowled having a heave at Thompson and a tired looking Leach have been dropped twice, once in the 70s and again in the 90s was out eventually for 92. The crowd rose in appreciation.
There was a ghastly run out of poor Denley – Root looked distraught. Murtagh was pretty ineffective today and seemed easy to play. Bairstow bagged a pair, Root got a few but it was left to Curran to belt 37 to help England to get up 290.
Broad and Stone were batting when bizarrely a very edgy Alim Dar took them off for thunder and lightning. At 303-9 England’s lead of 181 looks shaky but the bookies make them 9/4 on to win. I’m not so sure. Whatever happens, tomorrow will be interesting.
DAY 3 Friday 26 July: BUNDLED OUT FOR 38
There was a brief delay for rain but mercifully again, this time in the Mound stand, we were under cover. When play resumed England’s innings lasted one bowl. Thomson took out Stone’s off stump. 182 to win looked distinctly do-able. After another rain delay we settled down for what we thought would be a tight finish. Alas that didn’t happen. From the start Porterfield was playing as if they only had 20 overs to chase that down when actually they had two days. It came as no surprise when he drove loosely and was caught behind off Woakes. So it went on. Broad from the Pavillion end and Woakes from the Nursery end bowled tight lines and Ireland played a series of rash shots. After 15.4 overs it was job done. Woakes took 6 wickets and Broad 4. A win’s a win but it was a disappointing end.
The man of the match? The spinner who bowled 3 overs for 26 runs!
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