Key events
58th over: England 328-1 (Crawley 104, Pope 71) Crawley has been the junior partner in both these partnerships, unusually for him, but now he lets go and plays a reverse sweep off Raza, which goes for three.
Here’s Will Vignoles, picking up on the interesting line taken by David Reynolds (15:55 below). “Can’t help thinking,” Will says, “that were England to do as David Reynolds suggested, the response would be to castigate them for not showing the sort of ruthlessness that the best teams demonstrate when faced with limited opposition. What are they supposed to do, not hit bad balls for four? That seems like a perfect way to get yourself in a tangle to me.
“Anyway, it’s lovely to have Test cricket back and thanks as ever for the OBO!” Our pleasure.
57th over: England 322-1 (Crawley 100, Pope 69) Pope gives Crawley a hug and then gets on with trying to upstage him, flicking the very next ball from Nyauchi for a nonchalant six.
A hundred to Crawley!
And he gets there with a leading edge as a push to mid-on ends up popping into the covers. Fortune favours the cautious. It’s been a careful innings, understandably, as Crawley has been in awful form for England (barely a run in New Zealand) and Kent (not many more). It has come off 145 balls with 12 fours, some of them sumptuous.
56th over: England 313-1 (Crawley 99, Pope 61) Sikandar Raza, our man with the plug, shoves it in again. Just a single to each batter.
55th over: England 311-1 (Crawley 98, Pope 60) No change at the other end either, so poor old Nyauchi has to carry on trundling in while digesting his cucumber sandwiches. It doesn’t go well. Pope greets him with two savage blows, an upper cut and a flat pull, and then Crawley plays a lordly cover drive, as if facing the first ball of a series from Pat Cummins.
54th over: England 298-1 (Crawley 94, Pope 51) Raza continues after getting the plug in before tea. Pope clips him into the leg side to reach 50 for the 23rd time in 56 Tests. It took him just 48 balls: he set off like a rocket before slowing down, as so often happens, even in this free-scoring era.
The players are out there, and so is the sun.
“As a former Harare resident,” says Mark Hooper, “I hope the Zimbabweans don’t get too disheartened by this. A few moments of great fielding (and some great takes by Tafadzwa Tsiga) feel like small comfort at the moment…”
And here’s a lateral thought. “Wouldn’t this be a good time,” wonders David Reynolds, “for England to practise, hone – and in some cases learn for the first time – the skill of batting patiently for five, six session of a Test match, rather than sadistically emphasise what we already know, which is their dreary ability when possible of bludgeoning the opposition (one is reminded of an unseemly absence of self-restraint in Amstelveen). What is the benefit of building up this first innings total so quickly? Take the time available.”
Point taken, but wouldn’t that be drearier still?
“British Embassy staff in Harare following this one carefully,” says Peter Thomas, “with some conflicted loyalties… will it even last four days? Our ambo in the crowd today.” Love it. Hope the ambo is enjoying the ambience.
“Fairly leisurely progress for England on a comfortable May afternoon in Nottingham,” says Rob Lewis. “Here in Turkey, we are feeling comfy as there hasn’t been an earthquake today. We were rocked in our beds a couple of nights ago, but it was only a 4.0 on the whatever the new scale is called. So it didn’t even trouble the scorers.”
We’ve got mail! “Hi Tim,” says Gareth Wilson. “Re 5 dot balls making a maiden… given that feels very Hundred-y, may I suggest it should be called a KP Nuts ShutOut?” Ha.
Tea: England cruising again
53rd over: England 295-1 (Crawley 93, Pope 49) Nyauchi strays onto Pope’s hip, handing him a freebie which he’s not in the mood to miss out on. Crawley, after taking a few overs off, comes back to the party with an airy cut for two. The pair of them walk off chatting and smiling, the friendliest of rivals.
And that’s tea, with England cruising again after losing Duckett.
52nd over: England 287-1 (Crawley 90, Pope 44) Raza drops short to Pope, who cashes in with a cut for four. The partnership is already 56.
51st over: England 283-1 (Crawley 90, Pope 40) Nyauchi is bustling in as if he hasn’t even noticed the scoreboard. And he bowls five dots! In the circumstances, that should count as a maiden.
50th over: England 282-1 (Crawley 90, Pope 39) A false shot! Well, half-false. Pope plays a paddle and finds the ball from Raza bouncing more than he expected. There’s a top edge but it lands safely on the parched brown outfield.
49th over: England 279-1 (Crawley 90, Pope 36) Ervine gives Muzarabani a breather and brings back Victor Nyauchi, the only seamer on the right side of five an over. He’s done it by bowling outside off with a bit of inswing and he sticks with that plan now, going for just four singles.
If you’ve never written into the OBO, now would be a good time.
48th over: England 275-1 (Crawley 88, Pope 34) Raza does it again, restricting these two to a single apiece. After going for 4.44 an over, he is now the thriftiest bowler of the day.
47th over: England 273-1 (Crawley 87, Pope 33) Muzarabani continues, toiling away on a day when no seamer has yet taken a wicket. Crawley, sensing that it’s been too long since we had a boundary, produces a front-foot pull that is somewhere between dismissive and regal.
46th over: England 266-1 (Crawley 82, Pope 31) Craig Ervine decides that Wessly Madhevere has done his job, so he comes off with the unusual analysis of 2-0-22-1. The move works as Sikandar Raza, bowling round-arm, restores order. Just two singles off the over.
45th over: England 264-1 (Crawley 81, Pope 30) Pope switches to the front foot to drive Muzarabani through the covers, his hands as quick as his feet. And then he gets a bouncer, jumps back and flashes it over the slips for four more.
The run rate in the last ten overs has been 8.3. We need to see the look on Geoffrey Boycott’s face.
44th over: England 255-1 (Crawley 80, Pope 22) Pope stays in the fast lane, cutting Madhevere for four. I’m getting the impression that in the three hours Pope spent waiting to bat, Stokes and McCullum were muttering about the run rate being too slow.
43rd over: England 248-1 (Crawley 78, Pope 17) This could be a showdown between Crawley and Pope for one place in the next Test, with Jacob Bethell expected to return. And Pope is rising to the challenge. He helps himself to two fours and two twos off this over from Muzarabani and races to 17 off nine balls, as if hell-bent on catching Crawley up before tea.
Thanks Rob and afternoon everyone. Game on!
Time for me to hand over to the great Tim de Lisle for the rest of the day. Thanks as always for your company, ta-ra.
41st over: England 236-1 (Crawley 78, Pope 5) The new batter Ollie Pope survives a pretty big LBW appeal first ball. It was missing leg but for a few seconds but his heartbeat must have been a drum-and-bass track. He gets off the mark with a crisp boundary through point next ball.
WICKET! England 231-1 (Duckett c Curran b Madhevere 140)
The offspinner Wessly Madhevere strikes in his first over! Duckett smashed his first two balls for four and six, and was targeting plenty more when he slapped the next delivery straight to Ben Curran at cover. Duckett is frustrated with himself but walks off to a fine ovation from his home crowd. He played a joyful innings: 140 from 134 balls with 20 fours and two sixes.
41st over: England 221-0 (Crawley 78, Duckett 130) The longer this opening partnership goes on, the trickier things get for Ollie Pope – not just because of Crawley’s runs, but because England may want to declare tonight and that would mean starting his innings in fourth gear. Pope is a selfless cricketer, probably to a fault, so there’s no chance he’ll look after No3. But he may need to take more risks at the start of his innings than he would like.
Blessing Muzarabani, the pick of the bowlers this morning, returns for his third spell of the day. The non-striker Duckett steals a quick single, with the fielder’s swoop and throw missing the stumps anyway.
“When I was a kid I read an article about Bradman scoring 300 in a day at Headingley, which ended by saying something like ‘Not only had it not happened before in Test cricket, it will never happen again,” writes Nath Jones. “Obviously the long-forgotten journo didn’t foresee Ben Duckett.”
What do you mean long-forgotten? Selve was proud of that piece!
40th over: England 218-0 (Crawley 77, Duckett 128) Poor Chivanga is really struggling to control his line. The first ball after the drinks break flies down the leg side, far, far away, for four more byes. When he overcompensates on the off side, Crawley times a picture-perfect drive to the cover boundary. I’d imagine there are some people who hate Crawley so much that they can’t even appreciate the beauty of his cover drive; and that, dear readers, is what hatred is bad.
39th over: England 208-0 (Crawley 71, Duckett 128) Four more to Duckett, blootered through the covers off Raza. Time for drinks.
Now, to business. This is only the sixth time in Tests that a team have reached 200 for 0 in the first innings after being asked to bat first. Surprise, surprise, Matthew Hayden and Justin Langer were responsible for three of the previous five. Two were in the same series against New Zealand in 2001-02 (the greatest 0-0 draw in Test history, since you asked).
The others were both for South Africa: Gibbs and Smith v West Indies in 2004, Elgar and Markram v Bangladesh in 2017.
Opening partnership passes 200
38th over: England 204-0 (Crawley 71, Duckett 124) A loose delivery from Chivanga flies down the leg side for four byes, then Duckett pushes a single to bring up his second opening partnership of 200 or more with Crawley. Zimbabwe won the toss and put England in, though Ben Stokes said he would have done the same.
Chivanga decides to try a slower ball. Duckett picks it and carts the ball back over his head for three.
37th over: England 194-0 (Crawley 69, Duckett 120) Duckett gets a leading edge off Raza that teases mid-on before dropping short. He has almost played a shot a ball since reaching his century. And why not.
36th over: England 191-0 (Crawley 67, Duckett 119) Tanaka Chivanga, whose four-over spell this morning was a mixture of fine deliveries and minor filth, returns to the attack. A hint of width allows Duckett to pummel four more through the covers, a shot he raises later in the over with a stunning pull for six. The ball from Chivanga really wasn’t that short but Duckett jumped all over it.
While nobody of sound mind would call Duckett a flat-track bully, in his short Test career he has really cashed in against teams outside the established top nine. He made 182 against Ireland in 2023 and is flying again today.
“Told you,” says John Starbuck. “The extra Zim bowler was obviously insurance. Maybe England should adopt this as a strategy, given the number of bowlers who keep getting crocked. Is it time to beg the ICC to allow full subs for bowlers and batters? Think how journalists could write them up the way they do football managers’ strategies.”
John, I love you but the answer’s no. No. A Sexy Beast no.
35th over: England 181-0 (Crawley 67, Duckett 109) “Ngazara?” sniffs Richard O’Hagan of my typo at 13:58. “Are you making hybrid cricketers now? If so, I’d like a combination of David Gower’s languid grace on all surfaces and Ben Stokes’ hitting power. We can call him Gowkes.”
How about a quick bowler with Robin Jackman’s accuracy and Brydon Carse’s muscular threat? We can call him Robin Jacka-
Never mind.
34th over: England 178-0 (Crawley 67, Duckett 108) A couple of close shaves for Duckett. He smashes a pull over midwicket for four – in the air but past the leaping Raza – then mistimes a stiff-wristed push that loops just short of Nyauchi.
The rapidly growing perception that Duckett is in a hurry is reinforced when he pings four more off the pads. For those of you who were frozen in time four years ago, an England opener is 108 not out from 106 balls and it is entirely normal.
Ben Duckett makes a 100-ball century
33rd over: England 169-0 (Crawley 67, Duckett 100) Duckett works another single to reach a fine, typically creative century at exactly a run a ball. He’s hit 15 fours, all round the park, and will fancy a few more. As will Crawley, who forces Raza stylishly through backward square leg for his ninth four.
32nd over: England 164-0 (Crawley 63, Duckett 99) Duckett moves closer to his fifth Test hundred by clipping Nyauchi for three. Later in the over he misses a lusty drive outside off stump, smiles puckishly and then collects a single to keep strike. One more.
31st over: England 159-0 (Crawley 62, Duckett 95) Duckett skids back in his crease to clatter Raza between cover and extra cover for four, a perfectly placed stroke. In this form Duckett could find the gap in a refutation.
30th over: England 151-0 (Crawley 59, Duckett 90) Duckett moves into the nineties with a dab behind square for two, a shot that also brings up the 150 partnership. The last time two England openers added 150 in a home Test was 10 years ago, Alastair Cook and Adam Lyth against New Zealand at Headingley. England still managed to get hammered in that game.
29th over: England 149-0 (Crawley 59, Duckett 88) Zimbabwe were lightly criticised this morning for picking an extra seamer rather than an extra batter. They need every bowler they can find now.
When play resumes, Crawley sweeps Raza fiercely through square leg for four. It looks like there’s an all-day buffet at Trent Bridge.
Ngaraza is really struggling. They’ve brought a cart onto the field but the pain is such that he can barely get into it. Eventually he is driven off, shaking his head in frustration.
28.2 overs: England 142-0 (Crawley 55, Duckett 85) Duckett reverse sweeps a full toss wide from Raza wide of slip for four. It was in the air but perfectly safe.
It may also have reduced Zimbabwe to three seamers. Ngaraza ran after the ball and has pulled up with either a back or a hamstring problem. There’s a break in play while he receives treatment; he’s crouched over and looks in a lot of pain.
28th over: England 137-0 (Crawley 54, Duckett 81) Victor Nyauchi starts with a jaffa to Duckett that hits something on its way to through to the keeper. He goes up with feeling for caught behind but Nyauchi turns straight on his heels; replays show that it brushed Duckett’s jumper.
Duckett is denied by a fine stop in the covers, then edges straight between slip and gully for four. That was a terrific over, probably the best of the day.
27th over: England 133-0 (Crawley 54, Duckett 77) Time for some spin from the allrounder Sikandar Raza. He can spin the ball both ways and is hiding it behind his back as he runs up. No sign of turn in his first over and England pick up three low-risk singles.
The 13 active players walk back onto the field of play. Old ball, flat pitch: Zimbabwe are facing an afternoon of exceedingly hard yakka.
Lunchtime reading
Lunch
26th over: England 130-0 (Crawley 53, Duckett 75) Nyauchi has a big LBW appeal turned down when Crawley misses a flick across the line. It was full enough but delivered from wide on the crease and would swung past leg stump.
That’s the end of a comfortable morning session for England’s openers, who had a look at the bowlers for a few overs and then started to go through the gears. Zak Crawley hit some lovely drives in his 86-ball 53; Ben Duckett found gaps here, there and everywhere to race to 75 from 71.
25th over: England 129-0 (Crawley 53, Duckett 74)
Thanks to Mojo Wellington for sending in the overseas TMS link.
24th over: England 125-0 (Crawley 52, Duckett 71) A gentle statgasm for you as we approach lunch. This is England’s first century opening partnership before lunch in a home Test since Lord’s 2009, when Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook reached 126 for 0 against Australia.
Four more to Duckett after a misfield in the covers. He has a modest conversion rate in Tests, 24 per cent, so will be keen to make this count.
23rd over: England 117-0 (Crawley 51, Duckett 64) Duckett reaches well outside off stump to toe-end a short ball from Muzarabani for four more. When Muzarabani gets it right he’s a handful, as he reminds us with a beauty that beats Crawley’s attempted drive. He has bowled better than figures of 9-2-37-0 might suggest.
22nd over: England 112-0 (Crawley 51, Duckett 59) Victor Nyauchi, another right-arm seamer, comes on for the first time today. Duckett blazes his second ball through extra cover for four, a stand-and-deliver special. I wonder whether, even now, Duckett is a little underappreciated – not necessarily for his productivity but just how much fun he is to watch, and how rare/unique it is for an England opener to have so many boundary-hitting options. He’s so creative and could time the pants off an overused metaphor.
Crawley, no slouch himself, tucks a couple off the pads to reach a classy, largely serene fifty, his first in 11 Test innings. It’s tempting to say it was inevitable, given the modesty of the opposition and the quality of the pitch, but I’m not so sure: a pharmaceutical grade Crawley performance would have been 0 and 1 against Zimbabwe followed by 64 and 62 in the first Test against India, then 191 off 172 in the second.
Stokes clarifies Bethell comments
21st over: England 105-0 (Crawley 49, Duckett 54) AND THERE IT IS, THE FIRST CENTURY OPENING PARTNERSHIP FOR ENGLAND IN A MEN’S TEST SINCE 1 JUNE 2023. Crawley brings up the milestone by waving Muzarabani to third person for a couple.
This is interesting: Sky are reporting that Ben Stokes has clarified his comments about Jacob Bethell in yesterday’s press conference. Apparently he was referring to the squad rather than the XI, so as things stand it’s still two from Crawley, Pope and Bethell for the first India Test.
20th over: England 98-0 (Crawley 44, Duckett 52) Crawley and Duckett put together plenty of fifty partnerships but their last century stand was against Ireland two years ago so they won’t turn their nose up at three figures here.
Crawley moves them closer with a smooth swivel-pull for four when a short ball from Ngarava sits up nicely on leg stump. The way this is going, you could almost introduce an honesty box and let England pick their score. 550 for four off 100 overs? Go on then.
19th over: England 93-0 (Crawley 40, Duckett 51) Muzarabani, on for Chivanga, begins his second spell with a terrific delivery that straightens off the seam to beat Crawley’s defensive push. The rest of the over is of similar quality and Crawley plays out a maiden.
18th over: England 93-0 (Crawley 40, Duckett 51) Ngarava moves around the wicket and beats Crawley with a good delivery bowled from very wide on the crease. He moves back over for Duckett and has an LBW appeal turned down when Duckett whips across line; it was missing leg stump on the angle.
17th over: England 92-0 (Crawley 39, Duckett 51) Duckett slashes Chivanga high over the slips for four to reach a typically breezy fifty from 47 balls. The last 41 runs have come off only 28.
Crawley and Duckett are being rewarded for their patience in the first half hour, when batting was reasonably tricky. Now it feels like a buffet on a very flat Trent Bridge pitch.