6:34PM England lead by 186 with three wickets in hand. Fabulous day for the home side with good contributions for Pope and Stokes to build on last night’s opening stand and Joe Root, the glue, breaking yet more records to build a match- and series-winning total.
6:32PM Siraj puts his hand up to bowl the last over, which is the 90th! Sound the trumpets. There are men out on the hook and uppercut so we know what we’re going to get. Stokes pulls the first ball off the front foot pretty close to Jaiswal at square leg who doesn’t see it. Don’t know if it was catchable but Siraj thinks so and bends double in frustration. Stokes ambles a single. Dawson chops a single down to third man and Stokes pulls another short one that doesn’t get up to midwicket. No run.
The rib-tickler is dispatched off the back foot to fine leg for a single by Stokes. Dawson swats another off his chest for a single to fine leg and Stokes will face the last ball. It’s short and Stokes pulls it off the top edge for a single.
6:26PM Stokes drives Jadeja for a single and that should be the penultimate over of the day.
6:24PM England are in no rush. They want to survive until the morning for a big push tomorrow after a reviving ice bath and kip for their captain. Dawson works Bumrah off his pads for a single and Stokes ends the over digging out the yorker before stroking a fine extra-cover drive for three. Jaiswal hunts it down just before the rope.
6:19PM But he only gets one ball at Stokes who drives the first ball for a single through cover and Dawson takes one off the last, pushing Stokes beyond the pain barrier with a sharp one to mid-off.
6:16PM Bumrah bowls the 85th over of the day. They’ll get close to 90 but even with the spinners bowling in tandem for a couple of spells they’re going to be short. Stokes’s cramp attacks ate up a chunk of time, I suppose. Stokes works a single off his pads to take the lead to 174.
Jadeja, who has had Stokes in his bunny hutch a few times (seven dismissals in 17 Tests), is coming back on to go head to head again, all-rounder to all-rounder.
6:10PM Stokes is greeted with a short ball around his ribs that he gloves down the legside for a single which he runs like a 75-year-old man pushing a cart. That blow ripped his glove and he calls for a new one after Dawson drove a single to mid-on. Stokes is again treated to a bouncer but this one doesn’t get up and he cuffs it round the corner for a single.
6:04PM Woakes b Siraj 4 Keeps low, hits the toe of the bat which knocks it into the turf whence it spins back on to the stumps. Ben Stokes is coming back out. FOW 528/7
6:04PM Dawson uses Bumrah’s bounce to tuck a single off his thighpad behind square leg. Woakes bunts a single straight past the bowler, setting off only after Bumrah failed to get a hand on it. Dawson shows his good technique to ride the sharp lift again with high hands to cuff a single off a Bumrah no-ball for a single. That’s his fifth and India’s 13th of the match.
Woakes almost drags on by hanging his bat away from his body to try to force it off the back foot through point but it carroms past the stumps and they run a single.
Bumrah ends the over with a brute of a yorker that Dawson plays very well, jamming his bat down. Bumrah thinks it might have been boot first but they do not review it. Even if it was boot first it looked outside the line but I think it was bat.
5:58PM Siraj returns now too and Woakes plays out a maiden thanks to cover stopping a couple of clunky drives.
5:57PM Dinesh Karthik points out that with 10,000 first-class runs he has more than anyone in India’s line-up. And he shows his technique by pivoting swiftly when Bumrah drops short to cart a pull for four. To add insult to injury for Bumrah, it was a no-ball too. The rest of the over passes without further damage to Bumrah’s figures as Dawson leaves three and defends the rest.
5:49PM India have suddenly found some belief and are backing up and diving around in the field having spent hours looking thoroughly sloughened. Woakes cuts Jadeja for a single, Dawson chops another down to third man who makes a good stop to prevent it reaching the boundary.
5:45PM Bumrah bags his first wicket of the match after struggling to maintain his pace and find any life in this pitch. He got one to nip away and kiss the edge. Smith acknowledged that it was a clean catch long before the umpires had it confirmed by the third umpire.
That’s Bumrah’s 50th Test wicket in England.
Woakes gets off the mark off the back foot with a poke behind point, rather like the stroke that led to Smith’s downfall.
5:39PM Dawson, with a batmaker I’ve never seen before, ‘Chase’, and a blade that looks like it’s been used to plant potatoes, cover drives for two. Jadeja rips one past the edge next ball and it turns so violently that it beats the keeper too but slip maks the save.
5:36PM Dawson extends England’s lead past 150 with a single swept through square leg. Smith finishes the over with a corking shot, two strides down. His timing is so perfect he barely has to push his bat through the perpendicular, thumping it through extra-cover for four.
5:32PM Smith rocks back to Jadeja’s off-break and slaps it through point for two. He takes a single to the same fielder but this time off the front foot with a square drive. Dawson works a single off his pads.
5:29PM The field is up for Dawson and he uses his feet to exploit that, a soft-shoe shuffle down to plant a drive over mid-off for four off Sundar.
5:27PM Root actually stepped on the ball after he was stumped and that’s why he was limping a bit rather than cramp.
Dawson survives a big leg-before shout first ball, saved by an inside-edge and then gets off the mark by taking England to 500m with a push into the leg-side.
England have confirmed that it’s cramp for Stokes.
Meanwhile, we reckon it’s only the second time Root’s been stumped in his Test career. The first, infamously, was at Edgbaston, in 2023.
5:18PM Root brings up his 150 to ease into daddy territory with a single pushed to cover. Smith is beaten by Sundar’s skiddy arm ball. the one that did for both Pope and Brook, but it whistles past the edge and unlike Pope he doesn’t flinch towards a moving ball nor, like Brook, dance down for an early swipe.
5:16PM With the field back, England milk three singles. Gill seems to be waiting for the train that never comes. At least make Smith feel under some pressure.
5:14PM I think that’s more of a Sydney Carton decision by Stokes than something to worry about. He couldn’t run and was holding his team back. Anyway, Smith enters and Sundar replaces Siraj after a one-over spell of chin music. Smith walks down to get off the mark with a single to mid-on. Root drives two to cover and clips a single through square leg.
Quite a shock here that Ben Stokes is retiring hurt. It looks like it’s just cramp, but we await more news on that…
5:07PM He’s smiling so hopefully it must be cramp as he climbs the steps to the pavilion very gingerly.
When England took drinks a few minutes ago, Ben Stokes signalled to England’s physio that he had done himself a bit of damage when playing a cut, with a little jump in the air, after which he hobbled a single.
5:06PM Jadeja rags one out of the rough to Stokes that spits up and hits the top of the bat handle, right on the stripes of the springs on the end. The ball arcs to midwicket but short of the fielder. After two more quick singles, Ben Stokes retires hurt.
If you’ve taken the day off work to sit in Old Trafford’s party stand, this is the period you’ve been waiting for. Sun shining, eight deep, England well on top, and two of their greatest players at the crease.
5:03PM Root pulls the first bouncer for a single. The next ball is around Stokes armpit and he swivels to pull, aiming upwards, not rolling his wrists, He misses the ball and is struck by cramp in his calf as he overstretched. He hops about for a few seconds then takes guard to the next bumper, this one offside and he swats it tennis fashion with brutal force through mid-on for four. After cutting another short ball, Stokes’ leg stiffens again and he does his Tin Man walk for a single. On comes the pickle juice.
4:57PM Root cuts Sundar for a single and the off-spinner racks up three dot balls to Stokes from round the wicket before undoing all the good work with a grubby long hop that Stokes shuffles back to pull hard for four.
Siraj is available to bowl and will be given the ball and a field for leg theory.
4:54PM Stokes is starting to have some fun, sweeping Jadeja for two off a top edge and then he falls over reverse-sweeping Jadeja for four, chiselling his nose into the turf like Chick Murray’s ‘wife’ when she fell into a Blackpool tramline.
4:52PM A first half-century for Stokes since Christchurch, eight Tests ago, bringing it up by exchanging three singles with Root off Sundar. But there was a scare when he pushed forward on 48, was struck on the pad and then the bat, the ball ballooning just short of the diving bowler. They run a single to take him to 49 and he makes his 36th Test fifty by using the angle from round the wicket to flick in front of square leg. Root ends the over after congratulating his captain by cover driving for two.
4:46PM Jadeja replaces Bumrah and hollers an appeal when he finds the rough and rags one into Stokes’ pads. They jog a leg-bye while the DRS clock ticks down and Gill decides not to go upstairs. It hit him outside off while playing a shot. Root drives two singles down the ground, Stokes knocks another straight down, too.
4:44PM Root angles the bat to clip a single off Sundar off his laces, Stokes cuts a short one for another and Root takes a third with an open-faced steer through point. One moment of hope for India, though, when Washington tosses one into the breeze that drifts into Stokes, grips and rips past the edge as he pokes forward. It’s been a long time coming.
4:40PM Better rhythm from Bumrah and his pace creeps up accordingly to 83mph. Only a single off the over after five dot balls, Root riding some rare bounce. The run comes to cover as Root farms the strike.
4:33PM Using the breeze to extract even more drift from the Anderson End, Washington Sundar resumes with a maiden to Stokes.
4:28PM Stokes finally finds the meat of his bat and smears a cover drive off Bumrah for four as the bowler hung one outside off and tried to encourage it to tail in to the left-hander. Four singles are also milked off a quick bowler at bay.
Here comes Washington.
4:26PM For the umpteenth time Stokes skips down and for the umpteenth time doesn’t middle it, hoicking his drive to mid-off’s left for a single. His timing is all over the shop. Root shows him how it’s done with a waltz down the track to smear an on-drive for four off a no-ball.
Gill is a young captain and will improve with time but this is poor from him. His seamers are either hobbled or bobbins, His off-spinner has taken both wickets to fall today but is out in the long pasture. What is he trying to achieve? What is his plan to take a wicket? He can’t even keep it tight and wait for a mistake.
4:19PM Bumrah gamely keeps running in, defying the pain in his left ankle, yielding only a couple of singles at the start and the end of the over as he cuts out the leg-side filth that has polluted his figures.
4:14PM Root creams a straight drive so well that it demolishes the non-striker’s stumps and he can’t even take a single from it. Artful if gentle inswing from Thakur pins Root on the knee but it was shaping down and they jog a leg bye. Stokes, who has hardly middled a thing all innings, clatters another single off the bottom third of his blade and Root ends the over pilfering another single to midwicket.
4:10PM He starts with a loosener, struggling with a dodgy left ankle, at 77mph. It’s wide and short and Root pokes it for a single off the cue end. Bumrah stamps his left foot to test the ankle then strides in. Stokes whisks two off his pads, calling Root back for the second, stretching his mate’s stamina. Stokes asks him if he’s OK after straining to make his ground and he says with a smile that he would have been struggling with a direct hit. More legside stuff from Bumrah and Stokes scrambles a leg-bye off his pads.
The great bowler is clearly lame and with Siraj off India are cooked unless their spinners can do something. Getting them back on would be a start but Gill is going with Thakur.
4:04PM Jasprit Bumrah is now allowed to bowl and will do so.
4:00PM Joe Root is now the second-highest run-scorer in Test match history, vaulting past Ricky Ponting, Jacques Kallis and Rahul Dravid on day three Old Trafford.
Sachin Tendulkar stands atop the Test pile with 15,921 runs. That is still 2,542 clear of second place, at the point when Root surpassed Ponting.
With Test schedules being pared back, it is now essentially impossible for players from outside the ‘big three’ to overtake Tendulkar. New Zealand’s Kane Williamson will not be a contender for the top spot despite making his Test debut two years before Root and averaging almost four runs more. Even Steve Smith, who also made his debut two years before Root and averages six more, lies 3,000 runs behind his tally.
If Root overtakes Tendulkar, he will probably be the last man ever to do so – and therefore be the owner of the record for most runs in Test cricket which is never beaten.
3:48PM Aside from all the personal milestones, Joe Root will be most happy that he is batting England to victory in this Test and the series. Root’s modest acknowledgement of the huge cheers when he reached 120 – louder than when he brought up his hundred – to go past Ricky Ponting in the run scorer’s chart said it all.
He navigated a tricky morning session, steadily accumulated in the afternoon, averting crisis when England lost two for eight to spinner Sundar after lunch, and with plenty of batting still to come, Root can really punish India this evening. They look shot. Bumrah was off for half hour and is down on pace. Siraj has an ankle injury and the back up bowling is pedestrian. England and Root are grinding them down.
He has put on 84 with Stokes (who is clunking everything off the edge) and the match is in England’s sights.
3:46PM Records keep tumbling for Joe Root but the thing that will mean most to him is that England are 75 ahead with six wickets in hand and he and his captain, his favourite partner, have put on 84 so far for the fifth wicket after Washington Sundar briefly clawed India back into the game.
3:44PM Just the single off the last over before tea, fittingly dabbed behind square by Joe Root for a single. It’s the shot he took from Ian Bell and fashioned into one of the great accumulators in the history of the Test game.
Nice moment when Root got there. I’m sure he was aware of the milestone, but the crowd were thinking about it much more, and made a lot of noise when he reached 120.
3:39PM Kamboj starts with a wide long hop at 73mph that Stokes has to ascend his stepladder to reach, swatting it for two. The next ball is a full, floaty away swinger and Stokes drives it for a single.
Root takes a stride down and opens the face for a single to pass Ricky Ponting and become the second highest runscorer in Test history on 13,379 Test runs. Ponting is on comms and pays lavish tribute. Cue Hey Jude.
3:34PM Root square drives Thakur for two and is now only one run away from Ricky Ponting as the second-highest of Test runscorers. He joins the great Punter with another single through point on 13,378.
Stokes chassés down the pitch to Thakur and plinks a slog off the toe to mid-on, breaking his bat in the process. He chooses one from the four replacements brought out for his consideration then opens its face to dab a single down to third man.
Captaincy by numbers from Gill who turns back to Kamboj instead of Washington, who has been his best bowler.
3:27PM Filth from Siraj, a juicy half-volley on middle and leg and Root whisks it away for four through midwicket. Siraj has jarred his left ankle and is in pain. He will run through it but India are in a perilous position with their bowlers – their two quickest are hobbled by wear and tear, the two dobbers are toothless. Bumrah can’t bowl until after tea anyway. Bring back Washington?
They have a left-arm leg-spinner. A golden goose. And they’re too lily-livered to give him a game.
Siraj leaves the field at the end of the over.
3:21PM Bumrah is back on the field with a new pair of boots… erm… to boot but won’t be able to bowl straightaway. Thakur replaces the erratic Kamboj. He can move the ball both ways but is short and errs on the floaty side when he bowls full, giving two well-set batsmen enough width to find the gaps for two singles apiece.
3:17PM There’s fire from Siraj in this spell, kicking up his heels as he runs in, finding some nip and zip off a good, hard length. His nip-backer hurries Root into flapping the ball off his hip for a single. Stokes chases a wider one but misses out with his square cut. He has no such problem with the straighter, shorter one, punching it off the back foot for a single.
This is Joe Root’s 12th Test hundred against India, which is more than anyone else. Only Bradman (19 v England), Gavaskar (13 v West Indies) have more against a single opponent. Steve Smith has 12 against England, and Jack Hobbs made 12 against Australia.
3:09PM It’s a gift for Root from Kamboj, a pie lathered in gravy or greasy chip butty if you’re from the People’s Republic of South Yorkshire. The debutant again angles one on to Root’s pads and he clips it fine for four to bring up his 38th Test century and 21st since the start of 2021. Off comes the helmet to salute the crowd and Stokes joins in by raising an arm to toast his predecessor and batting bulwark. He joins Kumar Sangakkara on 38 Test centuries – Ricky Ponting (41), Jacques Kallis (45) and Sachin Tendulkar (51) tower ahead.
3:03PM Siraj is bowling well in this spell, rapid and aggressive. Stokes opens the face to glide a single down to third man off the fifth ball and Root moves to 99 off the last, playing tip and run to mid-on with Stokes backing up enthusiastically.
3:01PM After only one over from Burmrah he leaves the field and Kamboj replaces him. He starts inauspiciously with a no-ball but then whistles one down the corridor and Stokes lets it go by. Given that he’s bowling at 77mph, Stokes decides he can use his feet and skips down to muscles a straightish drive for four then brings up England’s 400 with a flick through midwicket. Root’s eyes widen when he is given some width and he is tempted to dab it down to third man but withdraws his bat late. Why risk anything on 98*?
2:54PM The drinks miraculously revives the pitch and Siraj beats Root with three successive deliveries that zip down the corridor and bounce. When he pushes one into the pads Root tries to tickle it fine but it hits the bottom of his thigh pad and misses the stumps by a gnat’s whisker.
2:45PM Bunrah sprays his first delivery on to Stokes pads and he helps it round the corner for four. The next ball is similarly loose and wide and Stokes does the same, this time for half the return. Bumrah’s pace has been down all match. Now it’s usually 80mph compared with the 86mph of Lord’s and Headingley. He oversteps, too, straining to find more pace. Stokes rides the bounce to slap a single through cover and Root skelps two off his angles and a single wide of mid-on to go to drinks on 98.
India’s last chance? Without some quick strikes with the second new ball, England will be on course for a lead of 150-plus – and it will be very hard for India to remain alive in the series. By his standards, Jasprit Bumrah has not been at his menacing best.
2:40PM The new ball has been brought out but it’s Mohammed Siraj who will take it. Actually no. He will start with the old ball. He starts over the wicket to Stokes, fast and full. The England captain defends then takes a stride down to whisk two through midwicket. That was with the old ball and he’s had enough of that so calls for the new pill.
And immediately he hits Stokes in the goolies with his nip-backer via the inside-edge. It happens just about every Test to the Buster Gonad of world sport. X marks the spot.
Eventually he rises to his feet and…ahem…two balls later he clips a single through square leg. Root ends the over by using the width to clip two.
Amazing mark on Ben Stokes’s whites there. Why is it that he gets hit amidships so much more often than anyone else?
2:32PM Bumrah took his cap off and was walking to his mark but his captain held him back, presumably to come on at the other end. So Jadeja continues. And Stokes sweeps him hard twice for a two and a single. Root reverse-sweeps past short third man for four, his 11th. to move into the nineties. His ability to make the scoreboard rattle along unobtrusively is amazing.
2:29PM Stokes gets a big stride in to push a single past cover. Root uses the drift into him to work two past the square leg umpire and then makes it a pair of deuces with a cover drive, stroked as elegantly as ever.
2:25PM They have tried to winkle one more out before the new ball but the time is now ripe. But Jadeja has another over and Stokes cuts a slightly shorter one for a single, Root drives for a single and Stokes ends the over with a third single from a thick edge down to third man. With the England captain on strike, India will persist with Washington for one more at least.
2:22PM Root can look as though he is trying to score even while defending so supple are his wrists, so deft at manipulating the ball around. He keeps out four then clips a single off his toes to put England into the lead.
2:20PM England tie the scores with Root’s slappy drive to mid-off for a single two balls after surviving a huge lbw-appeal with Jadeja on his haunches, ululating. But it was going down leg and the vehemence of the appeal is not matched by the certainty that would have sent it upstairs.
2:18PM Maiden from Washington to Stokes who is starting quietly as usual, playing himself in. The problem against spin for Stokes is that he looks very vulnerable, never quite in despite all his diligent blocking. Maiden.
2:15PM Root is playing cat and mouse with Jadeja, successfully so far, and, after four dot balls of probing the infield, he latches on to one on off stump and collars a sweep, taking three thanks to Kamboj’s misfield. Can you imagine how Rohit or Virat would have greeted that? The steam from their ears could have powered Mallard on its record-breaking run.
The Aussies are getting worried. Steve Smith to the BBC:”They have started to play a little bit differently in the last couple of weeks in terms of playing the situation, as opposed to going out and trying to be the entertainers that they said they wanted to be. They are actually trying to win the games now which is perhaps different to what was said in their comments previously.”
And the respected Robert Craddock in the Brisbane Courier Mail: “England will field arguably their most imposing batting line-up ever to tour Australia.” Let’s wait and see how England navigate this session.
2:11PM Sundar is getting 2.6° of drift, a full degree more than Root the next best. No doubt it is troubling Stokes who blocks a couple, comes down for an ill-advised swipe and then thinks about a suicidal/homicidal single to Jadeja before wisely thinking better of it.
2:08PM The spinners are bowling so well India are keeping the new ball up their sleeves. Which makes giving Sundar only three overs this morning all the more puzzling. Root cover drives Jadeja for a single and Stokes, better off the back foot to spin, shuffles deep to steer two down through the slips.
2:06PM Apologies, over 80 was deleted by publishing Brook’s wicket before I’d saved the entry for the over. (Brook took a single, sweeping Jadeja).
Stokes, whose record against spin recently is poor, is beaten on the inside edge by Washington’s arm ball and tickles it into his pad. No silly point before that but Gill bolts the stable door immediately. Wicket maiden.
1:59PM Brook st sub (Jurel) b Washington 3 Kippered by the drift and self-kippered by charging an off-spinner he hasn’t given himself time to work out, Beaten on the outside edge as he came straight down the pitch instead of striding into the off-side and Jurel whips off the bails with Brook marooned. FOW 349/4
1:58PM Brook gets off the mark with a push to point, not off the middle. It sounded as if he was batting with a chair leg. Root on-drives Washington for another single and Brook does the same, stroking it further, down to long on.
1:56PM Root sweeps Jadeja hard and flat in front of square for four. What an eye he has.
1:53PM Wicket maiden for Sundar, using his drift, imparting so many revolutions on the ball by giving it a big rip, to keep Brook scoreless for the last five balls of the over, beating him with the skiddy arm ball.
Ollie Pope’s played really well today, but that’s a theme of his career: getting out after a break. Frustrating.
1:46PM Pope c Rahul b Washington 71 Exactly as Ricky Ponting diagnosed at lunch when comparing him with Root. Pope plays the ball mid-turn rather than before to smother it or hitting it after it has turned. The off-break drifted in and skidded on and Pope has a late poke at it. Rahul took a good catch low down at slip. FOW 341/3
1:45PM Root again picks length superbly to smear two through point and then stirs the pot with a whipped four through midwicket, timing and power harmoniously married.
1:43PM Root starts against Sundar where he left off to turn a single into the onside with a wristy punch to take England to triple Nelson, an infinitely more terrifying prospect than single Nelson, three arms, three legs and three a——–. Pope, know as ‘Purp’ on Teesside, eases into a cover drive for a single and Root shuffles back to work another single into the legside.
1:39PM India are in a hole and need more dynamic captaincy from Shubman Gill who has let the game drift alarmingly. I have seen 78mph bowlers do well in England – the maverick Praveen Kumar and the more than maverick (but still brilliant) Mohammed Asif – but neither bowled such a poor line as Anshul Kamboj. He can be excused on debut but not his captain’s persistence or, indeed, his pusillanimity in selection. India’s spinners will have to do most of the work now even with a new ball looming but they seem to me to be bowling from the wrong ends.
1:12PM England cruising. The deficit is just 26 after a wicketless session for India as Joe Root continued climbed a couple of rungs up the all time greats ladder and Ollie Pope scrapped his way to fifty. Root needs to reach 120 to surpass Ricky Ponting as Test cricket’s second highest run scorer and if he gets there England will win the series.
India are flat. Their attack lacks fizz and resembles India seam bowling of the mid 1990s when England batsmen would fill their boots as they sought respite from West Indies and Australia. It is not over yet, but England are making their move.
1:06PM Dream session for England, really. The going wasn’t easy early on but they still scored almost four an over to lay the platform for some fireworks this afternoon when they go into the lead. There is so much batting to come.
1:03PM Lunch Jadeja moves over the wicket for the last over of the morning session. Both batters pull out the reverse sweep; Pope for a single, Root for three.
That completes an outstanding session for England, who scored 107 in 28 overs without losing a wicket. They were tested by an excellent opening burst from Bumrah and Siraj, then put the pressure back on India with some brilliant running in the second hour.
Root batted in his usual bubble, overtaking Rahul Dravid and Jacques Kallis to move to third on the list of highest Test run-scorers. Pope went through the gears, scoring 12 in the first hour and 38 in the second.
England trail by just 26 runs and are on course for a huge lead.
12:58PM Pope thick edges a nice delivery from Washington – who is getting some of his trademark drift – for a couple. He’s been a lot more aggressive in the second hour of the morning session, mainly with his running between the wickets.
12:54PM Root late cuts a poor delivery from Jadeja for four more. After an excellent start, this has become a chastening morning for India. The second new ball, available shortly after lunch, will be their last chance to save the series.
12:51PM A reminder that England bat very deep in this game, with a tail (sic) of Dawson, Woakes, Carse and Archer. Things could get extremely ugly for India.
They’re not too pretty right now. Root on the charge, batters the ball back past Washington for four. It was in the air but Washington, diving high to his left, would have needed superhuman reflexes just to touch it.
12:48PM As you would expect from busy players like Root and Pope, the running between the wickets has been superb. India have been properly harried.
12:46PM Quietly significant stuff in south-west London: Gus Atkinson has spent the week playing for Surrey 2s, who are on the verge of a victory over their Somerset counterparts. Atkinson bowled 20 overs in the first innings and 10 in the second, which I suspect is enough to prove his fitness for the Oval Test next week. There are a few tired bodies in this England attack, so I expect changes. Mark Wood won’t be ready, but Atkinson and Josh Tongue (who is playing for Notts today), will be.
12:45PM Washington Sundar, who took four cheap wickets in the second innings at Lord’s, finally comes into the attack for the first time. Root reverse sweeps assertively for four, then takes a single to reach the usual half-century: 99 balls, six fours. One day we’ll realise how good he is.
12:42PM Root turns Jadeja on the leg side and scampers back for a second. England’s running has been outstanding in the last 20 minutes, a reminder that you don’t always need boundaries to put a fielding side under pressure. India are starting to look resigned to their fate.
12:39PM Pope drives Kamboj gunbarrel straight for four, a terrific shot that brings up the hundred partnership. India are fast approaching the point of no return: they lead by only 57 and we’re not even at the halfway point in the match.
England are putting the foot down, Pope in particular. He steals a second run behind square to bring up England’s 300.
12:36PM India really have got their team wrong this series. Shardul Thakur was picked to lengthen the batting. He did that, too, battling hard for 41. But it’s taken just six overs, which have leaked 37, for Thakur to give those runs back to England. India would have been far better off picking Kuldeep Yadav’s wrist spin – he averages 22 in Tests overall and against England – and accepting a slightly longer tail.
We’re 66 overs into England’s innings and Shardul and Washington (despite his performance at Lord’s) have bowled six overs between them. India’s conservative team selection – over-valuing lower order runs, and ignoring Kuldeep as a result – has really helped England.
12:34PM Jadeja is starting to find some rhythm to the right-handers. Pope, pushing awkwardly, inside-edges a good ball to safety on the leg side.
12:31PM There is one way India can win this match: their offspinner Washington Sundar gets hit on the head somehow – he does not have to be batting – and, concussed, is replaced by Kuldeep Yadav (this is called taking a hit for the team).
Kuldeep, bowling his stock wristspinner that turns into the right handed batsman, could run amok from the James Anderson end. The ball is keeping low, the amount of turn is unpredictable, and left arm wristspin is the brand that has always flummoxed England most.
India in this series have wasted a prime asset and will probably select him at the Oval when it is too late.
12:30PM I don’t want to be unkind, but I’m pretty underwhelmed by Anshul Kamboj. Our Indian colleagues were positive about him, and thought he could cause England problems in a relentless, Scott Boland sort of way. But he’s neither here nor there and I’m stunned they think he’s a better option than Prasidh Krishna, who is at least tall and quick.
Important fifty for Ollie Pope, by the way. He’s toughed it out this morning, having been on the end of more of the danger balls than Root.
12:27PM Pope pushes Jadeja to mid-off to reach a dogged and important half-century, his 16th in Test matches: 93 balls, six fours.
At the other end Root is into the quiet accumulation phase of the innings. England’s running has been excellent in the last few minutes, with nine singles from the last 13 balls. Still 16 overs until the second new ball.
12:24PM Pope is dropped by Jurel! He’s standing up to the stumps, to keep the batters in their crease against Kamboj, so it was a very tough chance after the ball deflected off Pope’s glove. Jurel is an outstanding keeper, though, and he’d expect to catch that maybe six times out of 10.
Oh, Joe Root faced two balls in that over after spending the previous three overs at the non-stiker’s end.
12:18PM Ravindra Jadeja replaces Siraj and starts with a slip in place to Pope. He takes a quick single to mid-off to keep the strike; in fact Pope has faced each of the last 18 balls. England trail by 77.
12:17PM India appeal for caught behind when Pope makes a mess of an attempted pull off Kamboj. Rod Tucker, who has had a superb game, rightly judges that it missed the bat and hit Pope’s back arm. India only have one review left so they were never going to go upstairs.
Pope works a single to mid-on – and gets four bonus runs when Siraj’s gratuitous throw flies to the boundary. India have bowled very well this morning but this is starting to get away from them.
12:12PM More uneven bounce for Siraj, who is bowling from the Sir James Anderson End. Pope, dragging his bat across desperately, at, gets a bottom edge that scuttles past the sub keeper Jurel for a couple.
Pope then gets his sixth four with a pristine extra-cover drive. He’s battled hard in this innings but that was a more familiar attacking stroke.
12:05PM Joe Root shyly held up his hand to acknowledge the crowd when he pinched a single to move to 31 and went past Jacques Kallis as Test cricket’s third highest all time run scorer. It’s a knowledgeable crowd at Old Trafford, they clocked the moment before it was announced to the big screen. Ricky Ponting is here, working for Sky, and Root has to reach 120 in this innings to go past him into second place behind Sachin Tendulkar. Ponting scored 13,378 in 287 innings. This is Root’s 286th innings.
The runs tally is one thing, but for Root it is a hundred in Australia this winter that will mean more than where he is on the all time list. It is the one last achievement he needs to round out an incredible career.
12:03PM England have seen off Jasprit Bumrah for now. He’s replaced by the debutant Anshul Kamboj, who is worked for a pair of twos by Root, one on each side of the wicket. Kamboj’s pace isn’t great, with an average of 80mph, so he needs to get some sideways movement. The only movement in that over was Root walking down the pitch.
That’s the end of a terrific first hour for England, who have reduced the deficit to 92 without losing any further wickets. Time for drinks.
11:58AM Joe Root punches Siraj for a single to become the third highest runscorer in Test history. Just Ricky Ponting and Sachin Tendulkar to go for surely the greatest English batter we’ve ever seen. He acknowledges the applause with an almost brusque wave of his right glove; Root’s priority is a series win, not a personal milestone.
- 15,921 Sachin Tendulkar (India)
- 13,378 Ricky Ponting (Australia)
- 13,290 Joe Root (England)
- 13,289 Jacques Kallis (South Africa)
- 13,288 Rahul Dravid (India)
11:54AM In the previous over, the TV cameras cut to Lancashire and India legend Farokh Engineer. Last month, Nick Hoult interviewed Engineer – it’s well worth reading.
11:52AM Root stands even taller to punch Bumrah square on the off side for four. That’s a quite beautiful stroke, which he follows with a dab to third for a single. That run moves him above Rahul Dravid and into joint-third on the list of highest Test runscorers.
11:48AM Root stands tall to force Siraj into the off side for a single. He’s now four runs between Rahul Dravid and five behind Jacques Kallis.
The lucklesss Siraj beats Pope with another delivery that keeps low. We’re not even at the halfway point of the game so the uneven bounce could be a nightmare batting last.
11:42AM Jasprit Bumrah is looking much more dangerous from the Statham End this morning, where most wickets have fallen so far this Test. Although Mohammed Siraj got some nasty bounce last delivery from the Anderson End, contributing to the chaotic running between Ollie Pope and Joe Root. India have been excellent this morning, yet for no reward.
11:41AM A very interesting stat on Sky Sports: in this series Bumrah averaged 42 against England’s top seven and 8 against the tail. The pitches have been flat, mind, and he has had no luck.
After Pope pulls smoothly for four, Bumrah zings yet another delivery past the outside edge. I’d love to know how often he has beaten the bat in this series.
11:40AM Siraj beats Root outside off stump, then draws an inside edge that rolls safely on the leg side, then beats him again. India have been excellent this morning.
An outstanding over from Siraj ends with Root surviving a run-out chance. He was startled by some extra bounce, popped the ball along the ground to gully and belatedly realised that Pope was halfway down the track. Root eventually set off but would have been miles out with a direct hit – or had the man at mid-on been covering the stumps.
11:34AM Bumrah is all over Pope here. A superb lifter straightens to take a leading edge as Pope tries to work to leg. The ball loops up slowly on the off side and lands safely with three fielders converging.
England need to be careful, despite the terrific position they are in. Bumrah is bowling beautifully and if he gets one he could knife through the middle order.
11:31AM That review never looked right, and shows India are a bit desperate here. Siraj is a bit like Stuart Broad: an emotional reviewer who should never be trusted by his captain when it comes to reviews. India only have one left now.
11:26AM You can’t fault India’s intensity this morning, even if a couple of deliveries have been offline. Bumrah and Siraj are steaming in with extreme prejudice; there’s also plenty of chatter and encouragement from the fielders.
Root inside-edges a good delivery from Siraj onto his pads – and now there’s an LBW review against Root. He walked down and across to Siraj, who as usual was convinced it was the plumbest LBW in the history of cricket. His captain Shubman Gill reviewed a little reluctantly, with two or three seconds left… and he should have trusted his instinct because it would have gone past leg stump. India have only one review remaining.
11:23AM Bumrah’s first over was a bit loose; his second is a forensic maiden to Pope. The closest he came to a wicket was with a sharp lifter that beat the edge and Pope fenced instinctively.
11:20AM Pope reaches to drive Siraj and gets a thick edge for four. Siraj looks like he spent even longer than usual putting his gameface on this morning; he’s stomping back to his mark between deliveries, and his mood isn’t improved when Root slashes a wide ball over gully for four. Unlike Pope’s boundary, that was deliberately played.
11:14AM Bumrah’s first ball is that of a mere mortal, a loosener on the pads and that is put away for four by Root. Later in the over a blistering cover drive is well stopped, saving four more runs.
This is the end from which Bumrah bowled a loose opening spell yesterday. The reason he is back here – he bowled a better spell when he switched last night – is that there has been a lot more bounce from this end. As we saw at Lord’s, Bumrah is even less pleasant to face when the ball kicks from a length.
11:09AM Mohammed Siraj opens the bowling at the other end, so Bumrah will surely replace Thakur for the next over. There was some talk that Ravindra Jadeja might start – he troubled Pope last night – but Shubman Gill has gone for his two best fast bowlers.
An excellent first over from Siraj includes a nasty delivery that keeps low, beats Pope on the inside and just misses off stump.
11:04AM Root clips the first two runs of the day when Thakur strays onto the pads. A decent over apart from that, including a good yorker that is defended by Root.
11:00AM And if you predicted that, you’re a liar. It’s probably just a single over to facilitate a change of ends for Jasprit Bumrah.
10:57AM [On his partnership with Zak Crawley] It was really enjoyable. When we bat like that it probably looks like it was the plan from the start but it wasn’t. My kind of theory is always ‘see ball, hit ball’, and if the bowlers miss I look to put them under pressure. I thought Zak was really patient and had to face a lot of Bumrah for the first few overs. When he was away we started flowing and things got a lot easier.
[On his excellent head-to-head record v Jasprit Bumrah] We all know he’s a world-class bowler. I don’t know whether it’s that when I’m facing him I’m really, really switched on. I’m quite relaxed when I bat. Every time I face him… in these conditions you know that if you can get through his first spell things will become a lot easier. He’s probably the only bowler where I’m not necessarily to put him under loads of pressure.
Yesterday it was nice – it wasn’t swinging both ways and you could see that with the amount of balls I clipped through the leg side. It was the first time I’ve faced him where he hasn’t got it hooping both ways. I’m sure that’ll be different in the second innings.
10:44AM Zak Crawley must wish he could play every game at Old Trafford and the Utilita Bowl.
10:41AM I hope Ben Stokes, instead of driving himself to rise to yet another challenge, lets Jamie Smith bat at number six and demotes himself to seven. One of the very few things he needs to learn: how to share the load.
10:37AM The Sky pundits all agree that this should be a great day to bat, and that England have had by far the best of conditions. With the pitch likely to turn more sharply on the last two days, the template for an England win is simple: bat all day today, chip away in the third innings with pace at one end and Liam Dawson at the other.
10:23AM Joe Root is the fifth highest runscorer in Test history – but if he scores another this morning he will move above Rahul Dravid and Jacques Kallis. He could even overtake Ricky Ponting in second.
- 15,921 Sachin Tendulkar (India)
- 13,378 Ricky Ponting (Australia)
- 13,289 Jacques Kallis (South Africa)
- 13,288 Rahul Dravid (India)
- 13,270 Joe Root (England)
“He could overtake me today!”
High praise for Joe Root from Ricky Ponting, whose Test run-scoring record is under threat from England’s no. 4! 📈 pic.twitter.com/K7vYchN55r
— Sky Sports Cricket (@SkyCricket) July 25, 2025
10:11AM It turns out that one of the worst things you can do as an opposing captain is to question the morals of the England openers. Accused of breaking the Spirit of Cricket at Lord’s, Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett responded by doing their best to break the spirit of India.
Thanks to them, England are potentially one good batting day away from their biggest series win under Ben Stokes, whose first five-wicket haul for eight years did so much to put them in control.
10:08AM Good morning from Old Trafford, where it’s a beautiful morning. A batting day! After the openers’ efforts yesterday, a long England batting lineup is queueing up to go a long way past India’s score of 358. India looked very ragged yesterday afternoon, but this game has not been put to bed quite yet.
10:05AM By Michael Vaughan
I have felt for many years that Test cricket should introduce substitutes for injuries that are clear and obvious, like we have seen with Rishabh Pant in the fourth Test at Old Trafford.
It was great theatre watching Pant come out to bat with a broken foot on the second morning. It was unbelievable courage, and there was some amazing skill to scramble 17 runs from 28 balls. But he was not fit to bat, could not run, and could have made the injury so much worse.
I am always keen to move the game forward, and see how we can improve it. I was talking to some friends who are not really cricket fans but had heard about Pant’s situation on the second morning. They could not get their heads around the fact that he was allowed to have a replacement as wicketkeeper, but not to bat or bowl. It is all a bit odd, and inconsistent.
We are the only team sport that does this and it is an example of cricket being stuck in the dark ages, I think. What we are doing at the moment is intentionally depleting a contest by making one of the teams effectively play with 10 men for four days of the match, on the back of bad luck.
9:49AM Hello and welcome to Telegraph Sport’s live, over-by-over coverage of day three at Old Trafford. This could be the day that a seriously hard-fought series turns decisively England’s way. If they are still batting at the close, it will take a Herculean effort from India – or a repeat of the 2023 downpour that saved Australia – to stop England taking an unassailable 3-1 lead.
England were brilliant yesterday, pummelling India all round Old Trafford with ball and bat. They will resume on 225 for 2, a deficit of 133, after scoring their runs at almost five an over. India bowled poorly, particularly with the new ball, but Zak Crawley and especially Ben Duckett played with a skill and chutzpah that we have rarely, if ever, seen from England openers.
“He’s an unbelievable player,” said Crawley of his opening partner. “We talk a lot in the middle about how we’re going to play and some of the stuff he comes up with … he’s a phenomenal thinker about the game and he hits the ball in areas that made it hard to contain him. I just tried to stay with him. He’s the leader of that partnership.”
One word of caution. India’s bowling improved as the day progressed and they will come hard at England this morning. And there are some uncomfortable parallels with last year’s Rajkot Test. On that occasion England started day three on 207 for 2 in reply to India’s 445, having scored their runs at almost six an over. Then Joe Root tried to reverse ramp Jasprit Bumrah and the match went in a different direction. England were destroyed by 434 runs and lost the series 4-1.
Not that the England dressing-room will be thinking of Rajkot. The past, the worst-case scenarios, are for people like us. They’ll be accentuating a sizeable positive: if they dominate today’s play, they will be on the cusp of lifting the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy.
