Root’s soft hands allow him to steer a full delivery down between second slip and gully for four. There’s a lot to like about Reddy from the Nursery End. He’s naggingly accurate, getting the ball to straighten.
At the end of the over the umpires are asked to check the ball and they decide they can continue with it. No one told the fourth umpire who was walking on the field at a snail’s pace with his boxes of replacements.
Akash Deep may be a new-ball bowler but he is bowling a very tight spell now. I know Shubman Gill made a double century and a century at Edgbaston to win the man of the match award but a 10-for is the equivalent of a century in each innings and I would argue he and Siraj were the matchwinners. He keeps plugging on down the corridor with precision and skiddy carry. Root almost drags on when driving but gets away with it and then gets off strike with a midwicket flick for one. England are grafting hard.
Root and Pope play their risky strike-rotating dabs and steers down through third man for singles. Will both still keep it in their lockers in Australia on (a) spicier pitches and (b) where the cordon, Cam Green in particular, are venus fly-traps?
Akash Deep replaces Mohammed Siraj. The hero of Birmingham tends to toil with the older ball. Pope drives a single to mid-off and Root lets the ball come on to him to deflect it on the back foot with an open face behind point for a single.
