County cricket: Durham v Lancs, Essex v Surrey and more, day three – live!

Here is the piece by Osman Samiuddin referenced by Andy Bull. We published The Haal of Pakistan in The Nightwatchman magazine (sorry about the plug) nearly seven years ago, and it is as brilliant a read now as it was then.

And, if you’ve got something to say, please do contact me at [email protected] or @tjaldred. Only a tenuous connection to cricket required.

“Chal para kaam, chaloji, pakro,” Andy Bull on Azhar Ali and the Pakistan captaincy.

It’s Monday morning so it must be county cricket – except in Northampton where the match was over in two days, triumphant Somerset juggernauting onwards to Edgbaston, where they face Warwickshire on Saturday.

Elsewhere, let’s see if Notts’ and Glamorgan’s batsmen can continue the good starts of yesterday. At Canterbury, Jordan Cox and Jack Leaning restart the day after a wonderful unbroken partnership of 231 for Kent. Essex have a lead of 88 after Simon Harmer clicked his fingers and rediscovered his 2019 magic; Derbyshire and Lancashire have batted their way into strong positions and it has been slow and steady at Bristol. Hampshire’s small first-innings lead was spoilt by injury to poor Liam Dawson, who last night tweeted that he didn’t think it would be “great news” but is waiting for further assessment.

Here in Manchester we still have the swifts, and the bushes are full of blackberries, so it doesn’t yet feel like that tipping point in August when the summer starts to slip away.