10:15
Inspection at 1020
Expect a delayed, but not too delayed, start. In the meantime, do email me any lazy Sunday morning thoughts.
09:32
Preamble
Good morning! The World Test Championship limps into its third day, soggy hems to its trousers, umbrella at the ready. There were 64.4 overs in yesterday’s weather- interrupted day: time for India to reach 146-3, with Virat Kohli on the brink of a half century. New Zealand’s seamers have impressed in the same way that they have all tour, with disciplined aggression, the titanic Kyle Jamieson the pick of the bowlers.
The weather forecast is for scattered showers, so expect play to be in more than three acts. It will be, more than anything, a test of the players’ powers of concentration and patience. As the longest day of the year fast approaches in the northern hemisphere, cricket can consider itself unlucky. And if the ICC had only held the match at rain-plagued Old Trafford, they would be onto their third full day of cricket. Oh capricious June.
In other news, much sympathy for young England fast bowler Olly Stone, who has just been diagnosed with the third stress-fracture of his young career.