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The opener, who has been out of action with a wrist fracture and then a side strain, has been included in the BCB XI squad that will face the West Indians in a one-day warm-up match

Mohammad Isam01-Dec-2018Tamim Iqbal comes out to bat with a fractured left hand•Associated Press

Tamim Iqbal is set to return from multiple injuries after he was named in the BCB XI squad for the one-day practice match against the visiting West Indians, which is scheduled to be played on December 6 at the BKSP ground. Tamim suffered a fractured wrist during the Asia Cup opener against Sri Lanka in September, and had just begun batting in the nets again when a side strain earlier this month cut short his bid to return in time for the Test series against West Indies.The BCB XI side will be led by ODI captain Mashrafe Mortaza, who is also short of game time, having been restricted to only training sessions since the third ODI against Zimbabwe in Chittagong in late October. The squad also includes Imrul Kayes, Soumya Sarkar, Mohammad Mithun, Ariful Haque, Rubel Hossain and Nazmul Islam, who have featured in the ODI side recently.The selectors have also included Bangladesh U19 captain Towhid Hridoy and his teammates Akbar Ali, Mrittunjoy Chowdhury and Sahin Alam.The first ODI of the three-match series is scheduled for December 9 in Mirpur.BCB XI squad: Mashrafe Mortaza (capt), Tamim Iqbal, Imrul Kayes, Soumya Sarkar, Mohammad Mithun, Towhid Hridoy, Ariful Haque, Akbar Ali, Rubel Hossain, Mrittunjoy Chowdhury, Shahin Alam, Mehedi Hasan Rana, Nazmul Islam

Gloucestershire returned to the top of the South Group after scrambling to a four-wicket win over Sussex Sharks in the Vitality Blast at Hove

ECB Reporters Network01-Aug-2018

ScorecardGloucestershire returned to the top of the South Group after scrambling to a four-wicket win over Sussex Sharks in the Vitality Blast at Hove.A slow pitch was perfect for their pace-off attack who set up their fifth win from seven games by restricting Sussex to 127 for 8 after Luke Wright had won the toss.Spinners Rashid Khan and Danny Briggs bowled with predictable accuracy to share four wickets but Gloucestershire, having been briefly displaced as leaders by Somerset’s win earlier in the day, enjoyed the extra pace provided by the rest of the Sussex attack and reached their target with ten balls to spare.Sussex never recovered from a poor powerplay when they slumped to 27 for 4. Phil Salt (1) was run out by Michael Klinger’s direct hit from mid-wicket before David Payne picked up two wickets in seven balls including Wright (16) who hit four boundaries before mis-timing a drive to mid-on.When Michael Burgess fell for a single to Andrew Tye the Sharks were reeling but Laurie Evans briefly revived their hopes with 46 from 36 balls. Evans was just getting into his stride, having taken Kieran Noema-Barnett for a six and two fours in the 13th over, when he holed out to long-on in the 14th off former Sussex slow left-armer Tom Smith.Sussex didn’t find the boundary again until Jofra Archer cleared the ropes off the penultimate ball of the innings, the only boundary not scored by either Wright or Evans.Archer’s unbeaten 26 gave Sussex a glimmer of hope but even he was becalmed by an excellent attack with Payne and the experienced Tye outstanding. They were backed up by a tigerish Gloucestershire fielding display.Sussex needed early wickets to have any chance and Khan struck with his first ball when Klinger (13) edged behind in the fifth over before deceiving Ian Cockbain (4) with a ball that skidded on in his next over. When Miles Hammond (35), who hit five fours and a six, was lbw to Danny Briggs trying a switch-hit, Gloucestershire had lost 3 for 16 in 3.2 overs.Noema-Barnett (16) hit Briggs for two sixes but was bowled off a bottom edge in the same over and when Archer returned to the attack in the 15th over he immediately had Howell (13) taken at point.Jack Taylor settled Gloucestershire nerves by hitting successive boundaries off Jordan in the 17th over to effectively settle the outcome and although Higgins (21) holed out to deep cover in the 19th over Gloucestershire were only three short of their target and Gareth Roderick drilled the next ball to the long-on rope to seal a deserved victory.

Warwickshire will say farewell to Jonathan Trott in September as a noble first-class career enters its final phase

David Hopps03-May-2018That Jonathan Trott would plan every innings to the utmost was at his peak something that English cricket came to value enormously. So it should be no surprise that he has announced that he will retire at the end of the season more than four months early. Certainty restored, he can now aim for a final flourish.Trott might not have been the most flamboyant or crowd-pleasing cricketer ever to represent England, but there was substance a plenty to him, enough for Andy Flower, then England’s coach, to describe him as England’s rock.He scored a century on his England debut, was a three-times Ashes winner (you could make a case for him winning two of them) and was a key cog in an England team that reached No 1 ranking in the world. He also averaged 46 for England at Tests when batting at No 3. Such luxuries for England are hard to imagine as things stand.He could dawdle at times, he could look miserable (it was serious work after all) and his between-ball routine remains a joy for amateur psychologists. But few have valued their wicket more dearly.”Choosing to retire at the end of the season is something that I have spoken about at length with my family and this is now the right time to look at the next chapter of my career,” Trott said at Edgbaston where Warwickshire were playing Derbyshire.”Warwickshire is a very special club and I’ve been immensely proud to have worn the Bear & Ragged Staff throughout my career. We’ve made a strong start to the 2018 season and I hope that I can make a major contribution to more success in my final year at Edgbaston as a player.””You want to be up front about a decision like this and Warwickshire is a club that is always looking to the future so I wanted to let them know that this is my decision so it won’t be sprung upon them at the end of the season and they can start planning.”It hasn’t been that difficult a decision. When you have played at a club for as long as I have it is important that not only is the decision right for you but it’s also right for the club.”All in all, a 17-year career brought 52 Test caps and 68 ODI appearances, but there was nothing instant about Trott’s emergence. For many years, he was a dedicated and uncomplaining servant of county cricket, initially trialling with Warwickshire in 2002 and signing his first professional contract two years later after scoring an impressive 245 on debut for the second team. He followed this with a century in his first-class debut against Sussex in 2003, and he went on to play a leading role in Warwickshire’s County Championship triumph in 2004.England came calling, perhaps belatedly, in the deciding game of the 2009 Ashes series. Four years earlier, they had gambled on the effervescence of Kevin Pietersen; now they gambled again, on the Bovril equivalent: something substantial, meaty, decidedly untrendy.Jonathan Trott celebrates a rearguard century•Getty Images

Once again, the risk paid off as his second innings century helped secure a memorable victory at The Oval. Ashes wins followed in the 2010-11 series in Australia and the home series in 2013. He also won the finest individual accolade in the international game by winning the Garfield Sobers Trophy for ICC Cricketer of the Year, a fact that went largely unheralded.His last Ashes tour was to end in sadness as he left the tour with a stress-related illness. Some of the ill-informed comments suggesting that he could not handle the pace of Mitchell Johnson should not be allowed to demean him. This was a batsman who thrived on difficulty If he was broken by anything – and fine sportsmen are allowed to be broken – it was the exhaustion deepened by perfectionism.Ashley Giles, sport director of Warwickshire, paid tribute. “Trotty will be remembered as one the greatest batsmen to have played for Warwickshire and England in the 21st century,” he said.”He made an immediate impact upon arrival at Edgbaston by scoring such a high volume of runs, and he has gone on to be part of one most successful periods in the club’s history, with five major trophies won across all formats.”At international level, he played a major role in one of the best England teams of the last 50 years; a team that went top of the world rankings, but which also won the Ashes in Australia for the first time in 25 years.”His retirement announcement, at 37, comes as no surprise, except for the fact that it might well have happened at the end of last season when Warwickshire were relegated and, like another Warwickshire and former England stalwart, Ian Bell, he struggled for runs.He leaves at a time when substance is under challenge from froth and instability, encapsulated by the ECB’s plans for 100-ball cricket. There would be no time for Trott’s prolonged scratching of his guard in that, little praise for reconnaissance, for the artful nudges of his hips, for his analytical approach to limited-overs run chases.Perhaps that approach did become outdated. And perhaps England did not recognise it soon enough. It feels something of an anachronism that Trott is still Warwickshire’s leading Twenty20 runscorer. But he need not over-analyse that because he has served England and Warwickshire nobly.The announcement made, his mind settled, it would be no surprise to find that a few more bowling attacks will suffer before the season is through.

He is expected to feature in six of their final seven red-ball matches starting June

ESPNcricinfo staff23-May-2019India offspinner R Ashwin will join Nottinghamshire for the second half of the county season. Ashwin will replace Australia’s James Pattinson as Nottinghamshire’s overseas player at the end of June and is expected to feature in six of their final seven red-ball matches.His stint will start at home against Essex on June 30, followed by matches against Somerset and Surrey. He will miss the away fixture against Yorkshire but will return to play against Kent, Warwickshire and Surrey.”I’m really looking forward to joining up with Nottinghamshire, to playing cricket at an iconic venue like Trent Bridge and hopefully contributing to some County Championship victories,” Ashwin said. “I enjoyed my previous stint in England with Worcestershire. It’s a good, competitive standard of cricket over there and I can’t wait to get started.”ALSO READ: Ajinkya Rahane scores hundred on debut for HampshireThis will be Ashwin’s second stint in the county circuit. In 2017, he had played four matches for Worcestershire to take 20 wickets at an average of 29.15, and scored 214 runs at an average of 42.80.”We knew what we wanted to sign and that was a world-class bowler,” Nottinghamshire director of cricket, Mick Newell said. “Whether that was a fast or a slow bowler, we were prepared to look at all options.”As it happens, we’ve signed a very good spinner, a very experienced spinner and one we hope can contribute with the bat as well. We’ve seen world-class slow bowlers have a huge match-winning effect in county cricket over many years. Ravi certainly has that potential – and we’re very much looking forward to welcoming him to the squad and letting him loose on our opposition.”Ashwin will be the second Indian to play county cricket this season. Ajinkya Rahane had signed for Hampshire earlier and started his season with a century on Wednesday, against the team Ashwin has signed for.

Afghanistan’s path through the Super Sixes to the 2019 World Cup is a complicated one, but the legspinner wants his team to concentrate on winning their last match and then “see what happens”

Liam Brickhill in Harare20-Mar-2018″Anything can happen,” Rashid Khan said, after Afghanistan’s five-wicket win over UAE in their Super Sixes clash at Old Hararians Sports Club took them to four points with a game still to be played. Afghanistan have now drawn level with Ireland, and if Scotland and Zimbabwe both lose their remaining matches, and Afghanistan win their encounter with Ireland, they can still book their place in Sunday’s final.”Anything can happen. In the Super Six, it’s quite difficult for anyone to go direct,” Rashid said. “Till now, a single team hasn’t qualified. Everyone is in doubt. That is a good thing. We just need to win the last match and see what happens.”The favourites tag seemed to weigh heavily on Afghanistan, who stumbled through the group stages with losses to Scotland, Zimbabwe and Hong Kong. Since then, however, they have kept themselves in the running with wins over West Indies and, now, UAE.”In this Super Six, the target was to win all three matches and just see what happens,” Rashid said. “Anything can happen in the match between UAE and Zimbabwe. We can only hope for the best.”Rashid’s contribution with the ball was vital to Afghanistan’s success over a spirited UAE side. He took 5 for 41, stalling UAE’s fightback with the wickets of Shaiman Anwar for 64 and Mohammad Naveed for a quickfire 45.”It feels good to take five-wicket haul and to contribute in the bowling department,” Rashid said. “I did well in the last matches as well, but I was unlucky in not taking many wickets. Today I took wickets, and it was a good day for me.”Initially, the ball was gripping and turning, which helped us to take early wickets. And then we put pressure on them, with dot balls, and at the end they tried to play shots and lost wickets.”Rashid also credited Gulbadin Naib and, in particular, Najibullah Zadran. Naib was named Player of the Match for his unbeaten 74, while Najibullah’s 63 was his third fifty-plus score of the tournament.”The batters also did really well,” he said. “They took responsibility. Losing five wickets for 50 or 60, and chasing 180, they formed a very good partnership. They did a good job to bat to the end and win the game.”[Najibullah] is very talented, and the way he has played in this tournament is superb. He took responsibility in the end, and that’s the main thing. On these wickets, taking responsibility and playing a long innings is really good. At the end, you’ll have time to hit and make some runs. He took responsibility, as he has throughout the tournament.”Rashid had also worn the extra responsibility of the captaincy in the early stages of the tournament, after regular captain Asghar Stanikzai had to undergo an emergency appendectomy. But Rashid insisted that the extra responsibility had not affected his bowling.”I didn’t feel any pressure when I was captaining and bowling. Whether I’m captain or not captain, I just try my best to enjoy myself.”UAE coach Dougie Brown suggested that the responsibility shown by Najibullah and Naib had been the difference between the two sides.”Rashid spoke about taking responsibility, and I think the two guys at the end showed exactly what responsibility was on a pitch, which, really, there were no demons in,” Brown said. “Both teams bowled exceptionally well.”Before Afghanistan play Ireland on Friday, UAE will face Zimbabwe in a clash that will likely decide the fate of several teams vying for a top-two finish. While UAE aren’t in contention, Brown suggested that their experience in Zimbabwe had been a good one despite his team’s inconsistency.”It’s been great. We’ve learned a lot. We don’t often get a chance to play Full-Member teams. We are a team who are learning. We strongly believe that as a team, we’re working on the right things. And on a day when we piece together 100 overs of really solid cricket, we know that we can put in a strong performance against anyone.”In the last game against Zimbabwe, we know it’s going to be a tremendous atmosphere,” he added. “There’s a lot riding on that game – World Cup qualification for them. And other teams as well. There will be thousands of people in there shouting for Zimbabwe. But we know that around the world there will be millions of people shouting for us. We take that positivity with us, and we’re looking forward to it.”

Announcement comes following the BCB’s monitoring and assessment of the security situation in Sri Lanka

ESPNcricinfo staff08-Jul-2019Bangladesh’s planned tour of Sri Lanka at the end of July will go ahead, though marginally behind schedule, Sri Lanka Cricket announced via a statement on Monday.The confirmation had been on hold since May, when, in the wake of the terror attacks across Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday the previous month, the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) had said that it would need to monitor the security situation before taking a decision.”We are concerned about the scenario,” BCB chief executive Nizam Chowdhury had said on May 7. “We will take advice from our foreign ministry and the Bangladesh High Commission in Sri Lanka.”We are also likely to hold talks with the SLC during the Asian Cricket Council meeting later this month.”The decision to go ahead with the tour is likely to have been taken after a great deal of thought on the part of the BCB, given the terror attacks in Christchurch in March, where some Bangladesh players had come perilously close to being caught in the middle of a shooting incident. That tour of New Zealand had been immediately called off with two matches still to play. It is understood that the BCB has assessed security risks ahead of this tour and the close monitoring is what caused the delay in the confirmation.”We have done our security assessment and we wanted to play all the games in Colombo,” Jalal Yunus, the BCB’s media director, told ESPNcricinfo, adding, “we are ready to go ahead with the tour.”The series will comprise three ODIs, the first on July 26, instead of the original date of July 25. The following two ODIs will now be played on July 28 and July 31 respectively, before Bangladesh depart on August 1. All three ODIs are day-night fixtures and will take place in Colombo.

New Zealand’s world record lasts for a matter of hours on extraordinary day at Taunton

Andrew Miller20-Jun-20181:48

‘I just felt like it was my day’ – Beaumont

England 250 for 3 (Beaumont 116, Wyatt 56) beat South Africa 129 for 6 (van Niekerk 72) by 121 runs

ScorecardIt’s been a week of scarcely credible run-scoring feats – starting with New Zealand women’s twin demolition of Ireland (491 team runs in one innings, 232 individual runs for Amelia Kerr in another) and continuing on Tuesday with England’s men’s ODI-record total of 481 for 6 against Australia at Trent Bridge.But on a ludicrous day of run-feasting at Taunton, England’s women might just have taken the biscuit. A matter of hours after watching New Zealand add the highest T20 innings total to their records-chest, with a Suzie Bates-inspired total of 216 for 1, Tammy Beaumont and her team-mates marched out to the middle to obliterate that mark from the annals.Twenty overs after winning the toss against the same hapless South African opposition, England had amassed an extraordinary 250 for 3. Their effort was powered by a 47-ball century from Beaumont – her third for England in as many innings after her ODI-series-sealing knocks last week. With five overs still to come, she had the individual record at her mercy as well, when she miscued a return catch to Stacy Lackay to depart for 116 from 52.At the top of Beaumont’s innings, Danni Wyatt had offered a high-octane supporting role with 56 from 36 balls in an opening stand of 147 in 13.1 overs, whereupon Nat Sciver, with 33 from 15 and Katherine Brunt, 42 not out from 16, applied the finishing touches with a murderous series of blows.It was brutal, compelling, and – for South Africa – utterly soul-destroying, as they limped away from the field having conceded 466 runs in the space of 40 overs across two (non)-contests. Even Beaumont, whose 116 from 52 balls had contained four of England’s nine sixes and 18 of their 33 fours, later admitted some sympathy for a side who had drawn the short straw in having to play twice in one day in this fledgling round-robin competition.”We saw the Kiwi girls broke [the record] this morning,” Beaumont told Sky Sports. “Robbo [Mark Robinson] told us in the pre-match chat not to try and break it, but I think a few of the girls got a bit of a challenge on. It’s an incredible wicket, and we feel a bit sorry for the South Africa girls having to go two in two, but that’s the way it goes in this T20 series and we’ve all got one of those.”On this evidence, England will be itching not only for the rematch against South Africa – on this same ground on Saturday – but for their first encounter with the New Zealand big guns later that same day.Doubtless encouraged by the ruthlessness shown by Bates and Sophie Devine in their morning stand of 182, England’s ball-striking was clean and awesome from the get-go – and to think they had been suffering from power failure only a couple of years ago.Wyatt’s cover drive was purring from the very outset of her innings, while Beaumont’s ferocity in the arc from square leg to long-on was a sight to behold. There was finesse at times too, but it was scarcely required as the innings progressed and South Africa’s morale deserted them.Their captain, Dane van Niekerk, had given her team a ferocious talking-to in the break between matches, but it proved fruitless as England rattled along to their first hundred in just 53 balls – New Zealand, by contrast, had taken 66 earlier in the day.South Africa’s woes had been summed up by two polarised moments in the field – a missed stumping from Lizelle Lee which cannoned off her knee for byes, and a brilliant catch in the deep from Sune Luus to intercept another Beaumont smear over long-on, which she was forced to relinquish as her momentum dragged her over the rope.England, in reply, had one or two moments to forget in the field – not least Jenny Gunn, who dropped a sitter off Laura Wolvaardt in Brunt’s first over (she made amends moments later), then clung onto a one-handed screamer at long-on off van Niekerk, only to spill the simplest of relay lobs as she too was forced to take a second bite of the cherry with the boundary rope looming.The match was over as a contest almost before the second innings began, but for the second match running, van Niekerk provided her team with some cheer, as she clubbed her second defiant fifty of the day, this time off 40 balls with seven fours and a six. She finished on 72 from 51, as Anya Shrubsole pulled off a blinder, diving to her right at mid-off to intercept a flat drive.That catch, however, was arguably less impressive than Shrubsole’s final bowling figures. On a pitch on which every other bowler had come across as cannon fodder, not least Mackay and Masabata Klaas, both of whom conceded a record 59 runs in their spells, Shrubsole wheeled through her four overs for a cost of just eight runs.

MacDonald-Gay takes four wickets to keep the table-toppers in command

ECB Reporters Network supported by Rothesay30-Jul-2025Surrey continued their Metro Bank Women’s One-Day Cup charge with a three-wicket win over Warwickshire at the Edgbaston Community Sports Ground.Warwickshire were lifted to 239 all out by a dazzling maiden professional century by Davina Perrin (113 from 125 balls). Supported by Natasha Wraith (47, 49), Perrin salvaged her side from 32 for five after early damage done by Ryana MacDonald-Gay (four for 47) and Alice Monaghan (three for 48)Surrey then reached 240 for seven with 20 balls to spare as Alice Capsey’s sparkling 79 (73) underpinned the chase and Danni Wyatt-Hodge’s composed 43 not out (43) saw it to a comfortable conclusion.Surrey chose to bowl and did so very effectively in the opening overs as four batters had their furniture rearranged in the first 40 balls. Monaghan bowled Meg Austin through a pull and Abi Freeborn through the gate. MacDonald-Gay bowled Bethan Ellis behind her legs and induced Amu Surenkumar to play on. When Sophie Beech, on her debut, tucked her first ball to leg and was called for a quick single by Perrin and run out by Phoebe Franklin’s throw, it was 32 for five.Perrin and Wraith skilfully excavated their side from the hole with a partnership of 118 in 19 overs. Perrin posted the century stand in the grand manner with a straight six off Danielle Gregory before Monaghan returned to hit the stumps for a third time, Wraith’s as she tried to lift to leg.Issy Wong (21, 27) continued the recovery in a stand of 55 in nine overs with Perrin whose superb innings finally ended when she she lifted a Gregory full toss to long off. She walked off to a huge ovation and with her team right back in a game they seemed to have lost in the opening overs.Surrey’s reply took an early hit when Wong trapped Kira Chathli lbw. Bryony Smith (38, 31) and Capsey added 75 from 62 balls but when Smith launched Phoebe Brett over long off for six she immediately signalled for treatment and soon had to retire hurt having aggravated a side strain.Surrey shrugged off the blow as assertive cameos from Paige Schofield and Grace Harris kept the scoring rate high. Schofield fell lbw when she missed a sweep at Georgia Davis and Harris, match-winner in the final three days earlier, was bowled by Wong.Capsey was lured down the track by Brett and stumped and Millie Taylor kept Warwickshire in contention by removing Monaghan and Franklin in an over, but Wyatt-Hodge, with plenty of time on her side, eased Surrey calmly to their target.

Unbeaten half-century from Harry Came sees hosts take charge in pursuit of rare home win

ECB Reporters Network22-Aug-2024Zak Chappell lifted Derbyshire’s hopes of securing an elusive County Championship victory at Derby by demolishing Glamorgan on the opening day of the Division Two match.The fast bowler took 6 for 47, his best figures for the county, as the visitors were bowled out for 168 with Timm van der Gugten top scoring with an unbeaten 46.Glamorgan were 32 for 6 before Dan Douthwaite and van der Gugten led a mini recovery but Derbyshire closed on 119 for 2 with Harry Came not out 58. It leaves them in a strong position to push for a first Championship victory at the County Ground since they beat Sussex in August 2019.On a morning more in keeping with October, Derbyshire’s decision to bowl first on a grassy pitch paid immediate dividends with three wickets falling in the first five overs.In blustery conditions, Glamorgan’s top order had no answer to Chappell’s relentless accuracy and Luis Reece’s swing as they slumped to 9 for 3. Ben Kellaway’s promotion to opener was short-lived and he followed a pair on his first-class debut last September by edging a ball from Chappell that moved away late to register another duck in his third red-ball innings.In fairness, his more experienced team-mates fared little better with Billy Root bowled by a Reece delivery that kept low before Sam Northeast pushed forward to Chappell and was caught at second slip.Kiran Carlson played across one from Chappell that appeared to be going down before Reece got some late swing to have Colin Ingram caught behind. When Chris Cooke was caught behind down the leg side off one of the few bad balls Chappell bowled, Glamorgan were in disarray and grateful for the rain which resulted in an early lunch.Chappell, who passed 50 wickets in all formats for the season, left the field with outstanding figures of 4 for 9 from 6.4 overs but after the resumption they were dented when Douthwaite hit him for three fours in an over.With van der Gutgen playing solidly, the pair added 55 from 97 balls in relative comfort before Pat Brown removed Douthwaite with a snorter that nipped away late to take off stump.Chappell celebrated his fifth wicket when Mason Crane fenced at one to give Brooke Guest his fourth catch but Fraser Sheat on his debut looked capable until he top edged a pull to midwicket.Ned Leonard marked the first match of his loan spell from Somerset by helping van der Gugten take Glamorgan past 150 and drove Jack Morley’s second ball for six before he tried again next ball and holed out to long-on.Van der Gugten matched Chappell’s discipline with a probing spell but Sheat and Leonard could not exert the same pressure. Reece and Came shared an unbroken treble-century stand against Glamorgan last season but this time they managed only 21 before Reece was defeated by a full-length ball from van der Gugten.Guest played a loose stroke, clipping Leonard to midwicket with the score on 41, and Came should have gone on 28 but Ingram at first slip dropped an edge of Leonard.Came took advantage, seizing on any width to reach an 84-ball fifty which contained 10 fours, and with Wayne Madsen motoring to an unbeaten 41, they added 78 before bad light ended play.

The third day ended with England only 64 behind Pakistan’s 556 with seven first-innings wickets in hand

Vithushan Ehantharajah09-Oct-2024Stumps Responding to Pakistan’s mammoth first-innings score of 556 after the best part of two days in the dirt was always going to require something special from England. Not only did they respond emphatically to end day three of this first Test on 492 for 3, trailing by just 64, but they did so in historic fashion.Joe Root became England’s leading Test run-scorer, passing Sir Alastair Cook’s record of 12,473 runs on his way to a 35th Test hundred. It was typical Root, unassuming and busy with just 12 fours, set against Harry Brook’s boisterous 141* from 173 deliveries, picking up where he left off from a Player-of-the-Series performance on the 2022 tour of Pakistan, with his fourth century against them in as many matches.As it happens, this is Root’s first on these shores. And it has come after spending all day at the crease – he was the last England batter to achieve that feat, against Sri Lanka in Galle three years ago – meaning he has been absent for just eight deliveries of the 250 overs of this match so far.Related

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No wonder he struggled with cramps for the last half of the day. Having come to the crease on Tuesday following the dismissal of stand-in skipper Ollie Pope with just four on the board, resuming on Wednesday with England 96 for 1, he will mark his guard with 176 against his name on Thursday morning with his side holding all the aces.The Yorkshire duo of Root and Brook combined for 243 (and counting), a third successive century stand in the innings after Zak Crawley’s 78 and Ben Duckett’s 84 provided the guts for 109- and 136-run stands for the second and third wickets, respectively.As it has been for most of the last 12 years in English cricket, Root was the glue throughout. Starting day three with 32 to his name, he made the final ascent to the top of the England run-scorers’ pile 15 minutes before lunch when, on 67, he leaned into another compact drive for four to march along to 12,473 career runs, overtaking Cook as England’s most prolific Test batter, and the fifth overall, behind only Sachin Tendulkar, Ricky Ponting, Jacques Kallis and Rahul Dravid.Root was always going to mark the occasion with three figures, especially on a pitch that remains interminably dull, with just two wickets falling all day, and none in the final session. He moved to a crisp 100 with a reverse sweep off his 167th ball for a fifth century in 2024. It was the third time he has struck as many in a calendar year, after 2021 and 2022. Only Ricky Ponting (four) and Matthew Hayden (four) scored five or more Test centuries in more calendar years.Aamer Jamal was by far the most impressive of Pakistan’s bowlers on the day•Getty Images

Root was finding matters so easy that he even took to batting left-handed against legspinner Abrar Ahmed, who was hiding the ball outside leg stump as much to slow the game down as to protect himself. Two years after marking his Test debut with 11 wickets against England at this very ground, he currently nurses grim figures of 0 for 174 from 35 overs. That Root only struck one of his fours off Abrar – a full toss dispatched through midwicket off the opening ball of the 92nd over of the innings – spoke to the punishment meted out by Crawley, Duckett and, latterly, Brook.Indeed Crawley and Duckett should have got three figures themselves. But within the first hour of play, Crawley flicked uppishly across a full-length delivery from Shaheen Shah Afridi and picked out Aamer Jamal at midwicket. Jamal’s second catch of the innings wasn’t a patch on the screamer with which he had dismissed Pope on the second evening, however. The ball looped straight to him, and he all but dropped it before scooping it up at the second attempt.Either way, Crawley was gone for his sixth score between 60 and 80 this year. Duckett strode in at No. 4 and motored on, showing no ill-effects from a thumb injury that prevented him from opening the batting. He had one life on 37, when Naseem Shah found his outside edge only for the ball to bisect keeper and a wide first slip. But with the ball reversing enough for Jamal to trap the left-hand batter on the crease from around the wicket, Duckett was dismissed for the fourth time between 70 and 90 since his third Test hundred back in February, against India in Rajkot.Brook, however, naturally assumed the mantle of aggressor immediately upon his arrival with the score 249 for 3. It was on the previous Pakistan tour that Brook announced himself to the world with 468 runs at 93.60, with centuries in all three Tests. A guided four to third from his second delivery showed he was back to inflict more upon the hosts two years on.Harry Brook continued his love affair with the Pakistan bowlers•Getty Images

Despite a hint of reverse swing on offer – first with Jamal, then Afridi – Brook’s speed out of the blocks could not be tempered. Afridi felt the full force of that when a short delivery was smashed back down the ground like a tennis forehand for the first of consecutive boundaries. Brook made it to his half-century in 49 deliveries, his fifth 50-plus score in six innings against Pakistan.Brook’s next fifty took a little longer – 69 balls – in part because the field was spread, the bowling lines negative, and his own battles with cramp, which meant neither he nor Root could push for singles or fully commit to attacking strokes that required extra stretching. But having consumed plenty of gels and isotonic drinks, he struck Abrar down the ground in the 83rd over for the first six of the innings, which took him to 98. A misfield for two cut to point brought up his sixth career century.He could have been on his way back on 75 when a block off the impressive Jamal – comfortably the pick of the bowlers – ricocheted off his grille and rolled on to his stumps without dislodging the bails. Root, similarly, could have been seen off on 168 had umpire Kumar Dharmasena raised the finger following a strong lbw shout from Naseem, after rare seam movement pinned the batter in front with the second new ball. Shan Masood opted to use Pakistan’s last review to double-check, which was retained after DRS came back with an umpire’s call on the impact into leg stump.It summed up a torturous time for Pakistan, who conceded 4.83 an over across today’s 82 overs, watching on powerlessly as their opening effort was made to feel under par. With a night’s rest for Root and Brook, and Jamie Smith waiting in the wings, a first innings lead of note feels inevitable.