‘You don’t just have to win or lose’: Trescothick admits draw in England’s thoughts for final day
Finally, the D word has entered England’s vocabulary.While Marcus Trescothick, the assistant coach, said the team “are always trying to be as positive as we can”, in the face of needing 536 runs with seven wickets standing to beat India on the final day, he acknowledged: “You don’t have to just win or lose.” A dressing room that is normally fixated on winning is finally coming to terms with a different result – not defeat, but a draw.As the final day at Edgbaston dawns on Sunday, the prospect of victory will be laughably remote, with India’s seamers in form and still fresh and England pursuing a target fully 190 higher than anything that has been successfully chased in the entire history of Test cricket.The Old Trafford washout during the 2023 Ashes remains the only stalemate in 35 matches played under Ben Stokes’s captaincy.
“I have got no interest in playing for draws, the dressing room’s got no interest in playing for draws and we always try and look at the positive option,” Stokes famously said in 2022.But after India completely dominated the fourth day, Trescothick admitted that the time might have come to become interested.“That has been built up away from what the changing-room messages are,” Trescothick said.“We obviously understand a bit better what we’re trying to do.We’re trying to give the players the best opportunity to win games every time we go out to play.
And if we can’t do that, then we try and adapt accordingly,“We’re always trying to be as positive as we can,I think we all appreciate it’s a hell of a lot of runs to try to score,It’s nearly 550 tomorrow, and I don’t think we’ve seen scoring rates quite that quick in a day,We’re not stupid enough [not] to understand that you don’t have to just win or lose.
There are three results possible in every game that you play.”There was a point as England started their long-distance chase on Saturday evening when the residents of the Hollies Stand struck up a chant of “stand up if you still believe”.“We were all stood up in the changing room,” Trescothick said.“It’ll be a challenging day, no doubt, but we’ve had various Test matches over the period of time that Brendon [McCulllum] and Ben have been in charge and [changed] the way we’ve gone about things.We’ve done some things in our time that are different to what has been done before.
”During England’s first innings all 10 wickets fell when the ball in play was less than 22 overs old, and if there is a straw for them to clutch it is that they are only six away from reaching that point.“In our first innings we were three down overnight,” Trescothick said.“We came out the next day, obviously we lost a couple of early wickets, but then we had a monster partnership that really got us back into the game.So it’s definitely possible.Once the ball goes softer it definitely gets a little bit easier, and it hasn’t seamed as much as when it’s new.
So if we can potentially bat a bit better, and maybe not lose two wickets like we did on the morning of day three, then who knows?”Morne Morkel, India’s bowling coach, certainly did not think the result was a foregone conclusion: “Tomorrow morning that first hour is going to be crucial,” he said.India’s decision to delay their declaration until deep into the final session, by which time their lead had been stretched to a massive 607, suggested that even after extending their opponent’s task to historic proportions – and with memories fresh of them easily chasing 371 at Headingley a fortnight ago – they feared England might actually make it.Sign up to The SpinSubscribe to our cricket newsletter for our writers' thoughts on the biggest stories and a review of the week’s actionafter newsletter promotion“England have been successful playing this way, chasing totals,” Morkel said.“I know a lot of teams would prefer to bat out three or four sessions and shake hands and take the draw, but that’s their thing.If teams set them a total of 400 they’re happy to take it on.
That’s great for the game, but I think teams will start to be slightly more street smart, learn from their mistakes and plan a little bit better.”
No 10 regrets choice of ‘insipid’ new cabinet secretary, sources say
Keir Starmer’s No 10 increasingly has “buyer’s remorse” about the new cabinet secretary, Chris Wormald, who has only been running the civil service for six months, Downing Street and Whitehall sources have told the Guardian.Wormald, who was the permanent secretary at the Department of Health and Social Care during the Covid pandemic, was chosen by the prime minister from a shortlist of four names.Starmer made his pick in consultation with the head of the civil service and the first civil service commissioner, saying at the time that Wormald “brings a wealth of experience to this role at a critical moment in the work of change this new government has begun”.However, multiple sources said some people around Starmer were growing to view the choice of Wormald as “disastrous” for the prospects of radical reform of the civil service and had begun to explore options for how to work around him.One said Wormald was viewed as “insipid” and prone to wringing his hands about problems rather than coming up with solutions, and too entrenched in the status quo
‘We promised change but people aren’t feeling it yet’: Labour rues poor first year
In a stiflingly hot room at a health centre in East London, as he announced the government’s 10-year plan for the NHS on Thursday, Keir Starmer was confronted with a brutal assessment of his first year in power.“You’ve U-turned on your reforms, your MPs don’t trust you, and markets worry that you’ve lost resolve on fiscal discipline. It’s the epitome, isn’t it, of sticking-plaster politics and chaos that you promised voters you would end?” a television journalist asked.Initially, Starmer avoided answering the question, but he eventually addressed the fall-out from his government’s chaotic handling of its welfare bill. “I’m not going to pretend the last few days have been easy: they’ve been tough,” he admitted
Reform councillor’s boast about removing ‘trans-ideological’ books from children’s library sections falls flat
A boast by a Reform UK councillor that he ensured the removal of “trans-ideological material and books” from the children’s section of his county’s libraries has fallen flat after it emerged that no such material ever existed there.Paul Webb, the cabinet member for communities at Kent council, whose portfolio covers libraries, posted a video to X in which he said he had been “recently contacted by a concerned member of the public who found trans-ideological material and books in the children’s section of one of our libraries”.He said: “I’ve looked into this and this was the case. I’ve today issued instructions for them all to be removed from the children’s section of any of our libraries.“They do not belong in the children’s section of our libraries
Sultana’s alliance with Corbyn shows Starmer there is life in the Labour left yet
A year ago, many around Keir Starmer believed the Labour left had been sealed in a tomb. The suspension of Jeremy Corbyn, the disciplinary action against Labour MPs including Zarah Sultana and the push to the political centre were supposed to fracture the party’s leftwing.But this week’s drama, which included the prime minister narrowly avoiding defeat on the welfare bill after 49 Labour MPs rebelled, the chancellor’s tears during prime minister’s questions and Sultana announcing she was quitting the party to join Corbyn’s Independent Alliance, has shown that the forces are very much alive.It has also shown that the votes for a populist challenge remain there for the taking, if anyone can get organised enough to harness them.In the months after Starmer’s landslide win, figures excluded from Labour’s selection processes have been regrouping in the spaces he does not occupy: outside Westminster
Ban on Palestine Action to take effect after legal challenge fails
Being a member of, or showing support for, Palestine Action will be a criminal offence from Saturday after a last-minute legal challenge to suspend the group’s proscription under anti-terrorism laws failed.A ban on Palestine Action, which uses direct action to mainly target Israeli weapons factories in the UK and their supply chain, was voted through by parliament this week but lawyers acting for its co-founder Huda Ammori had sought to prevent it taking effect.After a hearing at the high court on Friday, however, Mr Justice Chamberlain declined to grant her application for interim relief. Ammori said: “The home secretary is rushing through the implementation of the proscription at midnight tonight despite the fact that our legal challenge is ongoing and that she has been completely unclear about how it will be enforced, leaving the public in the dark about their rights to free speech and expression after midnight tonight when this proscription comes into effect.”Chamberlain said: “I have concluded that the harm which would ensue if interim relief is refused but the claim later succeeds is insufficient to outweigh the strong public interest in maintaining the order in force
Jeremy Corbyn confirms talks about forming new party with Zarah Sultana
Jeremy Corbyn has confirmed he is in discussions about creating a new leftwing political party, hours after the MP Zarah Sultana announced she was quitting Labour to co-lead the project.Sultana, the MP for Coventry South who had the Labour whip suspended last year for voting against the government over the two-child limit on benefits, said on Thursday night she was quitting Labour and would “co-lead the founding of a new party” with Corbyn.Her announcement took some on the left of Labour by surprise and was seen as premature and potentially counterproductive.While Corbyn has long hinted at plans to establish a more organised platform for leftwing and pro-Palestinian campaigning, he has so far avoided confirming any formal structure or leadership arrangements.Corbyn, the MP for Islington North, is understood to be reluctant to take on the title of leader, as he has a preference for collective decision-making, and he believes imposing a hierarchy too soon could risk fragmenting the coalition of like-minded MPs he has spent months encouraging to work together
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