Ignore the memes, Harry – those splayed stumps speak of Brook’s focus on glory | Barney Ronay
By strict formal logic any serious defence of Harry Brook’s stump-splaying dismissal 13 minutes before lunch on the fourth day at Lord’s should be showy, ill-timed and based almost entirely on hot air and flimflam.You could probably also chuck in unapologetic and maddeningly super-cool, peering down from its balcony, guns out, wraparounds in place.Be where your keyboard is.This, mate, this is how we save colour match reporting.It’s just the way I sidebar.
Brook will be chastised for that moment of weakness.He has already been mocked and memed on social media.It was a hugely frustrating way to get out, made all the more so by its context.England were 87 for three at the time and paddling for the interval, still semi-intact despite a high grade opening spell from Mohammed Siraj and a bizarrely wicketless Jasprit Bumrah.Brook and Joe Root were at the wicket, the match all set to veer decisively one way either side of lunch.
At which point Brook decided it would be tactically smart to sweep an 83mph ball from Akash Deep, pre-programmed, already going down, and exposing his middle stump which was duly clanked out of the ground.This was an act of such decorative abandon it felt like watching a pair of escapers crawling for the barbed wire fence, dodging the watchtower lights, only for one of them to decide to stand up and put on an impromptu feat of juggling with a sabre, two grapefruits and a bowling ball.Brook was playing beautifully at the time, striking the ball with rare clarity on a tough pitch.The previous over from Deep he had gone four, four, six to move to 23 off 18 balls.Both of the first two boundaries came from the Hedgehog Sweep, rolling into a ball and scooping to fine leg, the second one almost for six.
The energy had begun to shift in the ground, a buzz of counterattack in the air.Right up to the moment Brook tried the same thing again in Deep’s next over and produced what looks, in isolation, like a witless swipe.That moment will be well-seasoned red meat to those predisposed to see only feckless entitlement in the Baz-bro mindset, a cult of alpha dog amour-propre.And yet, and yet, and yet.In context, well, it kind of scans.
There are two other things worth saying about it.The first is that this was an excellent piece of captaincy.Shubman Gill might have taken Deep off after the previous over, which also saw him pumped into the pavilion by Brook with a lovely sense of open-shouldered freedom.Instead Gill kept him on and moved deep backward square leg finer for the ramp shot.India had read their man.
The field change encouraged the same shot but squarer,Deep produced a fine delivery, too full for the shot, tailing late, and smashing into the base of middle stump,Never interrupt your opponent when he’s making a mistake, as Sun Tzu, patron saint of inspirational business brunches, once said,This was Bazball decoded,And India’s attack were excellent all day, complementary methods expertly deployed.
The second thing, and the real Brook apologia, is that the thought behind the shot did at least make some kind of tactical sense.Conditions had been tricky though the morning.Zak Crawley was basically placed in the stocks in the opening half hour, hit on the hand, wafting constantly, edging and clothing every drive.It was like watching India bowl at a very brave, earnest hatstand.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 promotionNitish Kumar Reddy came on and Crawley exhaled, lifted him over mid-on like Lord Wangleton hitting the under-gardener into the cabbage fields, then spooned a stiff-legged drive to point.
Ben Duckett had looked both comfortable and skittish,There is something adorable about his own version of the rolling sweep, knees bent, paws coiled,It’s like watching Paddington bat,But he went slashing for the north circular, leaving Ollie Pope to start, as ever, like a man trying to evade a sniper in the stands,This was the context of Brook’s counterattack, a need to reverse the momentum.
Like all outcome-based things, when it fails it looks both wrong and utterly avoidable.But it was at least logical, as opposed to a random brain fade.Even half an hour of batting like this might have shifted the score significantly in a tight game.The fact is Brook has succeeded like this before.There is a misconception his record is based on flat tracks, on bullying tired bowlers.
But there have been some breathtaking tough-pitch hundreds to date in his Test career, compiled playing the same way that killed him at Lord’s.The hundred in his third Test in Multan came in a game where nobody else got one.There was a century off 107 balls when it was doing loads in Wellington, another in Christchurch last November, 123 off 115 balls in Wellington again when England had been 43 for four.The shapes were terrible here.The highlights reel will look infuriating.
But this was at least a thing that has worked before.The difference is to India’s credit: excellent captaincy and a good piece of bowling.Plus Brook’s own learning curve, the sense of reaching for too much of a good thing all at once.From that point England struggled to 192 on the back of some graft from Root and Ben Stokes, then took four wickets of their own late on.This Test has now become one of those epic slow burn affairs, there to be won by the seizing of key moments.
Brook, at the very least, tried his hand.
Bank of England governor says jobs slowdown could prompt rate cut; European markets fall after Trump tariff threat – business live
Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the financial markets and the world economy.The pound has dropped to a three-week low this morning, after the governor of the Bank of England said it could make larger cuts to interest rates if the jobs market slows quickly.Andrew Bailey told The Times that “slack” was opening up in the UK economy, following the increase to employers’ national insurance contributions. That slack should create downward pressure on inflation.Bailey insisted: “I really do believe the path is downward” for interest rates
Pound drops after Bank of England says it could cut interest rates more if jobs market slows
The pound has dropped to a three-week low after the governor of the Bank of England said it could make bigger cuts to interest rates if the job market slows too quickly.Andrew Bailey said “slack” was opening up in the UK economy, as higher taxes have squeezed employers.He told the Times that “I really do believe the path is downward” for interest rates. The bank rate stands at 4.25%, after four quarter-point cuts in the last year, and the Bank is next scheduled to make another decision on 7 August
An AI-generated band got 1m plays on Spotify. Now music insiders say listeners should be warned
They went viral, amassing more than 1m streams on Spotify in a matter of weeks, but it later emerged that hot new band the Velvet Sundown were AI-generated – right down to their music, promotional images and backstory.The episode has triggered a debate about authenticity, with music industry insiders saying streaming sites should be legally obliged to tag music created by AI-generated acts so consumers can make informed decisions about what they are listening to.Initially, the “band”, described as “a synthetic music project guided by human creative direction”, denied they were an AI creation, and released two albums in June called Floating On Echoes and Dust And Silence, which were similar to the country folk of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.Things became more complicated when someone describing himself as an “adjunct” member told reporters that the Velvet Sundown had used the generative AI platform Suno in the creation of their songs, and that the project was an “art hoax”.The band’s official social media channels denied this and said the group’s identity was being “hijacked”, before releasing a statement confirming that the group was an AI creation and was “Not quite human
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Lions squad continues to grow with three players added before first Wallabies Test
The British & Irish Lions squad in Australia continues to grow in number with three extra Scotland players set to join the party. Rory Sutherland, Ewan Ashman and Darcy Graham have been called up to provide cover for next week’s First Nations & Pasifika XV fixture which will be played between the first and second Tests against the Wallabies.All three players are currently in New Zealand where they had been preparing to face Samoa but will now become the latest members of the Lions ever-expanding squad. The Lions management have already had to summon four injury replacements in Owen Farrell, Ben White, Jamie Osborne and Jamie George with prop Thomas Clarkson also added as cover over the weekend.Sign up to The BreakdownThe latest rugby union news and analysis, plus all the week's action reviewedafter newsletter promotionThe decision increases the number of Lions players in tour to 44 and revives memories of the “Geography Six” controversy in New Zealand in 2017
‘Living my dream’: Sinner delights in Wimbledon triumph against Alcaraz
Jannik Sinner said he is living his dream after defeating Carlos Alcaraz in spectacular fashion to win his first Wimbledon title. The world No 1 beat the two-time defending champion 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 to become the first Italian to win a Wimbledon singles title and clinch his fourth grand slam crown.“It’s amazing to be in this position,” Sinner said. “We were talking before the match, we would never have thought to be in this position back in the days when I was young. This was only a dream; dream of the dream as it was so far away from where I am from
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