That wicket makes India strongish favourites to square the series, but England’s merry band of run-chasers won’t go quietly.One way or another, tomorrow should be the last day of this terrific series.Goodnight.Fantastic bowling from Mohammed Siraj! He changed the field as if for the short ball, only to hit Crawley with a perfect yorker that sneaked under the bat and rammed into the stumps.A fantastic way to end another compelling day.

It was the fifth ball of the overThis morning, during a charming interview on Sky Sports, Siraj said that when he goes to bed at night he needs to know he has given absolutely everything on the field.If not, he struggles to settle.He’ll sleep like a baby tonight.Crawley backs away just as Siraj is about to bowl the second ball of the over.Unlike at Lord’s he isn’t timewasting as this was always going to be the final over.

Shubman Gill folds his arms and smiles; Crawley also breaks into a little grin.Oh to be a fly on the wall when the two teams get together tomorrow night for an end-of-series chat.Oh my, Crawley isn’t smiling now! Mohammed Siraj has bowled him with a spectacular yorker!Time for one more over before the close.Mohammed Siraj will bowl it.13th over: England 50-0 (Crawley 14, Duckett 34) Crawley ends his mini drought with a tight single to mid-on off Krishna.

Duckett then punches a couple to bring up another fifty partnership with his cricketing BFF, this one in exactly 13 overs.Apparently we now live in a world in which two England openers add 50 in 13 overs in a Test match and it feels on the slow side.12th over: England 44-0 (Crawley 13, Duckett 30) Siraj jumps wide on the crease to zip a cracking delivery past Crawley’s attempted drive.India would love to take one of their beloved opponents with them before the close.Crawley started fluently and scored 13 from his first 11 balls; since then he’s made 0 from 18.

“Robinho!” hics Simon McMahon, who really does sound like if he’s high on sausages and cider.“Is there anything better on a Saturday evening than getting a lift home from the ever understanding and loving Mrs McMahon after being at a sausage and cider festival all day and arriving home in time to see the end of the days play and then switch to Celebrity Pointless watching Crawley and Duckett make early inroads into what not long ago would have seemed an impossible target, but that now wouldn’t be all that remarkable were it to be reached.That’s Bazball’s greatest achievement, right? Backing yourself, trusting in the process.Talent plus self belief.How else would I have been able to neck 18 pints and eat three foot longs today?”11th over: England 43-0 (Crawley 13, Duckett 29) That was a really nasty blow.

And though Duckett is okay to continue, he’s clearly still in a bit of pain.10.4 overs: England 42-0 (Crawley 13, Duckett 28) Krishna changes ends to replace Deep.He beats Duckett twice, then pins him on the bottom hand with a brutish delivery.Duckett is in a fair bit of pain and the physio has come onto the field.

10th over: England 42-0 (Crawley 13, Duckett 28) Duckett gets four more with an edge over gully off Siraj.It hasn’t been easy – the odd ball is moving sharply off the seam – but England have started well.9th over: England 37-0 (Crawley 13, Duckett 23) Duckett times Deep pleasantly down the ground for a couple, then scrunches wide of the sprawling Jadeja at mid-on for three.So far so good for England’s openers, even if they haven’t recaptured the audacity of their first-innings partnership.England need another 337 to win.

8th over: England 32-0 (Crawley 13, Duckett 18) With just over 30 minutes remaining, Mohammed Siraj is let off the leash by Shubman Gill.His third delivery is too full and punched emphatically through mid-off for four by Duckett.After 16 consecutive dot balls, England need that hit of oxygen.“I was surprised to read your statement on Tongue currently being the top wicket-taker despite only playing three Tests,” writes Tom Van der Gucht.“He seems to fall in that bracket of bowlers (along with the likes of Steven Finn and Devon Malcolm) who take wickets but are mistrustedby captains and selectors due to their economy rates.

“Do you think England have not got the balance between dependability and maverick wicket-takers quite right this series? I know they were aiming for the knock-out blow in the last Test, hence sticking with Archer and Carse despite them being knackered.But the golden balance seems to be a steady Woakes / Potts seamer, pacier and more metronomic Atkinson/Carse and tearaway stumps rattler Archer/Wood/Tongue and Stokes...Or maybe I’m going too much down a Michael Vaughan Cricket Manager 2007 PC rabbit hole (and if I was, I’d end up doing something ludicrous like drop Stokes for Curran in order to get some left arm angles) in order to cheat the algorithm.

”It’s possibly more nuanced than that, and I’m not sure I’d agree with the categorisation of Archer and Carse,I suppose one of the few downsides of having a big group of quick bowlers is that you have to decide which three to pick for each game based on fitness, morale, the pitch, the opposition and so on,For 15 years, with a handful of exceptions, England only had to choose one quick bowler for each match,7th over: England 27-0 (Crawley 13, Duckett 13) The pressure is building,Crawley, hit on the thigh by the previous delivery, tries to smear Deep into outer space and is beaten.

Two maidens in a row – that can’t have happened too often against Crawley and Duckett – and just one run from the last 17 deliveries.6th over: England 27-0 (Crawley 13, Duckett 13) Duckett feels for a good delivery from Krishna and is beaten.At least he didn’t leave it.Krishna completes a rare maiden, just the third of the match for India.Duckett usually starts the English car but tonight he’s straining for rhythm.

His 13 has come from 24 balls, Crawley’s from 13.5th over: England 27-0 (Crawley 13, Duckett 13) A few words between Duckett and Deep enliven an otherwise quiet over.No contact to report, yet.“I agree with you, I think (with hindsight) I would have rested Jofra for Old Trafford and played him here,” says John Swan.“I guess the difficulty is, who would have the self-discipline to have Jofra available and not pick him.

..? Maybe there was an element too of expecting a more traditional Old Trafford wicket? Even though it’s well-known to be a slab, at least this year...

”Yeah, in this case it’s hindsight-driven but I do think England are slightly inflexible, perhaps even macho, with their use of fast bowlers.Gus Atkinson, for example, was way down on speed by the end of the New Zealand tour after playing 11 Tests out of a possible 12 in less than six months.4th over: England 24-0 (Crawley 13, Duckett 10) Duckett tries to pull Krishna, doesn’t make proper contact and clonks the ball over mid-off for a single.Crawley, whose game looks in much better order than it did at the start of the series, times a lovely cut past backward point for four.3rd over: England 16-0 (Crawley 7, Duckett 8) Crawley is beaten, chasing a very wide short ball from Deep.

England desperately need these two to set the tone as they did in the big run-chase at Headingley.And when England chased 378 against India at Edgbaston in 2022, Crawley and Alex Lees added 107 in 21.4 overs.(Lees also produced one of the great sledging retorts.)After carving his first boundary behind square, Crawley is hit on the right bicep by an exceedingly nasty lifter.

It hit the fleshy part of the arm so he’s fine to continue once the pain subsides.India are very chirpy in the field, as they should be in this position.Deep’s second over ends with a grotesque seaming lifter, barely legal.It beats Duckett all ends up and almost clears the leaping Jurel.Good luck playing that.

Duckett, a man who would probably retain a resting heart rate if you dropped a marmot in his bath, looks at the pitch and smiles wryly.2nd over: England 10-0 (Crawley 2, Duckett 8) India have a cover sweeper in place for Crawley, so a trademark thump yields only one run rather than four.There’s nobody on the boundary when Duckett helps himself to successive boundaries from errant deliveries on leg stump.The first was tucked off the hip, the second chipped over backward square leg.1st over: England 1-0 (Crawley 1, Duckett 0) Eeeyyyyyyyyah, almost the perfect start for India.

Deep’s fifth ball seamed and bounced sharply to hit Duckett on the top of the pad; they went up for LBW before rightly concluding it would have bounced over the top.Prasidh Krishna will share the new ball, a change of policy from the first innings.Mohammed Siraj has been at his best with an ageing ball.There are still 25 overs remaining tonight, not that we’ll get them in.Akash Deep is about to open the bowling.

England need 374 to win.They chased 371 in the first Test at Headingley.We all love it when the end of a story references the beginning, don’t we?Josh Tongue picks up a five-for in the usual style – caught midwicket off a skier.Washington launched him miles in the air and was well caught by Crawley, who almost collided with Pope as he took the catch.That’s a terrific effort from Tongue, who has bowled 30 overs in the second innings alone.

He finishes with 5 for 125 in the innings, 8 for 182 in the match and 19 in the series – that’s the most on either side, though Siraj should overtake him in the next 24 hours.Washington smacked a brutal 53 from 46 balls and added 39 for the last wicket with Prasidh Krishna, who faced precisely two deliveries.87th over: India 396-9 (Washington 53, Krishna 0) Even the mishits are working out for Washington.He clonks the last ball from Atkinson over mid-on for … a single, which allows him to keep the strike.“Is there anything better,” begins Simon McMahon, who sounds like he’s high on sausages and cider, on a Saturday teatime in early August than being at a sausage and cider festival watching the last recognised batsman throwing the bat with No.

11 at the other end as the bowling side get more and more frustrated and the crowd lap it up?”86,5 overs: India 395-9 (Washington 52, Krishna 0) Washington slashes and pulls Atkinson for successive boundaries – then launches a monstrous six over midwicket to reach his fifty from only 39 balls,At one stage he had 17 from 27!This is a thrilling assault from a player of enormous substance,That six has done such damage to the ball that it will need to be changed,86th over: India 379-9 (Washington 36, Krishna 0) The value of that bye becomes apparent when Washington hooks Tongue for two sixes in three balls.

Big ones, too, almost a mirror image of Ian Botham at Old Trafford in 1981.Tongue bowls successive wides before Washington takes a single off the fifth legitimate delivery of the over.Krishna has one ball to survive… and Tongue spears it down the leg side.India lead by 356.85th over: India 364-9 (Washington 23, Krishna 0) Washington goes into T20 mode, lifting a full ball from Atkinson for a big six over midwicket.

Atkinson tries to hide the last delivery to keep Washington down at that end; Krishna thwarts him by stealing a bye to the keeper.84th over: India 357-9 (Washington 17, Krishna 0) Ah, that’s why Siraj was keen to go upstairs – he got a very thin inside edge.Sudharsan and Jurel wasted reviews earlier in the innings.“Cheers for pointing me towards that OBO of England v India in the T20 World Cup years ago,” writes John Davis.“I always enjoy reading those with the benefits of hindsight.

Particularly enjoyed this little gem later on: ‘Anderson - a good bowler, maybe very good, but still laughably overrated in this country’.”For some reason, I had a wart on my fanny over Anderson throughout the summer of 2009.I don’t mind getting it wrong – everyone does – but I wish I could take back some of the sneering, arrogant language.Josh Tongue picks up his seventh wicket of a match in which he has blown hot and cold.He gets Siraj out of there straight away with a full, quick delivery that hits the pad in front of middle and leg