That’s it from us.Thanks for your company, correspondence and jokes about Blessing and Pope.The OBO will be back in the morning, and so will Ollie Pope – as long as Ben Stokes doesn’t declare overnight.Zak Crawley is giving an interview.In England’s practice kit, black shorts and a purple sweatshirt, he looks more laid-back than ever.

Next to Ian Ward, he looks even taller than usual.“Fantastic to score a Test hundred,” he says, “and great for the team as well.With Ben playing as well as he did, I didn’t feel a heap of pressure.and then Popey played the same way… Always want a big score, disappointed when I got out, more runs were there for the taking.“You obviously know that you’re under pressure but I just want to play well, find some rhythm – I love batting.

The wickets haven’t been great for Kent, I’ve actually felt in decent touch for a couple of months now… I’ve been trying to stand a little bit taller, not trying to overhit the ball.”Ward asks him about Adam Hollioake, Kent’s new coach.“I’ve loved having Smokey around,” Crawley says with a smile.“He’s a great guy and he gets you competing a bit more and that’s something I want to do as well, trying to win games for my team.”88th over: England 498-3 (Pope 169, Brook 9) The last over falls to Chivanga, who does pretty well, varying his length and restricting Pope to a single.

Brook adds a leg glance for four but England can’t quite make 500.Despite this failure, they’ve just about had the better of the day.All the top three made hundreds, with Duckett leading the way, Crawley taking his time and Pope having a ball.87th over: England 492-3 (Pope 168, Brook 5) Muzarabani is the latest bowler to die the death of Ollie Pope’s cuts.This one is especially brutal, ringing out like a rifle shot and, as Stuart Broad notes, giving the fielders no time to move.

England haven’t hit 500 in a day in a home Test, Nasser says, since 1924.Will there be one more over so they can have a go? There will.86th over: England 486-3 (Pope 163, Brook 4) Nyauchi gives way to Tanaka Chivanga.Pope inside-edges an on-drive for a single, then Brook plays a push past cover for two.85th over: England 483-3 (Pope 162, Brook 2) Muzarabani, still getting good bounce, keeps Harry Brook quiet.

Stuart Broad is analysing his action: “Can he gets those arms pumping, bring a bit more energy to the load-up?” Nasser Hussain is just praising him: “Excellent set.”83rd over: England 479-3 (Pope 161, Brook 0) Each England partnership has been smaller than the one before: 231 by Crawley and Duckett, 137 by Crawley and Pope, and a mere 111 by Pope and Root.It took them 17.3 overs, so they rattled along at better than a run a ball, unlike the others.Blessing strikes! He produces a sparky lifter which Root tries to pull off the front foot.

A top edge sails high into the air and lands safely in the hands of Sean Williams at long leg.82nd over: England 476-2 (Pope 159, Root 33) After hitting three fours off the first over of the new ball, what do you do with the second? If you’re Ollie Pope in this mood, you flick a big inswinger for six.He didn’t even middle it.That makes 22 off the first seven deliveries with the new ball, but Nyauchi keeps calm and carries on and restricts Pope to a single off the rest of this over.81st over: England 469-2 (Pope 152, Root 33) The new ball is available and Craig Ervine takes it right away, hoping it goes better than the one his bowlers were given this morning.

But the batters seemed to be limbering up for it just now and sure enough the first delivery, from Muzarabani, is cut for four by Root.The fourth is cover-driven for four by Pope, with one hand off the bat.The fifth is upper-cut for four more as Pope crouches craftily to get under the bounce.And the sixth is on-driven for yet another four, to take Pope past 150.It’s carnage.

80th over: England 453-2 (Pope 141, Root 28) A tuck off the hip takes Joe Root to yet another milestone: 13,000 runs in Tests,He’s the first Englishman to do it and the fifth man in all, joining Tendulkar, Ponting, Kallis and Dravid,All but Tendulkar are withijn Root’s reach: he needs 400 runs to go second on the list,That single hands the strike to Pope, who celebrates with three fours,79th over: England 440-2 (Pope 129, Root 27) Blessing Muzarabani is fit to resume, though he may regret it.

Pope gets a jammy four, trickling away off the toe of the bat, and follows it with a handsome one, driven on the up through the covers,78th over: England 430-2 (Pope 120, Root 26) Just one run from the bat, and a leg-bye, off this over from Raza,He alone has kept the run rate below four,77th over: England 428-2 (Pope 120, Root 25) Pope plays an on-drive off Nyauchi that could go straight into a coaching video,Trent Bridge, too, is a picture – pale blue sky, soft white clouds, green-and-brown outfield.

76th over: England 423-2 (Pope 116, Root 24) The Zimbabweans are dying the death of a thousand cuts.Pope, facing Raza, plays another one with fast hands and gets four for it.Then he almost runs Joe Root out, sending him back and seeing him put in a full-length dive.Root doesn’t seem too bothered: as grandees of the game go, he’s not at all grand.75th over: England 417-2 (Pope 111, Root 23) Back comes Victor Nyauchi, who put in a hard shift either side of tea.

He does well now, going for just a single even though Pope, in party mode now, dances down the track to him.74th over: England 416-2 (Pope 110, Root 23) Raza goes back to conceding singles.He’s been much the best bowler.This is the fourth time that England’s top three have all scored hundreds in the same Test innings.In their first 133 years of Tests, they managed it only once – Hobbs, Sutcliffe and Woolley agaunst South Africa at Lord’s in 1934.

In 2020-11 they were joined by Strauss, Cook and Trott, saving the day at Brisbane and paving the way for an Ashes win.Twelve years later, Crawley, Duckett and Pope did it against Pakistan at Rawalpindi.And now they’ve done it again.London buses, basically.73rd over: England 411-2 (Pope 108, Root 20) Even Joe Root is going at a run a ball.

Facing Bennett, he plays a delicious little dab for four.“If they want to keep going,” says Adrian Muldrew, “England’s biggest Test innings and biggest innings win could both be possible.As you know, Tim, the current records were both set at the Oval in 1938.But don’t ask Sam Cook, because by his own admission he don’t know much about history.” Ha.

72nd over: England 402-2 (Pope 104, Root 15) And the 400 comes up too.Facing Raza, Pope dances onto the back foot and cuts for four to go to a sparkling hundred.His 103 has come off just 109 balls with 14 fours and a six, flicked over deep square.71st over: England 396-2 (Pope 99, Root 14) Ervine, finally showing some creativity as a captain, replaces one occasional off-spinner (Madhevere) with another (Brian Bennett).Pope saunters to 99 with a late cut.

69th over: England 389-2 (Pope 93, Root 13) Muzabarani went off the field after bowling that over, so Craig Ervine turns back to Wessly Madhevere’s occasional offbreaks, which went for a flurry of runs earlier while also seeing off Ben Duckett.He drops short now and gets cut for four by Root, for four by Pope, and for two by Pope, who is now in the nerveless 90s.68th over: England 377-2 (Pope 88, Root 6) After leaking a few singles.Raza tries going round the wicket.Pope counters with a punchy push towards mid-on, which Raza himself does well to stop with a dive.

67th over: England 373-2 (Pope 86, Root 4) Blessing Muzarabani returns and Root brings out his signature shot, the square force that doesn’t seem to involve any force at all.Meanwhile a dry email has come in from Paul Haynes.“England,” he says, “are down to the bowlers, then.”66th over: England 369-2 (Pope 85, Root 1) You’re a highly inexperienced touring team.You’ve finally managed to take a second wicket.

And who do you find coming in? Joe Root.He gets off the mark with a dab on the off side.Crawley sweeps, misses and is given out! It looks pretty plumb.He reviews, thinking it might have hit him outside the line, but it’s three reds and he has to go.He departs to a standing ovation after putting together a hundred that was almost old-school.

65th over: England 368-1 (Crawley 124, Pope 85) Crawley takes a single off Chivanga and again pulls up lame, though he’s got a rueful smile on his face.Pope gets a gift on his hips and swats it for four with one-hand.64th over: England 363-1 (Crawley 123, Pope 81) Crawley calls for the physio, who makes him lie down, does some poking and prodding, and clears him to continue.“I do struggle with the criticism Crawley gets,” says Tom Barrington, “and this isn’t just because he has got a 100 today, but I think the benefits of his partnership with Duckett at the top of the order outweigh the drawbacks of his patchy form.Yes the average is poor but against high quality opposition (Australia and India) he has become consistent, and the threat of him scoring heavily at the top of the order often puts teams on the back foot against England.

He has become a central part of one of the main positives of this current era in finding an opening partnership! Opener is a precarious position, and they are always at risk of a low score facing the new ball, so why not stick with someone who can change the game?“I will grant that he should be dropped whenever Matt Henry plays against us as he simply cannot play him, rarely have I seen an international sportsman at sea as much as that match-up down in NZ over the winter,”63rd over: England 359-1 (Crawley 121, Pope 79) Crawley is enjoying the extra pace of Chivanga, cover-driving for four – but hang on, now he’s inside-edged onto his hip and hurt himself,As he plays a chip over mid-off and runs two, he’s limping and wincing, but he’s not coming off,62nd over: England 352-1 (Crawley 115, Pope 79) Raza is still on, though I think he’s just picked up a warning for following through on the line of the stumps,When he drops short, Pope plays that fast-hands cut of his and Wellington Masakadza, on as a sub, makes a fine tumbling stop to save two.