‘You can’t keep slowing the game down’: Root wants to limit number of ball changes
Joe Root has called on authorities to limit the number of times Test sides can ask umpires to check potentially misshapen balls, after the morning of the second day at Lord’s was characterised by complaints and exchanges, with the ball being changed twice, and a drinks break being extended while India’s captain, Shubman Gill, argued with the umpires about the quality of one of the replacements.Jasprit Bumrah refused to comment on the balls, saying: “I work very hard and bowl a lot of overs, so I don’t want to say any controversial statements and get my match fee deducted.We were bowling with the ball we were given and that’s how it is.”But Root sympathised with the task facing Dukes, who hand-produce the balls used in Test matches in England.“This summer has been a bit of an anomaly for us.
We’re not used to getting this much sun and this much heat, getting the squares as hard and firm and the outfields as firm,” he said.“If the balls are going out of shape you change them and you don’t make a big deal out of it.I don’t think it’s the end of the world.You’ve got to be skilful enough to adapt to the changes, whether it stops swinging or starts swinging or does a little bit more.“I personally think that you give each team three challenges every 80 overs and that’s it.
That would be a nice way of compromising and saying it’s not all on the manufacturer.Sometimes these things happen.But you can’t just keep asking and wasting time, slowing the game down.”For England the day was more memorable for someone who speeds the game up, with Jofra Archer returning to Test cricket after a four-year absence and producing the fastest spell of bowling seen in the series so far, and by taking the wicket of Yashasvi Jaiswal with his third ball.“It was just genuine joy, seeing him back playing Test cricket,” Root said.
“The impact he has on the group is huge in the dressing room, but also out on the field.Clearly he’s an X-factor player.Big games, he turns up and he does things that other players can’t.It was great to see him back smiling, enjoying his cricket, and making a huge impact.“When you got that about you where you can get a whole crowd up and creating a noise and atmosphere like that, you’ve clearly got something special.
Just to see him running in, bowling at that pace, maintaining that pace as well, was great.I’m just excited for him.”The day also featured Root completing his 37th Test century and taking a superb catch at slip, a world record 211th in Test cricket, to dismiss Karun Nair.At stumps India were 145 for three, still 242 behind England’s first-innings total.“I think it’s going to be quite turgid, quite slow scoring, a slightly more old-school kind of Test match,” Root said.
“I think we’ve got a great opportunity tomorrow if we can get a couple of wickets.Batting last on that surface could be quite tricky if we get things right.”
Notting Hill carnival to go ahead this year after £1m funding boost
Cash will pay for extra measures to address ‘critical public safety concerns’ identified in independent review of festival Notting Hill carnival will go ahead this year after almost £1m of funding was raised to provide extra safety and infrastructure measures.City Hall, Kensington and Chelsea council and Westminster city council together provided £958,000 for the event following pleas from organisers for support, after a review recommended several changes to make the event safe.The chair of Notting Hill Carnival Ltd, Ian Comfort, who had appealed to the culture secretary, Lisa Nandy, for additional support, said the event’s future was secured just in time.The event always takes place over the August bank holiday weekend – which this year runs from Saturday 23 August to Monday 25 August.“Although this support comes just weeks before the event, it is a much-needed and welcome commitment,” Comfort said
Jon Stewart on Trump’s sweeping bill: ‘What is Ice going to do when they have real money?’
Late-night hosts delve into Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” and consider his UFC proposal for next Independence Day.Jon Stewart returned to The Daily Show following the Fourth of July holiday in the US, during which Congress and Trump passed the so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill Act”. The legislation will, among other things, cut $930bn from the Medicaid budget, thus putting 11 million at risk of losing their health insurance, end Biden-era green energy credits and cut funding for 3 million kids’ school lunches.“It’s a lot of painful cuts on a lot of vulnerable populations,” Stewart summarized on Monday’s Daily Show. “But, to be fair, at least America will finally make a dent on the deficit
Is Possession about a harrowing divorce or a woman with an octopus kink? Why not both?
Andrzej Żuławski’s Possession is genuinely unhinged and utterly unforgettable. Żuławski called it “a very true-to-life autobiographical story”, which it is: when he made it in 1981, his own marriage had just collapsed, and as portraits of divorce go, Possession is a pretty spectacular one. But Żuławski also once described Possession as a film about a woman who “fucks with an octopus”, which it is too.A co-production between France and West Germany that was shot in West Berlin by a Polish director, Possession opens as Mark (Sam Neill), a spy, returns home and finds that his wife, Anna (Isabelle Adjani), wants a divorce. She’s having an affair, she reveals, ostensibly with Heinrich (Heinz Bennent) – exactly the kind of lofty weirdo you’d hate your wife to dump you for
Bayeux tapestry to return to Britain for first time in 900 years
The Bayeux tapestry will return to the UK for the first time in more than 900 years as part of a landmark loan agreement by Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron.The 70-metre embroidered cloth depicts the 1066 Norman invasion and Battle of Hastings, in which William the Conquerer took the English throne from Harold Godwinson and become the first Norman king of England.It will go on display at the British Museum from September next year, in exchange for the Anglo-Saxon treasures of the Sutton Hoo ship burial, the Lewis chessmen and other treasures.The loan is to be officially announced during the French president’s state visit on Wednesday at the British Museum, which has been closed to the public for the day. A blockbuster exhibition offering the chance to see the tapestry up close for the first time on UK soil since its creation is also expected to boost London’s visitor economy
The Guide #198: Finally, Superman meets his match
As comic book movies go, the Superman reboot is a biggie. It’s the first film from DC Studios, created by Warner Bros in 2022 in an attempt finally to rival Marvel. And it marks the start of the newly rebooted DC Universe, which has seen studio heads James Gunn and Peter Safran merrily culling storylines, cancelling projects, and recasting characters (to much online frothing).So why am I struggling to care? Is it the Russian-doll rebooting? Is it franchise fatigue? No, it’s Superman! The dullest hero of them all! Too good to be interesting, too strong to be truly fallible and definitely too Boy Scouty to be funny, I’ve always found him a less exciting prospect than other supers.But Gunn, who wrote and directed the film, seems to have a plan to make Superman less of a snooze
‘The army were on the streets – and we were bored’: Stiff Little Fingers on making Alternative Ulster
‘There wasn’t time to sit down and discuss politics and the future of the world, or your aims and aspirations. You just did stuff’I was approached by Gavin Martin, who ran a fanzine called Alternative Ulster. He wanted to put a flexi-disc on the cover and said: “Can we use Suspect Device?” That was going to be Still Little Fingers’ debut single so I told him he couldn’t have that, but I would write him a song.It’s the old adage – write about what you know. The opening line is: “There’s nothin’ for us in Belfast
HSBC becomes first UK bank to quit industry’s net zero alliance
Supersize me: recreating Pret’s £13 miso salmon super plate at home
Louis Vuitton says UK customer data stolen in cyber-attack
The CEO who never was: how Linda Yaccarino was set up to fail at Elon Musk’s X
Katie Taylor v Amanda Serrano III: undisputed women’s junior welterweight championship – live updates
Dagnall try extends St Helens’ winning run over Leeds and lifts them into third