Over-by-over report: Can England mount a real fightback on day three at Trent Bridge? Join our writers to find out
Pope looked such a good player when he first broke into the team, and looks that again – the off-stump guard to which he changed closed off that side of the pitch to him, and now he’s back on middle he’s able to score so much more freely. It just didn’t make sense that someone so deft limit themselves to one side of the wicket, and he takes one more to cover point, then the ball is changed for the third time this innings.
“As a lad of 14 years,” begins Chris Harrison – “a decent bat and a purveyor of quickish hooping outswingers—I played a cup match against England RU player Dusty Hare’s Collingham team. I went in at no. 5 and made a decent 40-odd after a dodgy start. Dusty was quite the sledger behind the stumps and chirped away throughout my innings, speculating about my appearance, legitimacy, gender, sexual preferences and much else.
When Collingham replied, we took the first few wickets cheaply, including a lad who—like Dusty—was a semi-regular in the Notts county team. Dusty came in and started bludgeoning the ball around the place and was quickly past 30. Skip threw the ball to me. My first delivery was on a length and swinging onto off stump. Four through midwicket. The second was the same, but quicker. Four through mid off.
The following season we played Collingham in a friendly, again against a line-up featuring Dusty Hare. When I went in to bat, he began chirping again. A broad Notts voice from the gully area stage-whispered ‘Tek care, Dusteh. Don’t annoy him. This is the you-erth that made you look a right tw*t last year.’ I was still giggling three balls later when I lost my off peg.”