England boosted by Windies scalp

AS ollie Pope was pouching the second of his two catches in an over off the bowling of tom Hartley, the world’s exciting new fast bowling find Shamar Joseph knocked out Josh Hazlewood’s off-stump to complete West Indies’ sensational eight-run win over Australia in Brisbane. the result was greeted with great enthusiasm by both sets of supporters in Hyderabad while a roar went up in the press box, with journalists momentarily gathered round a tv switched to events at the Gabba. Barmy Army trumpeter Simon finch captured the mood in the stands with a quick burst of David Rudder’s Rally ’Round the West Indies. the Windies’ first test win Down Under for 26 years has opened up the possibility of england replacing Australia at the top of the ICC rankings with a series win in India. now in third place, they began 2024 six points behind the Australians. UNCAPPED Somerset spinner Shoaib Bashir arrived in India yesterday after the visa affair that tarnished the start of England’s tour and was put to work during the lunch break on the fourth day, helping with slip catching practice for Zak Crawley and Jonny Bairstow ahead of India’s second innings.

tHe sight of Shreyas Iyer walking out to bat in a cap offered a throwback to a previous era. Since 2016 it has been mandatory, for safety reasons, for england players to wear helmets but India’s board have stopped short of making the use of compliant protective headgear obligatory for batters.

ANOTHER impressive crowd of 27,352 at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium saw the aggregate attendance over four days surge beyond 100,000, and showed this series — which takes in India’s international outposts of Visakhapatnam, Rajkot, Ranchi and Dharamshala — has whetted fans’ appetites in a country where T20 is king.