England pair’s world record 10th-wicket stand
MAN OF THE DAY: James Anderson.
England’s most bankable bowler got a well-earned day in the sun as he struck a maiden Test half-century, eventually reaching 81 in a world record 10th-wicket stand of 198 with Joe Root.
SHOT OF THE DAY: There were more technically sound strokes and more aesthetically beautiful ones but none was greeted with more joy in the Trent Bridge stands than the shot which brought up Anderson’s half-century – a one-handed flailing pull for four off Mohammed Shami.
BALL OF THE DAY: Finding a genuinely troubling delivery on a dismally unresponsive pitch was rather like finding an straw-coloured needle in a haystack. Moeen Ali’s dismissal of Murali Vijay would not stand out on most days, but any port in a storm.
SHOCK OF THE DAY: Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s baffling soporific captaincy.
The usually vibant India skipper appeared to take England’s monster partnership as a fait accomplis and essentially gave up attempting to have any influence proceedings.
STAT OF THE DAY: Anderson and Root bagged a series of records between them but the 320 balls it took India to take England’s final wicket – the majority of them on a day four track – says as much about the woefully skewed contest between bat and ball as it does about the laudable rearguard.
TWEET OF THE DAY: “This game is in desperate need of a streaker to liven it up . . .” – Former England captain Michael Vaughan quickly grew tired of the uneven contest between bat and ball.