There are moments in every Test when you know everything’s in the balance, and the game is about to take a turn one way or the other in this very next stretch of play. Listen, and you can hear it in the crowd, look, and you can see it in the posture of the players. Here at Lord’s it came at 20 to one on Friday afternoon. The match had been slipping from England ever since Ollie Pope was caught out the previous evening, but had run through their fingers with alarming speed on Friday morning, when they lost six wickets for 46 in 15 overs of slapdash batting.
All out, and still the best part of 100 runs behind, England walked out for the third innings knowing this next spell was their last good chance of getting back into the match. The sky was rippled with heavy grey clouds, the wind was up, the floodlights were on and there was just a lick of drizzle in the air. It was a good time to be bowling. The crowd all around knew it too and fell a little quieter, as people shut up and leaned forwards eagerly in their seats, watching, waiting.
