Ali Martin has filed his report from Rajkot, which is my cue to go out for some fresh air. It was a day when India’s young stars shone and England’s hopes turned to dust. Or they would have if Ben Stokes hadn’t imprinted his team with his own self-belief. Thanks for your company and correspondence: the OBO will be back in the morning, ready for the 4am GMT start. Meanwhile, here’s Ali and Jim:
Updated
Here’s Ben Duckett, talking to Graeme Swann. It’s a Northants-Notts stitch-up!
“You’ve got to give credit to the way they played this evening,” Duckett says. “They gave us nothing this morning. We were attacking like we were yesterday, it just didn’t work.”
He defends Joe Root, who got out to a ramp shot for the second time in his Test career. “Rooty’s a freak, he plays shots that a lot of us can’t do… Rooty plays that shot so well. In my eyes it’s just like playing a drive and nicking off.”
This game is not out of reach, Swann suggests. “No, 100 per cent not. Even sending in a nightwatchman when you’re 330 ahead shows that they’re slightly wary of us. We’re going continue the way that we play. If we get two or three blokes getting in on that pitch, scoring quickly, you never know what can happen.” The optimism is admirable. The problem today wasn’t that England were aggressive: it was that they collapsed, just as they often did in the dull old days.
