And that’s the end of day one. No slow-burner this, spicy from the first: five wickets in the first session, three in the second, five in the third. A pitch with (inevitable) bite, six wickets for the irrepressible Sajid Khan, a fabulous 89 from Jamie Smith, and England on the warpath with the ball. Thanks for your company today, limericks, mangoes and all. We’ll be back tomorrow from 5.30am BST. Have a lovely day.
It is top-scorer Jamie Smith – who is as calm and impressive talking about the game as he is on the field.
“It was a good day in the end. We didn’t quite know what the wicket would do, at what point the wicket would spin – so any first innings runs would be vital. I can only see the ball getting lower.
“We got off to a great start, seeing what worked well, this week felt easier to go down the ground and tougher to sweep – Ben Duckett was giving that kind of feedback.
[on changing gear]”We felt like they were getting a little bit tired and it was how we could get a new bowler on, Gus changed gear before me, which was really helpful.
“When you don’t have a massive first ininings score, any lead you can get will count as double, especially with the low bounce. I’m pleased to put in that kind of performance and allow us to push on to a pretty decent score. The six hitting competition was a good reset – I was favourite for some reason but Rehan smoked everyone.”
