Yes Sarah Taylor is taking time away from the game but considering she may be back for next months series with Pakistan it's highly unlikely she is 5 months pregnant. (Happy to be proved wrong though!)

What would be your solution ? Who would be your top 5 ? You seem to diss any 5 we pick. Last year it was Hales, now he is doing ok its the rest. So who would be your world beating top 5 ?

I would wager a tenner you wont reply.

Stokes and Bairstow need to swap places in the batting line up

Good partnership spoilt by the weather

One point looking at 400+, then thinking 150 may be good and ending up thinking 300 is achievable

Good old Test cricket

Yes, a pleasant day watching on TV and no football-style chanting either! Bad point - the miserly over-rate. Booo. That's where 20/20 really does have one over the Tests.
The one good thing about points across the three forms of cricket (maybe to produce a table some day) is that points could be deducted for rubbish over rates, as they do in the CC, but doing that now is meaningless.
Personally, I'd have it where the fielding side can't go for lunch/tea until their allocated overs are bowled, so if lunch is 1 - 1.40, they go in at 1.20 and come out at 1.40 so a shortened break for them!! That would upset Gatt - what, only half a lunch break?? Get a move on, skip!!
Of course, that's unfair on the umpires so I would have three of them in rotation so one is always resting. Think there are four at a Test anyway (TV, 2 on-field and isn't there a fourth around the dressing rooms - anyone??)
It's also a bit unfair on the batsman who could have been in all day, but I have met some who wouldn't mind as if they are in good nick, 40' break is a bit of a disruption to them. Apart from Mike Gatting, obviously

I got to see afternoon session on tv. A year or so ago i never ever thought id say this........... but how good was Bairstow! I dont mean in terms of runs but how he scored them and played his innings. Dominating the bowlers from ball one and didnt put a foot wrong.

Judging by the lack of media reporting and lack of any pregnancy tweets in Sarah Taylor's twitter feed i'd say she most definitely is NOT pregnant

https://twitter.com/Sarah_Taylor30

When is the Lords test match, as it would great if Alastair Cook reaches Ten thousand runs at the home of cricket

Leeds, Durham then Lords

Hopefully he reached 10,000 before Lords because if he doesn't it means he'll have been out cheaply in 4 innings which isn't what we need

It looked to me like Cookie was wearing his Grey Nichols helmet, the one with the larger gap which is now banned by the ECB in domestic cricket, but is apparently allowed in Test cricket.

Can anyone confirm this?

I noticed that Hales' helmet doesn't have the neck guards, either

He is wearing the helmet as per the regulations i.e. the one with the smaller gap between the peak and the top of the guard. The guard is also fixed and can not be adjusted. Athers and Botham were discussing this yesterday as he was batting.

Apparently Cook wasnt happy with the new regs as it impaired his visibility. Athers did say he was using the helmet in the country games and has scored a 100 with it. So he may have got used to it know. Botham as you can imagine, wasnt a fan of cricketers being told what they had to wear as protection.

Thanks for clarifying the point.

Thanks from me, too. Do you know if the neck-guards at the back are still voluntary, then?

The neck ones are voluntary.

assumed they would add the 30 minutes on at the start today to make up for the lost time yesterday

always seems to make sense to me to add it at the start rather than the end given we never finish on time anyway

Yeah.......I was expecting an early start today

I think TMS were as well because they came on air at 10AM

seem to say this at the start of almost every day of test cricket but this is a big session

whole session will be bowled with the old ball, if these two can get set against the older ball and bat through most of the session it sets us up well

sri lanka just need 2 wickets to get to the tail tho

That's a tenner i owe myself

that could be a costly drop

looked like the bowler thought it was coming back at him quicker than it did

hales falls just short of his century

very important innings from him tho after being at the other end watching the little collapse from 49-0 to 83-5 yesterday

Thats sad to see in Hales dismissal. If youre going to hit in the air then the ball ought to go into the stand or out of the ground. I think he'll be pleased to get them past 200 but disappointed with the lame manner of the way he got out.

Ali out

7 wickets down

Broad in next

Broad out, bowled for 2

All the talk before the match about how Ali wants to improve his batting

Great start son