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Ben Stokes showed plenty of his old ability with the ball at Trent Bridge - PA/Mike Egerton
Ben Stokes was back among the wickets and Shoaib Bashir became the youngest England bowler to 50 Test scalps as Zimbabwe struggled to stay afloat on day two at Trent Bridge.
The hosts declared on 565 for six after a 45-minute thrash in the morning session, then picked up 11 wickets as they enforced the follow-on.
A vibrant 139 from young opener Brian Bennett held them back but the tourists could only muster 265 in the first innings and finished 30 for two after being sent back in.
With England still 270 in front, a hasty finish on the third day could be on the cards.
Debutant Sam Cook opened his international account in his third over, Ben Curran caught at slip, but the lion’s share of the work was done by the captain and his young spinner at the Radcliffe Road End.
Bashir, who came into the game on the back of just two wickets in three loan appearances for Glamorgan, dismissed experienced campaigners Craig Ervine and Sean Williams and later bowled Tafadzwa Tsiga with a beauty. In doing so the 21-year-old beat Steven Finn to the 50-wicket mark by almost seven months.
In between times, Bashir injured a finger diving for a caught-and-bowled chance, leaving Stokes to step in while he left the field for treatment.
Stokes has not bowled a competitive delivery since tearing his hamstring in December and has rarely seemed comfortable with the ball recent years, but looked finely tuned as in an eye-catching spell.
His second ball saw Bennett dropped at slip on 89 but Sikandar Raza and Wessly Madhevere were not so lucky, both dismissed in the space of 11 runless deliveries.
It was a brief stint from the skipper but one that contained the kind of focused venom he has not always been able to find in recent times.
Gus Atkinson finished off the innings with a couple of yorkers that were too hot for the tailenders who received them and, buoyed by a lead of exactly 300, Stokes called immediately for the follow-on.
England resumed on 498 for three, adding another 67 and losing three more wickets. Ollie Pope added only two to his overnight 169 before nicking Tanaka Chivanga, Blessing Muzarabani bounced out Stokes for nine and Harry Brook launched three sixes in a flashy 58.
His dismissal brought the declaration, bringing Cook to the fore for a first taste of the Test arena.
The Essex seamer was handed the new ball - the first Englishman to bowl the opening over on debut since Martin McCague in 1993 - and conceded three boundaries in his first visit.
Two came off chunky inside edges, with the next coming as he over-corrected with too much width. The 27-year-old soon had a milestone entry in his little black ‘Cook book’ - adding Curran’s name to the notepad that contains a comprehensive list of his victims.
Dismissing the middle brother of England internationals Tom and Sam was as good as it got for the newcomer, with Cook unusually untidy as he allowed 72 runs from his 17 overs.
Bennett made the quartet of Cook, Atkinson, Bashir and Josh Tongue look tame as he ran up a 97-ball century, his country’s fastest Test ton.
But Bashir made valuable inroads at the other end, Ervine nudging low to slip and Williams bowled off the under-edge.
He was close to a third when Raza punched one back at him but it was him, rather than the batter, who left the field as he suffered a painful blow to the index finger.
Stokes replaced him and immediately threatening, Raza caught behind off a cracker that squared him up off the pitch and Madhevere was equally foxed by a big inswinger.
Tongue bounced out Bennett twice - his first success chalked off for a no-ball - before Atkinson’s double and the absence of the injured Richard Ngarava ended things.
That meant a second chance of the day for Bennett but he was not able to recreate the fluency that brought him 26 fours and an admirable hundred in his first attempt.
He was lbw to Atkinson for just one this time and Ervine turned Tongue to short leg in a meek departure.
06:35 PM BST
CLOSE: ZIM: 10/2
England lead Zimbabwe by 270 runs, needing seven wickets (possibly eight if Richie Ngarava makes a miraculous recovery). A fine innings from Brian Bennett illuminated day two as well as the bowling of Shoaib Bashir and Ben Stokes plus a maiden Test wicket for Sam Cook.
06:33 PM BST
OVER 10: ZIM 30/2 (Curran 4 Williams 22)
Williams batted well in the first innings until, much to his chagrin, he was diddled by Bashir’s dip into hesitant footwork, belts Tongue for two through cover, flicks four off his pads and then slaps four through cover off the back foot. A thick edge down through third man earns him two. He wanted a third but was sent back late and had to turn and dive to beat Duckett’s throw. A direct hit could have done for him.
06:30 PM BST
OVER 9: ZIM 15/2 (Curran 4 Williams 9)
Stokes turns to Bashir for one over before the close. Two slips in for the left-handers. Curran defends three before pushing a single to mid-off. Williams works a single through midwicket and there will be time for one last over.
06:28 PM BST
OVER 8: ZIM 15/2 (Curran 3 Williams 8)
Curran fends a ball that climbs off a good length off his body for a single into the offside. Ervine is picked off by short leg next ball and Tongue tries to bring him into play again next ball but sprays it wider on to leg stump and Williams tucks it off his hip for four. Two balls later Tongue finds alarming lift off a good length again and hits Williams on his top hand. The left-hander manages to keep it down and ends the over stepping to off to flick another four off his legs.
06:21 PM BST
Wicket!
Ervine c Pope b Tongue 3 Back of a length, the ball grips on the bench and hits the splice as the captain tried to turn it to leg. Pope, who had gone under the helmet for that very ball, took a smart catch. FOW 7/2
06:21 PM BST
OVER 7: ZIM 6/1 (Curran 2 Ervine 2)
Ben Curran flicks a single off Cook through midwicket. It’s far too soon to be judgmental about Sam Cook but I would say Ollie Robinson looked the better bowler on debut four years ago. Cook may be the better fit character-wise.
06:17 PM BST
OVER 6: ZIM 5/1 (Curran 1 Ervine 2)
Five fuller balls and a bouncer earn Atkinson a maiden to Ervine who is playing for tomorrow, diligently leaving, ducking and blocking only if absolutely necessary.
06:12 PM BST
OVER 5: ZIM 5/1 (Curran 1 Ervine 2)
Cook delivers the same kind of ball that did for Curran this morning in the first innings, angling in from round the wicket before snaking away from the edge. It leaves Curran groping at it helplessly. Stokes coaxes Cook into a review when he didn’t seem sure but it had nothing going for it, other than striking the pad.
06:11 PM BST
ENG review
Curran lbw b Cook Looked outside the line of off stump. That and he also hit it. England lose a review. Both have two left.
06:07 PM BST
OVER 4: ZIM 4/1 (Curran 1 Ervine 1)
Atkinson is in the groove now and, after removing Zimbabwe’s dashing opener, greets Ervine with a vicious bouncer that he fends off the Adam’s apple with a glove for a single. Curran defends two as Atkinson, who gulled Bennett by going wide on the crease, find gun-barrel straight precision from close in to the stumps with wobble seam.
06:01 PM BST
Wicket!
Bennett lbw b Atkinson 1 Kept low, hit him on the shin, two inches below the toe of his well-aligned vertical blade and would have knocked back leg stump. FOW 3/1
England make early inroads into Zimbabwe's follow-on
Scores of 139 and 1 for Brian Bennett on Day Two at Trent Bridge pic.twitter.com/ABNEfIi3pJ
— Sky Sports Cricket (@SkyCricket) May 23, 2025
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06:01 PM BST
Zim review
Bennett lbw b Atkinson The batsman hopes it was missing le as it angled in. Kept low, hit him under the knee roll.
06:00 PM BST
OVER 3: ZIM 3/0 (Bennett 1 Curran 1)
Cook’s pace is consistent at 76mph which may be a result of mental as well as physical fatigue on debut. Tidy stuff, changing his lengths outside off until he fires one on to Bennett’s pads and today’s centurion flicks it round the corner for a single.
Curran plays tip and run to cover but seeing it’s Stokes lurking there, Bennett sends him back. Stokes fumbles the pick-up in any case but his mere presence had the batsmen scrambling.
05:56 PM BST
OVER 2: ZIM 2/0 (Bennett 0 Curran 1)
Maiden for Atkinson to Curran. He ended the first innings with a four-over spell so it might not be long until we see Josh Tongue and a short leg. No discernible movement for Angus with the new ball as yet.
05:51 PM BST
OVER 1: ZIM 2/0 (Bennett 0 Curran 1)
Sam Cook takes the new ball again. Hard life. Huffing and puffing. That’s the sound of the men, working on the chain gang.
Bennett, 45 minutes after his first innings ended, takes strike and gets off it with a leg-bye as the debutant strays on to his pads. Curran uses the shape in to him to flick a single behind square. No short leg for Bennett even though they eventually bagged him with the short ball at bat-pad.
05:44 PM BST
Unfashionable Ben
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05:37 PM BST
England have enforced the follow-on
Makes sense, they’ll have a 45-minute session and a night’s rest.
05:35 PM BST
Wicket!
Muzarabani b Atkinson 12 Backing away, anticipating the bouncer, he loses his off stump. FOW 265/9
05:34 PM BST
OVER 63: ZIM 265/8 (Muzarabani 12 Nyauchi 0)
Muzarabani leans back and spoons a slap down the pitch that Bashir makes a play of trying to catch but mindful of his split finger flinches at the last and lets through his legs. The ball runs down through mid-off for four. Blessing works two off his pads and then pokes a single through point, assisted by Tongue’s flat-footed misfield.
05:31 PM BST
OVER 62: ZIM 258/8 (Muzarabani 5 Nyauchi 0)
It has been confirmed that Richie Ngarava cannot bat so England need one more wicket to wrap this up. Will Ben Stokes bat again or ask Zimbabwe to follow on?
05:28 PM BST
Wicket!
Chivanga lbw b Atkinson Indeed the inswinging yorker did just flick the pad before he chiselled it out of the blockhole with his bat. Seemed imperceptible to the naked eye at first look but bowlers instinctively know. FOW 258/8
05:26 PM BST
ENG review
Muzarabani lbw b Atkinson England think it was pad first not bat.
05:26 PM BST
OVER 61: ZIM 256/7 (Muzarabani 3 Chivanga 2)
Bashir resumes with a maiden, beating Muzarabani on his outside and inside edges.
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05:18 PM BST
OVER 60: ZIM 256/7 (Muzarabani 3 Chivanga 2)
Atkinson bounces Chivanga, hits him on the glove as he tried to sway out of the road and the ball plops wide of the two slips. The next ball is short and the batsman again leans back as he tries to dab it but misses. For some reason Stokes is convinced he hit it and burns a review which shows a wide gap between bat and ball. Brook catches him off his shoulder when he wears another bouncer but he survives the over by the seat of his pants and on come the drinks.
05:15 PM BST
OVER 59: ZIM 256/7 (Muzarabani 3 Chivanga 2)
Muzarabani square drives Bashir for a single, Chivanga drives crisply for a single. Bashir is experimenting in the Adil mode with bowling very slowly indeed, down to 47mph on occasion. Maybe it will tun even more, as it does for Rashid.
05:10 PM BST
OVER 58: ZIM 254/7 (Muzarabani 2 Chivanga 1)
Maiden for Atkinson to Chivanga who defends skittishly but survives.
05:06 PM BST
OVER 57: ZIM 254/7 (Muzarabani 2 Chivanga 1)
Ngarava hurt his back yesterday and is unlikely to bat, forcing Chivanga in a place higher after Bashir castled Tsiga. Chivanga drives the off-spinner for a single, Muzarabani also gets off the mark with a wild wipe across the line that sails over midwicket for two.
05:00 PM BST
Wicket!
Tsiga b Bashir 22 Tossed up, dropped like a barbell down a mine shaft, gripped, ragged and gated Tsiga as he tried to drive. That was the first ball of the spell and the first with the big plaster on his cut fourth finger on the right hand. FOW 251/7
05:00 PM BST
OVER 56: ZIM 251/6 (Tsiga 22 Muzarabani 0)
Atkinson replaces Cook and pitches up, angling his first ball into Tsiga who works it with a twist of the wrist through square leg for four. Nice shot. So Atkinson goes short and forces Tsiga up on his toes to defend two then tuck one round the corner for a single.
04:57 PM BST
OVER 55: ZIM 246/6 (Tsiga 17 Muzarabani 0)
Bennett didn’t have to play at the bouncer and, indeed, hadn’t been doing so until the previous over but what the barrage at its most insidious does is evoke a fight or flight syndrome whereby you just want to escape the relentless, endangering bombardment. He just couldn’t take it anymore.
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04:50 PM BST
Wicket!
Bennett c Pope b Tongue 139 A routine catch compared with the one chalked off in Tongue’s last over but this time Tongue’s boot was behind the line. Bennett had been ducking but took it on again, trying to cuff it round the corner and it spooned off the splice. FOW 246/6
04:50 PM BST
OVER 54: ZIM 246/5 (Bennett 139 Tsiga 17)
Cook bowls his maiden maiden in Test cricket. Mixed day for the debutant. He has gone for 72 off 17 overs but that wicket will make it worthwhile.
04:44 PM BST
OVER 53: ZIM 246/5 (Bennett 139 Tsiga 17)
Tongue comes round the wicket to target the right-handed Bennett’s left shoulder. He has no slips and two gullies. But Bennett ain’t playing that game, ducking three. So he brings one of the boundary catchers in and also summons short leg to try to entice him.
And it almost works first ball as he fends one off the body, Pope makes a stunning catch diving to his left at short leg… except it was a no-ball.
04:40 PM BST
OVER 52: ZIM 245/5 (Bennett 139 Tsiga 17)
Full and floaty from Cook and Bennett leans into a drive, smearing it past short mid-off for four. Cook uses a surprise bouncer to tuck Bennett up and he manages somehow to hit it wide of slip while pulling, the ball splintering the toe of the bat.
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Sam Cook is driven for four - AFP via Getty Images/ DARREN STAPLES
04:36 PM BST
OVER 51: ZIM 240/5 (Bennett 134 Tsiga 17)
Tsiga, up en pointe, rides the bounce, which seems more pronounced at the other end, and chops a Tongue bouncer down through third man for four. Tongue continues the chin symphony, Tsiga copping a blow on the body, ducking one and blocking a third.
04:31 PM BST
OVER 50: ZIM 235/5 (Bennett 133 Tsiga 13)
Cook beats the driving Bennett who, at 21, must be one of the youngest Brians in Britain today. His pace is late day Robinsonesque in this spell, consistently between 76 and 78mph. Bennett opens the face to glide a single through gully.
04:27 PM BST
OVER 49: ZIM 234/5 (Bennett 132 Tsiga 13)
Tsiga, very compact, plays a back-foot drive off Tongue that scoots away through mid-on for four. Nicely played. The game has entered a traditional post-tea soporific state. Or is that just me?
04:23 PM BST
OVER 48: ZIM 229/5 (Bennett 131 Tsiga 9)
Stokes brings catchers up at short mid-off and mid-on for Bennett. After the opener drives Cook for two through cover he posts two more catchers in two pitches across in the covers. Bennett gleans a single off the inside edge to square leg and those fielders go back into the slips for Tsiga who blocks the over out.
04:19 PM BST
OVER 47: ZIM 226/5 (Bennett 128 Tsiga 9)
Tongue oversteps and Tsiga drives him through Bashir’s dive at mid-on for four. But too much bottom hand to be elegant but effective nonetheless. First truly expansive shot the keeper-batsman has played. Earlier he flicked two off middle and leg but diverted it rather than hitting it… otherwise it would have gone for four.
04:16 PM BST
OVER 46: ZIM 219/5 (Bennett 128 Tsiga 3)
Bennett’s driving, punched ones, free-flowing ones, slapped ones off the back foot, high-elbow checked ones are a delight. He eases into a push through mid-on off Cook for four, nothing more than a minimally elongated defensive and then biffs one off the back foot through point for two.
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04:10 PM BST
OVER 45: ZIM 212/5 (Bennett 122 Tsiga 2)
Tsiga tucks a single off his midriff, prompting Stokes to post men out on the hook for Bennett, signalling a barrage. But it will only work if Bennett plays ball and for now he is prepared to be patient, ducking the bouncers.
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04:08 PM BST
OVER 44: ZIM 211/5 (Bennett 122 Tsiga 1)
Sam Cook is given the first over after tea and he torments Tsiga with one that straightens a touch to beat the outside edge. The keeper-batsman gets off the mark from his 10th ball with an onside nurdle.
Stokes seems to be sticking with his promise of only short spells henceforth after 3.2 overs and a 20-minute break, he calls up Josh Tongue.
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03:55 PM BST
Tea verdict
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03:41 PM BST
OVER 43: ZIM 210/5 (Bennett 122 Tsiga 0)
Bennett picks Stokes’ inswinger from the hand and smears a straight drive between bowler and non-striker’s stumps for four. Two ball later he zips one in from back of a length that Bennett gets on top of to play with a straight, dead bat. Stokes ends the over and session with a howl of disgust after overpitching which invites another wonderful Bennett off-drive for four.
Time for tea. Stokes ends that spell with 3.2-2-11-2.
03:38 PM BST
OVER 42: ZIM 202/5 (Bennett 114 Tsiga 0)
Bennett brings up the Zimbabwe 200 with a clip off his bootstraps through midwicket. Stuart Broad observes that Atkinson is using wobble seam bow and, after Bennett slaps a single down to point, he reins Tsiga in outside off, tormenting him with a tight line and movement.
03:34 PM BST
OVER 41: ZIM 199/5 (Bennett 111 Tsiga 0)
Superb over from Stokes, a proper working-over of a new batsman with swing, seam and nagging accuracy.
03:30 PM BST
Wicket!
Madhevere b Stokes 0 Two hooping outswingers to set him up followed by the inswinger to saw him off via an inside edge on to off stump. Magnificent bowling. He’s back. FOW 199/5
03:30 PM BST
OVER 40: ZIM 199/4 (Bennett 111 Madhevere 0)
Bennett’s 21st and 22nd boundaries are creamed through the V off Atkinson, drilling an off-drive and an on-drive, the latter as good as Ricky Ponting’s finest. Atkinson dominated last summer but the second season of international cricket can often be hard yakka. Or in Jimy Anderson’s case, the seciond, third, fourth and fifth.
03:25 PM BST
OVER 39: ZIM 191/4 (Bennett 103 Madhevere 0)
Stokes finds swing, seam and applies them to his usual effective use of the crease immediately to look like England’s most effective quick. As Stuart Broad says, he has this uncanny knack of finding movement where others struggle in unhelpful conditions. Broad says Stokes has promised him he won’t bowl anything longer than a five-over spell. ‘Not worth the paper it;s written on,’ says Mark Butcher.
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His 97-ball hundred is Zimbabwe’s quickest in Tests
03:17 PM BST
Wicket!
Raza c Smith b Stokes 7 Snorter from Stokes, angling in, squaring the right-hander up then spitting up off a goodish length Cobra-style to snake away, kissing the gloves on the way through. Unplayable. FOW 187/4
03:17 PM BST
OVER 38: ZIM 187/3 (Bennett 103 Raza 7)
A second Test hundred for Brian Bennett, brought up with three successive fours off Gus Atkinson, a square drive, an on drive and a dab down through third man. He started streakily but has batted beautifully since his opening salvo. Chapeau.
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03:14 PM BST
OVER 37: ZIM 172/3 (Bennett 91 Raza 4)
Two drops in the over, off different bowlers. Bashir has to go off the field after taking the nail off the little finger of his right hand when diving to try to catch Raza’s drive in his followthrough. He couldn’t hang on and he has to go off for treatment after four balls to stem the bleeding.
Ben Stokes decides to see the over out for two balls, starts with a no-ball then finds Bennett’s edge with one that got big on the batsman. The ball loops to first slip where Root drops a dolly. That wasn’t in Stokes’ self-penned script.
03:09 PM BST
OVER 36: ZIM 166/3 (Bennett 88 Raza 2)
Raza uses the Cook inswinger to work it with the shape behind square leg for a single. Tim’s point is an astute one. Like an out and out quick bowling too many bouncers in a display of testosterone on debut, Cook is floating too many deliveries, striving for wild swing or seam movement.
03:02 PM BST
OVER 35: ZIM 165/3 (Bennett 88 Raza 1)
Sikandar Raza, a Glasgow Caledonian University engineering graduate, gets off the mark with a flick off Bashir for a single through square leg.
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02:59 PM BST
OVER 34: ZIM 164/3 (Bennett 88 Raza 0)
Bennett turns up the heat on Cook with a pair of stylishly struck fours, creaming a cover drive and dabbing a Rootesque late cut through third man. He has 88 off 87. Zimbabwe’s fastest Test hundred is off 106 balls, Sky’s statistician informs us, flirting with Mr Jinx.
02:56 PM BST
OVER 33: ZIM 156/3 (Bennett 80 Raza 0)
Well, I wouldn’t have had Bashir down as a strike, first-innings bowler after his scratchy start to the domestic season. But you can see his confidence flourish under Stokes’ belief and guidance and he delivers some magic balls among some dross, too. That’s what makes him England’s preferred spinner.
02:49 PM BST
Wicket!
Williams b Bashir 25 Having freed the self-applied manacles the previous ball with a crunching sweep for four, Williams gets caught in no man’s land before playing off the front and back foot, perhaps flummoxed by the dip. The ball turns away and he chops it on off the inside edge. FOW 156/3
02:49 PM BST
OVER 32: ZIM 152/2 (Bennett 80 Williams 21)
Cook starts his ninth over round the wicket at Williams. Still only two slips. The left-hander plays five fuller ones patiently rather than cautiously, waits for a shorter one and works it through square leg for a single.
02:42 PM BST
OVER 31: ZIM 151/2 (Bennett 80 Williams 20)
Misfield from Tongue at backward point allows Bennett’s squirty square drive to yield three runs. Williams cuts for a single and Bennett ends the over with a handsome couple of fours, by scything a square cut and then sweeping hard and square when Bashir strays on to middle.
Drinks.
02:39 PM BST
OVER 30: ZIM 139/2 (Bennett 69 Williams 19)
Williams, who has made five Test centuries and averages 44, is a fine batsman and uses his wrists to flick a Cook straight ball for four down to long leg then plays an uncharacteristically loose cut that slices the ball through point for four. Hitting it with such force lessened the peril.
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02:34 PM BST
OVER 29: ZIM 131/2 (Bennett 69 Williams 11)
Bashir is variously hailed as ‘Bash’, ‘Bashy’ and ‘Basharoo’ by his team-mates. Bennett flicks a single off his pads, Williams chops a cut to the point boundary rider for another.
02:32 PM BST
OVER 28: ZIM 129/2 (Bennett 68 Williams 10)
The lack of a third slip costs England for the second time this afternoon and Stokes at mid-off slaps his knees and exhales as Sam Cook, at the start of his second spell, draws Bennett into driving on a fourth-stump line and edging it between Brook at second slip and Crawley at gully. Both moved but had no hope of reaching it. The ball rushes down for four.
02:28 PM BST
OVER 27: ZIM 124/2 (Bennett 63 Williams 10)
Maiden for Bashir to the left-handed Williams. He looks so much more menacing when toying with mollydookers.
02:27 PM BST
OVER 26: ZIM 124/2 (Bennett 63 Williams 10)
Tongue beats Bennett on the inside edge with a beauty that kisses his thigh before dying in front of Smith’s dive. Perhaps frustrated, Tongue bends his back and bangs the next one in but it doesn’t get up and Bennett pivots on the back foot to flay it on the pull for four. Chastened, Tongue returns to length, errs too full and Bennett creams a straight drive for four.
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02:21 PM BST
OVER 25: ZIM 116/2 (Bennett 55 Williams 10)
Bashir, like Carse, Atknson, Cook and Lawrence, bowl with their shirts untucked, exposing a lot of skin in their action. Vests are the answer. Bennett drives Bashir for two then works a single with a strong bottom hand through mid-on. The last ball of the over drifts too much and Williams skelps it off his pads for four. Nice shot.
02:17 PM BST
OVER 24: ZIM 109/2 (Bennett 52 Williams 6)
Fifty for Brian Bennett, his fourth in Tests, and brought up with a flourish, a belting cover drive off Tongue for four. The quick cranks up the pace until he reaches 90mph for consecutive deliveries. Williams finds the gap between cover and point to run two and hustles another off his pads for a single.
02:13 PM BST
OVER 23: ZIM 100/2 (Bennett 47 Williams 3)
That was Bashir’s 50th Test wicket and he is still only 21. I can’t think of anyone who would have captained such a callow talent more effectively than Ben Stokes, not even Mike Brearley. Perhaps late Mike Brearley.
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02:10 PM BST
OVER 22: ZIM 99/2 (Bennett 46 Williams 3)
Williams leaves one that screeches over the off-bail. Williams smiles as if he always knew it would do that, the fielders and bowlers gasp to emphasise how close a scall that was. The veteran left-hander off-drives for two then takes his eye off the bouncer when ducking and is clonked just above the right temple. Titanium helmets are a Godsend. The concussion protocol causes a three-minute delay but he’s OK. Brought back unhappy memories for Eoin Morgan who ducked into a similar Mitchell Starc delivery that knocked him off kilter for about six months.
02:05 PM BST
OVER 21: ZIM 97/2 (Bennett 46 Williams 1)
Excellent comeback from the spinner after going for 12 in his previous over. Plenty of overspin, nice drift, rapid dip and some genuine turn off the pitch.
02:01 PM BST
Wicket!
Ervine c Brook b Bashir 42 Fine bowling, drifting in on the breeze and a fine catch as the ball turned to kiss the edge and Brook managed to scoop it up, grazing his knuckles on the fuzzy grass. FOW 96/2
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01:59 PM BST
Umpire review for fair catch
Ervine c Brook b Bashir Think he got his fingers under it at slip.
01:58 PM BST
OVER 20: ZIM 96/1 (Bennett 46 Ervine 42)
Tongue curses his misfortune when he elicits Ervine’s edge but the ball flies between second slip and gully. Why have two gullies and two slips and a gap? The ball scoots down through third man for four. After his bouncer is called wide, Tongue makes Ervine play and mss outside off with one that holds its line.
01:56 PM BST
OVER 19: ZIM 91/1 (Bennett 46 Ervine 37)
Misfield from Duckett at mid-off costs his side three after he runs and dives to claw it back from the rope, grinning sheepishly once he retrieves it. Bashir tries to tempt Bennett with flight and tempts him to whack him to cover for a pair of fours in three balls, the second of which was flayed between point and extra-cover.
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01:50 PM BST
OVER 18: ZIM 79/1 (Bennett 37 Ervine 34)
Nice and tight from Tongue who also continues after the interval, a no-ball aside. Varying his length from rib-tickler to yorker over the first five balls costs him only one run off the bat but then he makes one sit up invitingly and Ervine slaps a back-foot drive for four through cover point.
01:46 PM BST
OVER 17: ZIM 73/1 (Bennett 36 Ervine 30)
Bashir continues after lunch and starts with a maiden to Ervine replete with plenty of oohing and aahing from slip and keeper to ham up the threat rather than reflecting it this early in the innings. Bashir’s overspin will eran him wickets later.
01:21 PM BST
Lunch verdict
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01:05 PM BST
LUNCH: ZIM 73/1
Much better second day for Zimbabwe who have bowled and batted enterprisingly on Friday.
01:04 PM BST
OVER 16: ZIM 73/1 (Bennett 36 Ervine 30)
Still no short leg for Tongue, a decision Mark Butcher laments when Ervine is hurried and fends one off his armpit. Tongue pitches the next ball up and Ervine works it through the legside for two. Three slips and two gullies are inviting Tongue to go full and Ervine uses the length to lean on a push for a single. Bennett is beaten outside off with the final ball before lunch that beats him on the angle as he pokes forward tentatively.
01:00 PM BST
OVER 15: ZIM 70/1 (Bennett 36 Ervine 27)
Lots of encouragement for Bashir from Brook at slip, Pope at short leg and Smith. The off-spinner’s late dip, Nathan Lyon’s special sauce, does for Bennett and crashes into the pad. Very tidy start from the tall offie.
12:58 PM BST
OVER 14: ZIM 69/1 (Bennett 36 Ervine 26)
Double change, Stokes calling up Tongue. Michael Atherton calls him ‘Tong’ as opposed to ‘Tung’ whch is more of a Brummie pronunciation than a Manc one. Athers sounds like Frank Skinner.
Round the wicket to Ervine, flirting with the edge, touching 86mph, and he squares the Zimbabwe captain up, kissing ancinside edge as the ball then balloons off his thigh pad just short of gully whence it squirts down for four.
12:54 PM BST
OVER 13: ZIM 64/1 (Bennett 36 Ervine 21)
Spin before lunch. Ben Stokes calls Shoaib Bashir into the attack early as he so often does. He starts with a full toss to the left-handed Ervine who accepts the gift and clobbers it for four through mid-off. But that apart it’s a tidy start with a soupçon of turn into the right-hander.
12:51 PM BST
OVER 12: ZIM 59/1 (Bennett 36 Ervine 16)
Atkinson may well be more effective once the effects of the heavy roller have worn off. As Nasser and Ian Ward have shown, the ball is taking chips off the pitch which should help movement and bounce later. And here, at last, is some surprising bounce to beat Bennett who threw his hands into a drive before the ball took off. Close…
12:47 PM BST
OVER 11: ZIM 58/1 (Bennett 36 Ervine 15)
Wow! The lacquer has come off and Cook delivers a hooping inswinger to Bennett, so full it almost yorked him but the batsman managed to get a scratch of an inside edge on to it that took it past Smith for four. There’s an agonised yelp from Cook. No justice. Another one that moves in, this time off the seam, also tickles the inside edge of Bennett’s bat before clattering into his pads, stifling the appeal into a ‘Howz-oh’.
12:43 PM BST
OVER 10: ZIM 54/1 (Bennett 32 Ervine 15)
A single apiece for Bennett and Ervine, Bennett’s whipped off his pads, his skipper’s off the back foot in the southern African style.
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And a recall for Nasser to bat at No 7, three years before he could finally establish himself.
12:38 PM BST
OVER 9: ZIM 52/1 (Bennett 31 Ervine 14)
Bennett skips down the pitch to swipe Cook across the line for a scuffed three between square leg and midwicket. That brings up Zimbabwe’s fifty at a fair old lick.
12:37 PM BST
OVER 8: ZIM 48/1 (Bennett 28 Ervine 13)
Craig Ervine, for it is he rather than his elder brother Sean as I have misnamed him earlier, has four Test centuries and plays very much in the South African, left-hander style, devastating square of the wicket like Graeme Smith. He square drives Atkinson for three then, having been beaten on the inside edge by the nip-backer, shovels a drive through mid-off for two.
12:31 PM BST
OVER 7: ZIM 43/1 (Bennett 25 Ervine 11)
Bennett misses out when Cook strays on to his pads, fiddling it fine for a single rather than the four he wanted and is cursing himself for missing. Ervine does rack up a boundary by crashing four through point when Cook hangs one outside off stump. The Chelmsford champ ends the over with a jaffa, arrowing into the left-handed Ervine and whistling past the edge after searing away off the pitch.
12:27 PM BST
OVER 6: ZIM 38/1 (Bennett 24 Ervine 7)
Ervine carries on his merry way, opening the face to steer Atkinson behind point for four. Zimbabwe’s positive approach is refreshing to see. Despite England’s daunting score they have been true to their principles of taking the attack to the opposition as the best way of re-establishing themselves as a competitive Test side.
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Yes, was Martin McCague on this ground 32 years ago, we think.
12:23 PM BST
OVER 5: ZIM 34/1 (Bennett 24 Ervine 3)
Cook is absolutely thrilled with his maiden Test wicket, which is a delight to see, as is his team-mates’ joy in his success. Classic Cook dismissal of a left-hander, angling in and nipping away. The previous delivery had also straightened and found a leading edge as Curran closed the face too early but popped over the bowler in his followthrough.
Enter the captain, Sean Ervine, also left-handed and he gets off the mark with a steer down to third man for two.
12:17 PM BST
Wicket!
Curran c Brook b Cook 6 The Essex man bags his maiden Test wicket, nicking him off to second slip. The left-hander prodded at one from round the wicket that angled in and straightened a touch. FOW 31/1
12:16 PM BST
OVER 4: ZIM 31/0 (Bennett 24 Curran 6)
Ben Curran is as busy as his brothers and father, working Atkinson off his toes for two through midwicket then hustling three from a checked drive through mid-off, Atkinson is consistently hitting 85mph, finding the channel and looks sprightlier than he did in Pakistan and New Zealand. Bennett retreats to leg to fence a ball wide of the slips for four more. Twenty of Bennett’s 24 have come in boundaries.
12:12 PM BST
OVER 3: ZIM 22/0 (Bennett 20 Curran 1)
Crawley, at fourth slip, is beaten to his right by a flashing Bennett edge that flies away for four. Sam Cook puts his hands on his head but it would have take Cameron Green to snaffle that. I like the cut of Bennett’s jib.
12:09 PM BST
OVER 2: ZIM 17/0 (Bennett 16 Curran 1)
Ben Curran, like Sam a left-hander, and unlike Tom, gets off the mark first ball by tucking a single off his hip. Atkinson pins Bennett at good pace with one that was sliding down the legside but gives hima short, woolly one outside off and Bennett slices and dices it on the square cut for four behind point.
12:02 PM BST
OVER 1: ZIM 12/0 (Bennett 12 Curran 0)
Did you know that the namesake of the Zimbabwe opener, Brian Bennett, erstwhile drummer of the Shadows, also wrote one of the great sporting themes:
Bennett is off to a flyer, one a flukey Harrow drive off Cook, who is pitching very full, down to fine leg for four followed by another inside-edge drag through midwicket for another and then a rasping square-drive for a third in successive deliveries.
Cook adjusts his length, pulling it back a foot from the Radcliffe Road End and the ball takes off, nibbling past the gloves.
11:57 AM BST
Sam Cook has the new ball on debut
He marks out his run. Shirt untucked, a la Atkinson and Carse.
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11:50 AM BST
ENG 565/6 declared
Stokes calls them in. Fine spell by Muzarabani this morning. He finishes with 24.3-3-143-3 which looks ugly but was really a tale of two performances of contrasting outcomes with two balls. His work with the new ball accounted for Root, Stokes and Brook which deserves enormous credit.
11:47 AM BST
Wicket!
Brook b Muzarabani 58 Having brought up his fifty with a pull for six, he mows four through midwicket but then chops the next ball on as he shaped to cut, the ball closer to his body than he first thought. And with that Stokes declares. FOW 565/6
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11:45 AM BST
OVER 96: ENG 555/5 (Brook 48 Smith 4)
Smith gets off the mark with an extraordinary shot, a lofted leg-drive over midwicket for four. Two yards further and it would have been six. Too full, yes, but very few batsmen would/could have dispatched it there. That makes it 555 for five. Quintuple Nelson.
Two balls later Chivanga’s swing elicits Smith’s edge and the keeper dives across first slip and shells a straightforward chance for slip.
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11:42 AM BST
OVER 95: ENG 548/5 (Brook 45 Smith 0)
The bouncer works for Muzarabani to bag Stokes alongside Root’s scalp last night. I doubt England will bat again but if they do, it has to be the tactic. More in this pitch than they got out of it yesterday.
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11:37 AM BST
Wicket!
Stokes c Curran b Muzarabani 9 Good catch as the ball swirled in the sun. Stokes took on Blessing’s bouncer and top-edged it to fine leg. Seemed to grow on him, trampolining higher than he anticipated. FOW 548/5
11:34 AM BST
OVER 94: ENG 545/4 (Brook 43 Stokes 8)
Chivanga goes for a slow bouncer to Brook who waits and waits and then pat-pulls it for two. He follows that with another short one, pace-on but too wide so Brook uppercuts it. Thitd man runs round and gets there, a foot in from the rope but the sub fielder lets it through his hands. I was going to write ‘burst through’ but he didn’t get them together quick enough. The ball goes for four as does the next, a murderous cut off another back-of-a-length pie that asks to be walloped on width alone.
11:28 AM BST
OVER 93: ENG 531/4 (Brook 31 Stokes 7)
Having telegraphed it with the field but double-bluffed in his previous over, Muzarabani now bangs a couple in and Brook pulls successive deliveries for six. The first only got up as high as box and he carts it over long leg. The next is shorter but allows him to hit it finer, hands moving all the way above his left shoulder to guide it over the rope.
Muzarabani responds by going fuller, rewarding him with a couple of dot balls until Brook chisels out the yorker for a single.
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11:24 AM BST
OVER 92: ENG 518/4 (Brook 18 Stokes 7)
Harry Brook, who made 33 and 20 for Yorkshire against Warwickshire and looked rusty, thumps a couple of blistering fours as Chivanga, inspired by the swing that earned him Pope’s wicket, errs too wide. Brook clobbers a shorter one with a scything cut and then dances down the track to launch the right-arm quick over mid-off, the swing of the bat, an almost perfect arc, doing all the work.
11:17 AM BST
OVER 91: ENG 508/4 (Brook 9 Stokes 6)
Glorious cover drive by Ben Stokes, nailing a half-volley past extra-. He could do with a decent knock after five months’ absence. As Nasser Hussain points out, he has returned to his old set-up with his left big toe on middle, slightly open stance, using his hands and eyes more than a predominantly feet first approach. Muzarabani is getting good carry this morning which should encourage Josh Tongue and Gus Atkinson.
11:12 AM BST
OVER 90: ENG 503/4 (Brook 9 Stokes 1)
Tanaka Chivanga is on from the Radcliffe Road End and he too goes back of a length at the start of his spell and Pope again tucks it off his hip for a single. Brook ambles a leg-bye off an angled-in no-ball and then curiously advises Pope to review when he edges through to the keeper. Lovely delivery that, it swung away and made a woody noise. Pope says he didn;t feel it so it must have been slighter than it sounded. Fine start by these two bowlers.
Stokes gets off the mark by whisking a single off his toes first ball.
11:08 AM BST
Wicket!
Pope c Tsiga b Chivanga 171 Feathers an edge through to the keeper. Went for the big drive and nicked off. FOW 502/4
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Pope nicks off - AFP via Getty Image/DARREN STAPLES
11:07 AM BST
England review
Pope c Tsiga b Chivanga Doesn’t think he edged it but there was quite a loud noise.
11:04 AM BST
OVER 89: ENG 499/3 (Pope 170 Brook 9)
Muzarabani bangs the ball in, back of a length, and Pope tucks it round the corner for a single. The think tank has been convened overnight and they station two men out on the hook for Brook. Double bluff at first as Blessing goes fuller, angling in and drawing a defensive. Then he pins him with one angling down followed by a beauty that snakes past the edge.
The final two balls find the bat but Brook can’t get them away for runs. Excellent over from their attack leader but the movement will have Sam Cook purring.
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10:59 AM BST
The players are out
Blessing Muzarabani will open the attack with a relatively new ball, eight overs old.
10:54 AM BST
Nice touch, steady hand
Pope will be added again at the end of his innings, anyone else joining today?
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10:39 AM BST
Batting on
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It’s only seven months since they made 823/7
10:36 AM BST
Here comes the weekend
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10:15 AM BST
Preview: No learning
Good morning and welcome to live coverage of day two of the first England vs Zimbabwe Test for 22 years from Trent Bridge which begins with England on 498 for three after yesterday’s spree of centuries for Ben Duckett, Zak Crawley and Ollie Pope plus the landmark of Joe Root joining Sachin Tendulkar, Ricky Ponting, Jacques Kallis and Rahul Dravid on the Hillary Step of 13,000 Test runs. If it was something of a run bacchanal for England, particularly when Duckett was thumping square-cuts, Crawley was creaming cover drives and collaring front-foot pulls and Pope late-cutting the spinners off middle and off stump with audacious dexterity, it was also an important, key step in welcoming Zimbabwe back.
They may have been duffed up as soon as they were over the threshold but their wonderful fans kept spirits up as they toiled in the field, demonstrating that two decades of peripheral status and political interference that pushed them off the top table will take decades to repair.
What lessons can England draw from day one? Well, while there was plenty of hugging, it was like Seinfeld in another way: no learning. We know Crawley and Pope are extravagantly gifted strokemakers when in form,not just against minnows, and both played handsomely yesterday. Runs armour batsmen, whoever the opponent, and it should give Jacob Bethell a sterner Test to regain a place that, we should not forget, only came his way because Ollie Pope was keeping wicket during Jamie Smith’s absence on paternity leave. Yes, he showed his mettle and class to make three half-centuries at No3 in New Zealand but Pope made two fifties down the order at No 6 with the burden of the gloves, too.
The Bishop of Rome and Crawley will be needed in Australia if they can show some consistency. One game-changing streak player can be accommodated in the top three. Two would be a stretch. So, a good start and no more. Plenty to be enjoyed but nothing to be learnt.
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