Let Bazball show the way…

Short, sharp: it’s YATS Friday Fan Mail, and we’ve just watched England score 823 in the cricket  🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🏏 🇵🇰

Spare a thought for Shan Masood, captain of the Pakistan cricket team now for 6 tests and lost them all 😢 It’s a tough gig. He might even have thought he’d turned a corner this time, personally scoring 151 runs and seeing his team post a massive 557 runs in the first innings. It’s big 🐘 It’s chunky 🦛 It’s match-winning 🙌 It is, of course, until Joe Root and Harry Brook put together England’s biggest ever partnership of 454 and carry England past 800 💥

Now here’s Pope’s dilemma. No team has ever scored a thousand runs in a test innings. England could have had a crack. 177 runs to go against an exhausted bowling and fielding outfit. It might even be merciful, as Masood could finally draw a match… 

Nope. Pope declares for the win.

But the suggestion has been made. For the first time this century a team has reached 800, and most significantly, at a rate of 5 an over, far faster than any that have gone before. Intentionally or otherwise, England have just reawakened the possibility, the dream, of a ten ton test 💣

Let Bazball show the way…