Live Coverage of England vs Ireland Test Match on Day Two in Cricket by The Guardian.

37th over: England 228-1 (Duckett 104, Pope 59) Curtis Campher is picked off for consecutive boundaries by Pope, a flick through mid-wicket and an off-drive, the Surrey lad looks in good touch.

@Jimbo_Cricket off topic, but whilst I love the Ireland sweaters- proper cricket- I'm slightly disappointed they haven't gone for their own version of the Baggy Green cap. Boggy green, perhaps?

36th over: England 219-1 (Duckett 104, Pope 50) Ollie Pope also brings up his fifty. Ten runs come off the over, the sun beats down at Lord’s and England are in clover.

Yes he can! A flick into the leg side and a misfield allows the opener to scamper the single he needs! The England players stand and applaud their man, that’s Duckett’s second Test century and his first on home turf.

35th over: England 209-1 (Duckett 99, Pope 44) Duckett picks up two boundaries and all of a sudden he is on 99! I’m now feeling bad that I posted the Athers 99 run out below. A Pope single brings up the 100 partnership for this pair off just 112 balls. England cruising. Can Duckett make it to a century…

34th over: England 196-1 (Duckett 88, Pope 43) Pope opens the face to glide away for four runs. A tad lucky but he’ll take ‘em.

33rd over: England 191-1 (Duckett 88, Pope 39) That is more convincing from Duckett, a half volley from Adair is caressed back past the non-striker for four.

Sam Glover sends in his thesis on Crawley:

“Height mismatches in opening pairs is really useful for the reasons you (and Athers) state and as originally demonstrated by Haydn and Langer. The perfect solution at this point for England would appear to be a return to Alex Hales who is vastly more secure technically than Crawley. Unfortunately we all know that’s never going to happen given the calendar, but it’s nice to dream.Incidentally, (in my view) Crawley’s technical problems mean he’s always going to be a walking wicket any time a decent bowler is using a ball that’s moving. Tall batters have a big advantage given their longer levers and the fact that they can get further forward. However, they also have the problem that their head is further away from the ball unless they develop their technique to bat like short batters. The further away from the ball the head is the more vulnerable the batter is to the moving ball. Best example I can think of is KP who had unbelievable technique, because he was very tall but kept his head amazingly close to the ball. Crawley is the opposite, he stands tall. While he’s going well it looks great because he has all the advantages of his height, but his inability to get his head close to it means he will always be susceptible to a moving ball, especially in the hands of a bowler who can hit the right length for the amount of movement. He wouldn’t last two min against Anderson and won’t last two min against Cummins with a Dukes ball.”

32nd over: England 186-1 (Duckett 84, Pope 38) Yeeesh. Duckett plinks one in the air juuust over the extra-cover fielder, he gets four runs for it but it was dicey dicey.

Good morning to an ill at ease Aidan McCarthy:

“As an Irishman who is lucky enough to have tickets for tomorrow, I’m increasingly concerned that England are going to try and win this thing today while I’m in the office. As well as sparing a thought for Ireland’s seriously outclassed bowling attack, won’t someone spare a thought for tomorrow’s crowd, who may have to find something else to do at short notice?”

I think you might be safe for some action tomorrow Aidan… I’m not making any promises though.

31st over: England 179-1 (Duckett 78, Pope 37) A tidier over from Adair, Duckett cue ends one uppishly as he tries to create summat from nowt. The opener has just started to look a bit of jittery, perhaps too eager to get on with things. He’ll want to get three figures and a Test ton at Lord’s* under his belt (in his first home Test).

*Plenty of decent players haven’t of course.

30th over: England 177-1 (Duckett 76, Pope 37) Shot! Duckett drives back down the ground to pick up four and take England into the lead. The camera lingers on Giles Coren sat in the crowd. I’m saying nothing.

Careful!

'I thought you said 'yeah''A close escape for Ben Duckett after some miscommunication almost sees him collide with Ollie Pope! ⚠️

29th over: England 172-1 (Duckett 71, Pope 37) Five pocketed off the over including a bit of mid-pitch jiggery-pokery that sees Duckett out of his ground when Harry Tector has a shy at the stumps but the throw missed.

“Hi Jim”

Hello to you Peter Salmon.

“Crawley. What is to be done? My feeling is he will average 8.4 in the first couple of Tests against Aus, then make 64 when they stick with him for the Third. Then 12 and 8 in the Fourth, and dropped. Prove me wrong!”

Only one man can do that Peter… What would be interesting is if Crawley gets ‘game affecting’ runs early in the Ashes series, whether all the chatter dies away? Or not. He got a breathtaking ton on the tour of Pakistan remember? But you get the feeling that his feast or famine returns mean that the big knocks buy him more time rather than cement his place.

28th over: England 160-1 (Duckett 66, Pope 37) Delightful from Ollie Pope, a classical cover drive zings across the carpet for four runs. High elbow, hold the pose. Class.

G’morning to a slightly wistful Ian Cuff.

“Hi Jim

Yesterday just reiterated for about the 100th time that when time finally catches up with Sir Stuart and Sir James it’ll have the same effect that McGrath and Warnie’s retirement did on Oz.

Jimmy can be unplayable but the look Broad gets when he gets a couple of quick wickets is just like a Great White with blood in the water.

Boy we’ll miss them... can I put in a vote now to keep them on board as bowling coaches (if they want to that is!)'

27th over: England 160-1 (Duckett 65, Pope 31) A solitary leg bye off Mark Adair’s first over, sun beginning to burn off the cloud in North London.

26th over: England 159-1 (Duckett 65, Pope 31) Graham Hume bustles in for the first over of the day and his first delivery is cut away for four by the diminuitive Duckett! A tad short and rasped to the fence. A single brings Pope on strike and England’s Vice Captain opens his account for the day with a flick through square-leg for a couple. Seven off the first over. Could be a few hours of hard toil for Ireland in the offing here.

Right, the players take to the field at a slightly gloomy looking Lord’s. Let’s have some play.

Good morning to you Tom Van Der Gucht

“Morning Jim,

Feeling your pain regarding the early rise: my 4-year-old rises with the lark and it’s my responsibility to get up with him and keep him entertained... You know it’s early when you find yourself watching pre-Milkshake Channel 5 cartoons with bleary eyes and a strong espresso for company.

Watching the highlights on BBC2, I was struck by the discrepancy in height between lordly Crawley and the Ewokian Duckett when batting together. I imagine that’s another reason they’re sticking with Crawley as it might disrupt the bowlers’ lengths having to adjust between the two of them.”

Sending solidarity on your first point Tom, and you are right on the second. Mike Atherton was explaining yesterday (far more articulately than I’m about to) that the ‘little and large’ opening pair of Crawley and Duckett does disrupt bowling lengths. Crawley’s long levers and stride makes a bolwer push their length back a bit and that is meat and drink to Duckett who is deft on the cut and nurdle. Just like a left-right hand combo is annoying too, it makes sense.

A bucket-hatted Broad talks us through the different grips for his outswinger and inswinger. Here was me thinking his “new” outswinger was all part of the phoney/baloney war.

Stuart Broad demonstrates the difference in grip and aim for his outswinger and inswinger deliveries 🏏👇

This did make me chuckle:

Ben Duckett seeing the funny side of his unfortunate placement in the anthems 😂

The England players are talking about their Ashes memories in a Sky VT. It’s making me feel very old… Zak Crawley can’t even remember the 2005 series, 2009 is where it all began for him. Time waits for no man.

Hello and welcome to Day Two of England v Ireland from Lord’s.

Jim here to tentatively take your hand through the first session and a bit - think something slightly more affectionate than Tom and Shiv in the back of the blacked out SUV in the Succession finale. Palms lightly brushing, air thick with unspoken feelings. Like I say, slightly more affectionate than that.

I’ve been up since 5am y’see thanks to a belligerently carpe diem espousing two year old. So, jacked up on three coffees already, let’s kick off with Some Things That We Learnt Yesterday (That We Probably Already Knew)

(STTWLY(TWPAK) for short, obviously)

1. Stuart Broad knows when to turn it on. With his place in a fully fit and firing starting Test XI not secured, Marmite’s freshly yeasted brand ambassador and self anointed Aussie goader-in-chief strapped on his bandana and did his thing - prising out five wickets for 51, racking up his 20th five-wicket haul in Tests and his first at Lord’s for more than a decade.

2. Ireland are undercooked and struggled to get a foothold in the game. Andy Bull’s excellent piece digs into the myriad reasons why. “I don’t know much about red ball cricket,” Lorcan Tucker said before this game began - “I’ve hardly played any in four years.”

3. Zak Crawley is a flighty and flawed opening bat. A skittish innings comprising of plays and misses and spawny inside edges but also majestic strokeplay - eleven boundaries and a strike rate of over 124 put the pressure on Ireland’s bowlers immediately. The debate will rumble.

There are plenty of other things to discuss too but we can get into them as the day unfolds. It’ll be fun. Play gets underway in about 40 minutes time.

Do drop me a line on email or tweet @Jimbo_Cricket