What the hell India scored the exact same score as England and this series was already tied

The TV stats machine makes ENG favourites over India, then the draw, but the markets have IND as faves. Weird.

I can’t remember the last time both sides posted the exact same first-innings total in a Test. It must be rare!

2015 was the last time apparently

So does Archer just rise every 6 years for a Lord's test match?

Windies are 12/6, some shameful ****

They have some great bowlers but man they can't bat at all

rofl

5fer in 15 balls for Starc in his 100th test and Bolamd gets the first ever pink ball hattrick.

Who gets the match ball?

Quick shout out to the Oval as one of the better grounds I've gone to - went to the women's Vitality Surrey/Birmingham game. Very chilled atmosphere. Only issue is if you are going to open the whole stadium to sit anywhere you need more bars open and food options rather than just at one stand

can Stokes just win the ****ing toss and bat ffs?

He did last game

England are in a great position to win this third test match and also win the series. This Indian bowling lineup looks really weak.

This root chap aint bad

Very dominant last two days from England. India’s bowling not good enough

Could Stokes cry any harder? **** me.

If playing for a draw is a waste of time, maybe don’t bat on and on and on to score almost 700.

Completely ridiculous from Stokes. Theyve just batted amazingly to save the test and deserved the time to complete their centuries.

yep, I'm on board with that too. Entitled bs from Stokes.

They left themselves more than five sessions to bowl India out and maybe knock off some runs. That's usually more than enough.

If they'd declared leaving India a smaller target, as you're suggesting, they'd have found themselves needing even more runs on a possibly dodgy fifth day wicket.

the pitch was very clearly a road, but England's bowlers are really very ordinary.

They have conceded 11 opposition centuries and 12 more 50s in 4 home tests, with 5 opposing batsmen averaging over 50 inc 2 over 90.

I fear they're gonna toil extremely hard in Australia later in the year, even against a below average Australian top order

I don’t have a problem with England making 669. India batted extraordinary well especially given they lost two wickets in the first over. Stokes might not like it, but sometimes you don’t win and you also don’t lose, it’s called a draw.

I don’t have a problem with him asking the batters if they would like to accept a draw. What I do take issue with is him trying to bully the response that he wanted and then also denigrating Sundar’s potential maiden Test century. The offer was rejected, move on, play on.

Individually, Stokes had a phenomenal Test match, he’s a great player, but he’s also an A Grade Knob.

We need an entirely new pace attack for the 5th test. Don't think Archer can play 3 in a row, Woakes is washed and Carse has been meerly ok. I'd look to get a look at some guys for the ashes. I can't believe they're honestly gonna take Woakes to Australia, he's never been able to take wickets away from home and how's that gonna change now he's lost 5mph? I'd rather take Jimmy.

I'm not getting the Dawson hype that the English media has put out there. They acted like he was definitely gonna take a bunch of wickets in the 4th innings and stamp his ticket to the ashes. He was bowling rubbish though the conditions didn't help him I guess. If he really was a test standard spinner surely he'd have 50 tests given he can bat.

Bashir not a test standard bowler either though, so at least Dawson can bat?

Dawson is a flat containment bowler who could be useful in some situations but wasn’t this time. Bashir is pretty much the opposite and being only 21 is maybe one for the future.

I could see Leach coming in for the ashes but have nfi about his current form.

Latest England XI is wild

Crawley
Duckett
Pope (c)
Root
Brook
Bethell
Smith (+)
Woakes
Atkinson
Overton
Tongue

i would trade crawley for an actual opening batsman in a nanosecond, but there is something uniquely fun about watching him bat