Key events
Simon Leyland has picked up something that I dangled in my premble.
He wants to know, “If Lords is not the HQ of cricket, where is?”
I guess right now it’s wherever Jay Shah resides.
Ricky Ponting just spent a good few minutes singing Will Jacks’ praises. He particularly loves his bat speed and footwork.
The young lad has certainly impressed and could be a mainstay for some time.
Toss delayed at Lord’s
As expected, the toss has been delayed.
The covers are on, the skies are grim. Might be a long wait.
We’ve got our first email and the title is simply ‘Nope’.
It’s from Rob:
Looking forward to some adversarial cricket today, but currently hiding in a cafe at Paddington until you say the rain has stopped. It’s up to you, Daniel.
I can do a lot mate, but I can’t control the weather. I’ll do my best though.
Lord’s security on high alert today.
As Ali Martin reports, it’s a year on from the ugly scenes in the Long Room and the Aussies will not want to go through that again.
My word, has anyone seen the Sri Lanka v New Zealand score?
Kamindu Mendis is 182 off 250 in a partnership of over 200. What does that pitch in Galle look like?
I’m afraid to say it’s pretty wet around the country.
Tanya Aldred is keeping an eye on the County Championship where a few games have already been called.
Preamble
Daniel Gallan
Hello, hello, happy Friday and welcome to our coverage of the 4th ODI between England and Australia.
It’s been a soggy morning in London but according to my gaslighting app, things should dry up relatively soon and we might even get a few rays of sunshine later. But don’t quote me on that.
I do hope we get a proper game as this series has been a load of fun and I’d quite like some more.
Travis Head pulverised England’s bowlers in Nottingham before a sloppy show from the hosts saw them stumble to a 68-run defeat at Headingley.
The series looked done and dusted but then a sensational century from skipper Harry Brook up in Durham kept things interesting. Of course Australia can take all the marbles with another win today, but England will back themselves after that DLS victory.
This is the first time Australia are playing an ODI at the (self-anointed) Home of Cricket since the 2019 World Cup. Back then Mitchell Starc blew New Zealand away in an 86-run win. The tall Aussie quick likes this ground. It was here he produced one of the great deliveries in living memory when he served up an unplayable yorker to bowl Ben Stokes in that same tournament.
Of course this is where England established themselves as one of the great 50-over sides in history and they’ll hope some of that magic rubs off on a new crop of players still finding their feet.
Looking forward to this one. Fingers crossed we don’t have a major delay.
If you’d like to get in touch, drop me a mail and I’ll do my best to stick your thoughts on the blog.
Play scheduled to start at 12.30pm BST.
Toss, teams and updates to come.