18th over: West Indies 46-2 (Louis 25, Athanaze 7) Wood gets another delivery to spit like a camel having a tantrum, Louis looked very uncomfortable fending that off his ribs with one hand off the bat. And you wouldn’t?! Ollie Pope gestures towards Ben Stokes about getting the lid on and camping out at ‘Boot Hill’/short leg.

17th over: West Indies 44-2 (Louis 24, Athanaze 6) Bashir continues, a light breeze fluttering the back of his shirt as he approaches the crease. A tidy over of dots is spoilt by a leg side ball that Louis sweeps with a minimum of fuss for four.

16th over: West Indies 40-2 (Louis 20, Athanaze 6) Mark Wood thunders in. “A fast bowler in heart and mind” Mike Atherton channels the late, great John Arlott in his appraisal of the Durham fast bowler on the tv commentary. Wood is clocking 90mph plus already, which boggles the mind really. Ouch! A snorting delivery from Wood rises sharply and crashes into Athanaze’s shoulder. That’ll be a peach sized bruise in no time.

15th over: West Indies 39-2 (Louis 19, Athanaze 6) Bashir shuffles to the crease with quick feet and a high arm. Athanaze rocks back to pierce the covers with a push and he takes a single. Mikyle Louis on strike. He’s had a decent series without yet making a stellar contribution. Bashir finds some turn but it drifts down the leg side and beats Jamie Smith behind the stumps, the first boundary of the day comes in byes.

To the strains of Jerusalem – here is the TMS overseas link

https://m.youtube.com/live/dtcDCZKUx1A?cbrd=1

Merci to Simon Dennis for that.

Here come the players. Edgbaston a picture in bright sunshine. We’re going to have spin to start with so I better be on my mettle. Shoaib Bashir was rattling through his overs at warp speed last night, clearly not giving a solitary shiny one about the poor OBO scribe. Let’s play!

Bending over to load the dishwasher puts about 2 x through it I reckon…

Back to the cricket – our man Ali Martin’s report from Day two is well worth a read before play gets underway in a little over five minutes.

Big Boss Steve McMillan is our Olympics Editor and I’ve just chuckled into my Kenco reading his diary from a week in Paris.

Emmanuel and Brigitte do a walkabout. I try to get close for pearls of wisdom but bodyguards fend me off. My colleague Nick Ames bursts past and thrusts out a paw: “Bonjour monsieur, le président!” Eyes meet, hands are shaken. Macron utters the immortal words: “The Guardian? Thank you for being here.” Nick has the scoop. I am empty-handed. This is why he is an intrepid war-zone reporter and I eat packed lunches at a desk.”

Not that you’ll be diverting your attention away from the OBO for single second but the Olympics are in full swing and of course The Guardian have got you covered - follow on with the Olympics blog right here:

I watched the swimming last night after eating a huge Spaghetti Bolognese. Adam Peaty’s droplet laden hulking frame a totem of athletic masculinity. One last dip of garlic bread into the ragu and a vow to do some press ups today…

Joe Root is a great of the game. Watching him yesterday was an absolute joy. If I was Sachin Tendulkar (and I must stress that I am not) then I reckon I’d be having a nervy little look over my shoulder.

At Trent Bridge, Root had produced a match-defining partnership with Brook to usher England safely through the most awkward period of the game. Here, he did a similar job in the company of Stokes, gradually lifting the pressure on his team and transferring it on to their opponents, creating the conditions that would eventually allow Smith and Chris Woakes to put the home side fully in control, making the unlikely achievable.

On which subject Sachin Tendulkar, the greatest of them all, is 3,960 runs away. On days like this it feels like just a matter of time.”

Preamble

James Wallace