England v West Indies: second Test, day three – live!

Over-by-over updates from the third day at Old TraffordDay two report: stunning Stokes puts England in commandEmail Tim with your thoughts or tweet @TimdeLisle 10.31am BST Cricket is the lead story today in The Times – on the front page, not the back. “Botham given peerage,” says the headline, “as reward for Brexit loyalty.” What?! Lord Beefy?! It’s hard to know whether to laugh, cry or raise a watery, socially distanced cheer. Brexit is no longer the will of the people, if it ever was. Botham was a wonderful cricketer who lit up the sports world from 1977 to 1985. But even some of his many fans may have mixed feelings about this. It’s the wrong reason for giving him another honour to add to the knighthood he collected in 2007. The right reason would be his charity work, which has been phenomenal. He was the Captain Tom of the Eighties. 10.18am BST Morning everyone and welcome to the third day of the – uh-oh. It’s raining. And the forecast is grim until at least teatime. This is the first of three consecutive Tests in Manchester, which would not be Manchester if it allowed all three to take place under blue skies. One of the OBO’s writers, Tanya Aldred, lives about a mile from Old Trafford, so I rang her a few minutes ago for the latest. “It’s definitely raining, I can see it in the puddles in the garden,” she said. “But it’s not sheeting, it’s kind of steady. It doesn’t feel completely set in. The grey has a touch of light to it.” Spoken like a true adopted northerner. Continue reading... https://www.theguardian.com/sport/live/2020/jul/18/england-v-west-indies-second-test-day-three-live #england_v_west_indies_2020 #cricket #england_cricket_team #west_indies_cricket_team #sport #over_by_over_reports