DEREK PRINGLE

@derekpringle
From Playground to the Test Arena’ was a slogan, now defunct, that the ECB once used to promote cricket, though they probably never envisaged the two extremes being conflated in an Ashes Test the way they were at Lord’s last Friday.
To describe some of England’s batting as playground might be too strong, but it was certainly village, though they were aided in this regard by Australia’s tactics and field settings, which were as funky as anything dreamt up by Ben Stokes under the influence of Bazball.
At one point in the afternoon – somebody timed it at a mad 43 ...