England v Pakistan: start of day two of second Test delayed by rain – live!

Over-by-over updates from the action at HeadingleySign up for The Spin, our weekly cricket emailEmail rob.smyth@theguardian.com with any thoughts 3.01pm BST 41st over: England 132-2 (Root 40, Bess 11) “I agree that Root is much maligned (averaging over 50 when he never scores hundreds is pretty remarkable) but isn’t it a bit misleading to claim he’s the only Englishman in the last 50 years to average over 50,” says David Murray. “I would guess that plenty of batsmen in that period averaged over 50 for a spell but failed to retire with that average – Gooch, Gower, R. Smith, Trescothick, Strauss, Cook. Or am I wrong.”I don’t think many of them did. Robin Smith certainly did and maybe Strauss for a while. Not sure about the rest. It’s a fair point though. That said, I don’t think any of them were averaging 50 at such an advanced stage of their career. 2.57pm BST 40th over: England 127-2 (Root 39, Bess 7) Amir slips another good delivery past Root’s outside edge. The sloppy start continues with a couple of overthrows, and then Bess nails a glorious extra cover drive for four. This morning, Sam Curran said that Bess (0 not out overnight) fancied a first Test hundred. It’s been a fine start for England, with 21 from the first three overs. Continue reading…
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