Key events
6th over: England 40-0 (Crawley 16, Duckett 23) Duckett twinkles down the track and cuts to the fence then, after a dot, he again advances and this time goes over point for four more. Trouble for India, and Duckett being Duckett, he’s not done yet, using Deep’s inswing – like Tongue’s, starting from too straight – to flicks for a third four of the over. He then misses with a huge hoik, a reminder to himself of the focus required to impose himself without being reckless.
5th over: England 32-0 (Crawley 16, Duckett 11) Four dots, then Crawley stomps forward, clobbers down the ground, and freezes in follow-through; lovely stuff. These two have found the perfect tempo here, attacking with prejudice but intelligence.
“The Graham Thorpe story is a tragedy of gargantuan proportions,” writes Mark Lloyd. “I have experienced extended bouts of depression and, in more recent years, anxiety, over a 33-year period and I feel I have a good understanding of what he went through. The last period of ill-health I had – the worst I’ve had, in fact – was from mid-July to October 2023, and the best way I can sum it up the sensation is to say that I felt like I was living within one of those big transparent balls you can climb inside. I could see the world outside, albeit through a fuzzy haze, but I had no way of accessing it until late evening each day.
As is common with depression, mine mercifully lifted significantly at the end of each day, so the hell of mornings always came with the vague knowledge and hope that by the end of the day I would get a couple of hours of relief (although one of the demonic tricks the illness plays is it convinces you that this is the one time it is never going to leave you). I spent whole days lying on my bed – this is how I listened to the last two Ashes tests, utterly bereft at not being able to extract even a flicker of pleasure from any of it.
The tragedy for Graham and his family is that depression lifts – always, in my experience – and with the lifting of the depression comes a deep and ecstatic joy in simply being alive and, well, ‘normal’. This knowledge is no comfort whatsoever when one is in the depths of despair – if it was, depression would lose its power. There is a cruelty in depression which cannot be put into words. And nobody is immune. But and here is the thing I feel my family and friends will never fully understand (because they have seen what it can do to me) … if, in a parallel universe, I were offered the chance to go back in time to 1992 and erase all trace of depression from the long years ahead, I would refuse without hesitation. I know this to be true, but I have no way to adequately explain it. Rest in Peace, Thorpey – with the stress on the Peace.”
Even parts of us that are hard to deal with are part of us, and learning to love all of ourselves is one of the best ways of protecting mental health. Whitney had it right.
And so did King Promise:
4th over: England 25-0 (Crawley 12, Duckett 11) Duckett races down, swings, and misses; Deep has him on absolute toast here, squaring him up, and he top-edges towards two gullies … neither of whom are sharp enough to take a ball that loops up invitingly. Naturally, Duckett is nervous facing the final ball of a really testing over, so he does what anyone would do: reverse-scoops it for six. At some point, we’ll need to talk about this man, and how he is now one of the best, most creative, inventive, entertaining and brave batters in the world.
“Once you allow substitutions for any reason,” says Stuart Silvers, “you open up a can of worms that ends with the South African rugby union team changing its entire forward pack at half time – or the farce at the end of international football friendlies. Watching England cope without Woakes this morning has already been fascinating.”
I do think there’s a way of making it work, but from my perspective, it seeks to solvs a problem that doesn’t exist.
REVIEW! NOT OUT!
It was a really good ball, but the bounce was taking it over the top; to avoid that on this track, you’ve got to be so full; length just won’t do it.
4th over: England 18-0 (Crawley 12, Duckett 5) Deep’s in and he rattles Duckett, er, in the deep. As you might imagine, his good friend and junior partner finds the whole thing not unamusing; he takes time to regenrate and refresh, then the bowler pins him on the crease with that straightens. He loves it, persuading Gill to review when the umpire says naw…
3rd over: England 18-0 (Crawley 12, Duckett 5) The ball isn’t doing anything, but it might once the lacquer is off and heavy roll has worn off the pitch. But in the meantime and after a single to Duckett, Crawley times four through cover, then twizzles four more to midwicket, and the problem India have is that England score so quickly, by the time conditions start offering assistance, the whole tenor of the innings might’ve changed.
Lovely to see the love being rained down on Thorpey, quite right too, a top fella,” begins Jeremy Yeomans. “I was lucky enough to play village cricket against Graham and his brothers Ian (who I also played football with) and Alan, a highly competitive, (in the most positive meaning of the word) and skilful band of brothers. Together with their dad Geoff, who often stood in on umpire duties and Mum Toni on the scorebook, they made a formidable sporting family, 100% committed and really lovable, grounded people with it.
Particularly remember my lot beating them in an under 15s 20-overs game, where the drama of a couple of run win for us, in the final over,was closer to 9pm on a gloomy September evening in deepest Surrey, which must have prepared him for the darkness of Karachi . at least that’s how I like to picture it.
If memory serves me correctly, Graham would have been under-10 at the time, because I’d have been 14 max.
He showed his class a couple of years later, when I had graduated to the weekend men’s 2nd team at around 17. His Wrecclesham team turned up & kicked our asses on his debut. if I remember rightly he took three wickets, (he was a handy bowler) & made at least 30 odd (might have been 50…. memory’s not what it was, especially in a losing cause) – I believe he was 12 or maybe 13, took out fellas three or four times his age, who were in utter disbelief. You could tell he was destined for better things.
I know he had his demons but Thorpey loved sport and he loved cricket. To have that world shut off to him, appears to have had a hugely negative impact on his emotional being and sense of self. A real tragedy and hopefully making people more aware will help others who might feel that life cannot continue without something which has been seemingly omnipresent in their lives amd will give hope for the future.
Me, I like to remember him on a sunny Saturday afternoon, at Frensham Rec, quietly going about his business of showing the old guard that there was a new kid on the block with bat and ball. Sound technique, no flashiness, just got the job done.”
2nd over: England 9-0 (Crawley 4, Duckett 4) Akash Deep, so effective at Edgbaston, takes the new ball here, and Duckett taps his third delivery into the off-side for one. It was really interesting to hear Crawley talk about England’s opening partnership at OT, and he was very clear in so doing: Duckett is the senior partner, offering advice and determining tactics, thanks to his prodigious cricket brain. And next ball, Crawley is caught on the crease, swiping across the line; he’s hit on the pad, but high, and given he’s a tall man, it makes sense that India don’t appeal strongly or review.
1st over: England 8-0 (Crawley 4, Duckett 3) Crawley looks to turn behind and instead earns a leg-bye, then Duckett runs down to deep backward and Jadeja chases well, diving to save one as the batters take three. Then, responding to the final ball of the over, Crawley, standing out of his crease, stands tall, waits, and dismisses from his countenance, massacring four through cover. Good start for England.
“I’ve been listening to Tom Cox’s 21st Century Yokel lately,” says Tom ven der Gucht, “and a line that struck a chord with me was, ‘There are some years where you’re more you than others.’
2004 was one of those years for me. Drifting after graduation, I was temping in a call centre in Oxford with a lot of other people yet to find their feet. I seemed to spend the entire year mooching around following England’s cricketing triumphs (a golden year, better than 2005 in my opinion) and the emergence of the next generation of talent in between taking calls and heading into town to hit the real ale pubs and catch the last hour of play on Channel 4 and dream about my future. Thorpe was such a big part of that – a link from my teenage years watching and listening to TMS, to adulthood – and the grit and gravitas the likes of Butch, Hussain and he brought to the team was palpable.”
And of course there’s more:
Righto, we’re good to go again, Siraj with the ball and Crawley on strike.
England bowled well this morning, and would’ve taken the current state of play when winning the toss. I don’t want to read too much into one innings, but it feels like we can, perhaps, assume that Atkinson will be the final piece of the first-choice Ashes attack, alongside Stokes, Archer and Wood.
“A few things that could lessen the prospect of abuse,” begins Will Vignoles, “could be firstly having them be under the purview of an independent medical team, as rugby does with head injury assessments, and then limiting them to like for like and only external injuries – it’s quite hard to fake a dislocated shoulder or broken foot, and means that teams can’t just take a chance on someone coming into a test with a muscle problem. There’s already mitigation in terms of time spent off the field for those as well so something of a precedent already there. Also, I might be wrong but I think they’re much less common than a muscular issue as well so would mean it doesn’t happen too often.
Quick one on Graham Thorpe – I started watching cricket at the end of the 90s, and he always stood out as a rock of determination, thoughtfulness as well as quality. A great man gone much too soon.”
I guess I don’t want more complexity in the game; I’m fine with the status quo, and enjoy the randomness of unpredictable misfortune, then watching the teams deal with it.
WICKET! Krishna c Smith b Atkinson 0 (India 224 all out)
Five for Atkinson on his comeback from injury, and he’s earned every bit of relief and joy he’s experiencing as he raises the ball. This is another beautiful delivery too, full of length, seaming away, and kissing the edge as if magnetically attracted to it. This pitch has plenty in it, and it’s going to be a lot fun watching how England bat on it and India bowl at them.
WICKET! Siraj b Atkinson 0 (India 224-9)
Another tremendous delivery, an off-cutter jutting in at pace, diddling the batter through the gate before clattering the timber. Four for Atkinson, who is bowling beautifully.
69th over: India 224-8 (Deep 0, Siraj 0) Tongue, one a fivefer if he picks up the two remaining wickets, pins Deep on the crease and contacts the pad, but there’s no appeal as the ball was high and going down. Oh, and Tongue might just be into this now, a leg-cutter slanting in before zipping away late doors, way, way too good for for Deep. Naturally, a piece of leg-side nonsense completes the over, Smith’s helpless dive again between at cost of four byes.
68th over: India 220-8 (Deep 0, Siraj 0) Both the overnight batters have gone, and India are in big trouble – but the pitch is still doing plenty.
WICKET! Sundar c Overton b Atkinson 26 (India 220-8)
Tis time, Washington goes after a short one, but his pull isn’t hit with necessary authority nor are wrists rolled over it, so instead he picks out Overton at deep square who, running in, leans forward to catch on the fall.
68th over: India 220-7 (Sundar 26, Deep 0) Washington knows he needs to score so, sent a short one, he leaps looking to let ball hit cross-bat and will be relieved to see it land safe as he runs two.
67th over: India 218-7 (Sundar 24, Deep 0) This is Mitchell Johnson bowling from Tongue, spraying it all over before finding something unplayable.
REVIEW! OUT!
Er, yeah, you can understand by Nair went upstairs because we’re into the bowlers now, but Lev Yashin couldn’t save him here. Middle stump, two-thirds of the way up, bang.
WICKET! Nair lbw b Tongue 57 (India 218-7)
You’ve got to laugh: Tongue has done it again! He pins Nair with an exocet, swinging in, seaming, and ramming the back pad; it’s so plumb the batter might as well walk.
67th over: India 218-6 (Nair 57, Sundar 24) Oh dear. Again, Tongue looks to swing one back in, but again he starts from too tight to the stumps, the ball trampolining past Smith’s dive and hurrying to the fence for four byes. Maybe if he comes from wider on the crease, or runs in on the diagonal, he might find the accuracy he’s seeking, but in the meantime, Washington takes him for one and he finds a less avant-garde line.
“Like Phil Harrison, my memories of Graham Thorpe as a cricketer are intertwined with personal sliding doors moments,” says Carl Jones. “His debut in the Ashes also marked the last time that I saw my dad – after a messy divorce he had moved to Wiltshire from Buckinghamshire and the distance meant that he missed much of my teenage years. This meant that he hadn’t quite grasped my move from childhood into young adulthood, and so we had a slightly uneasy relationship.
July 1993 saw me make the trip to his house for a week of what I expected to be worthy day trips and events, but instead he casually suggested that he had got some beers in and that he thought me might watch the cricket together. So we spent the next few days sipping beer and discussing the cricket – it was the only timer we ever related as adults, and he sadly passed away unexpectedly a couple of months later.
So Graham Thorpe and his century – and to a lesser extent a bit of fire from Martin McCague are indelibly associated with me and my Dad and the most treasured few days of that most important of relationships.”
66th over: India 213-6 (Nair 57, Sundar 23) It is, of course, Atkinson from the other end – he was excellent yesterday, and England will be relying on him to get this over. And his second delivery is very nice, seaming in as Nair shoulders arms; there’s a confident shout, but when the umpire rejects the appeal, there’s no review as the ball was probably going down. Maiden, Atkinson’s eighth of the innings.
65th over: India 213-6 (Nair 57, Sundar 23) How Tongue and Overton bowl in the absence of Woakes will go a long way towards deciding ho this match shakes out. And Tongue begins well enough, only for Nair to airily drive like he didn’t spend hours yesterday denying himself for the team … edging through the slips for four. He then misses out on a full toss, adding just one through midwicket, then the best delivery of the over rams Washington’s pad; there’s an appeal, but the ball was going down. Tongue, though, can’t sustain pressure, swinging one in but from too close to straight; Washington flicks it around the corner for four, and that’s nine off the over, today just a continuation of yesterday – so far.
Tongue will open, and off we go.
Amanda Thorpe, Graham’s wife – who’s just been on telly giving Ian Ward an interview of incomprehensible bravery, candour and clarity – and Emma Thorpe, Graham’s daughter – ring the five-minute bell. Soon, we will have cricket.
Session times
Morning: 11am – 1pm
Afternoon: 1.40pm – 3.55pm
Evening: 4.15pm – 6.30pm with the possibility of an extra half-hour
“The news on Chris Woakes will reignite the injury substitution debate I am sure,” says Andrew Moore. “It doesn’t sit right with me that a team is allowed a concussion substitute for essentially a batter error, but for injury misfortune a substitute is not allowed. I don’t buy the health and safety argument around concussion either, as in other sports if a player fails concussion tests it is up to the team doctor to not allow him to carry on playing. I do agree with the argument that allowing injury substitutes is open to abuse.
The answer is simple, either no substitutes under any circumstances or allow substitutes for any reason. I heard an interesting idea which was to allow maybe one or two substitutes only during the first two innings of a match. Introducing tactical substitutes during a Test match could be fascinating.
Can I also associate myself with your thoughts on Graham Thorpe. What a tremendously painful day this must be for family and friends, but equally the sport can do its part today to help ease that pain.”
I’m with Ben Stokes on this one: how teams deal with misfortune is part of sport, and I don’t think England should just be able to toss, say Jofra Archer into this match having seen what their team is lacking and the pitch requires.
“The OBO, MBM, uh, GolfBGolf(? Sorry, Scott!) communities are, by and large, entertaining and supportive and collaborative,” reckons Matt Dony. “When covid put paid to live sport, I found that I really missed following games on here. At its best, it’s like being in a big ol’ pub, watching the match, but also making stupid jokes about 90s music or prestige TV or whatever the thread happens to be that day. I like to think we can make certain assumptions about most of the people who read and contribute, but even so, a lot of us probably trend towards the (ugh) ‘blokey’ and stoic.
I went through some ‘stuff’ a few years ago, and a huge part of the reason I’m here now with mental health relatively intact is that I have good friends who checked in on me. Sometimes simply asking if I was ok. I often wasn’t.
And, equally, I try to be there for them. There’s always someone going through something. And I doubt any of us of certain generations will ever truly get comfortable with, say, sending a text that just says ‘How are you feeling? I’m thinking about you.’ But it’s our responsibility to do it. To each other, and to the generations following. Show them the importance of empathy and compassion. Make sure that they’re better equipped than we might have been at their age.”
I couldn’t agree more: everyone is struggling with something. It’s incumbent upon us to make sure that, when it comes to those we know, we’re aware of what it is and make clear it and they are on our mind.
“I’ve been watching Tests for years,” brags and confesses James Davey, “and I wake up this morning realising I have *no idea* how the hours of play work today. I think we get 96 overs scheduled for today (to make up for the fact overs were lost yesterday). But do they get until 1830 to bowl those? Or 1930? Or some other point? Judging by my forecast this is a moot point, as we’ll lose more time today, but I confess that I am confused, and I am probably not the only one.
(India should declare overnight by the way. Bowling England out today is their best chance to take 20 wickets and win the series. They won’t. But they should.)
Thanks for sharing Karachi with us all. What a great player Thorpey was.”
Er, me neither. Otherwise, I guess India plan to score as many as they can today, in the knowledge they’ll either have time to bowl England out today, or build a decent total against a struggling attack. They do need to take 20 wickets, but that’ll be easier done with SB Pressure completing their attack.
“Still makes me very sad to think of the final years of Graham Thorpe’s life,” emails Phil Harrison. “I was at Trent Bridge for his debut ton – I was there with my dad and I moved to London the following day. Which, in my head at least, kind of marked the beginning of my adult life. It felt like me and Graham Thorpe were setting out on our journeys at the same time so I was always quite invested in his career. It’s silly how we let our lives become intertwined with the fates of professional sports people who will never know we exist. But it’s meaningful and potent in its own way too. Anyway, what a player and what a guy. I hope on some level he understood how loved and respected he was.”
It’s not silly at all – seeking meaning and being moved is part of what makes us human. I don’t need Michael Stipe’s recognition, say, to feel changed by him; as Dave said, we’re all alone in this together, and however we experience that together is worth everything.
In case you missed it at the time and even if you didn’t, check out or remind yourself of Jim Wallace’s piece remembering Thorpey.
Email! “When I think of Graham Thorpe,” writes Elliot Brooks, “I think about watching cricket with my mum as a kid, when we’d been sequestered to the television in her room because other members of the family wanted a de-cricketed zone in the living room for at least an hour at some point in the summer. I just have a lovely warm memory of sitting on her bed, watching Thorpe stroll out to bat with his zinced lips during some batting collapse or other, and my mum inevitably muttering ‘he’s always worth a few runs’.
I think that’s worth quite a lot. To be a small part of a nice memory. What joy he brought us. It’s a shame he had those struggles, and he couldn’t see what the rest of us could see. His legacy speaks for itself, rugged enduring open-heartedness, and we should all be so lucky to be defined in those terms.
Thanks for the donation links, throwing something in and thinking of Graham.”
It’s so easy to enumerate Thorpey’s qualities, isn’t it? Once upon a time, I’d have said they inspire us to aspire to them, but these days, I think the lesson is to remember that the same is already so of all of us.
I don’t suppose any of us are surprised by that news – it looked grim at the time – so let’s hope for a swift recovery. At Woakes’ age, every match means more and every injury lasts longer, but whatever happens from here, his legacy is secure, as a very fine cricketer and an even finer human being.
ECB: Woakes will play no further part in this Test
England seamer Chris Woakes will continue to be monitored throughout the remainder of the Rothesay Fifth Test at The Kia Oval, following a left shoulder injury sustained on day one of the match against India.
“At this stage, the injury has ruled him out of any further participation in the Test.
“A further assessment will be conducted at the conclusion of the series.”
Preamble
We’re just about to begin day two of Test five, one of the great recent serieseseseses still in the balance. England, having revolutionised the game with their love of it, have since stepped off to step up, learning how to win and becoming a serious team in the process, while India, shorn of generational champions and under new leadership, remain a thrilling meld of attitude and aptitude. We’ll be talking about this contest for a very long time.
But sometimes, it’s not about the contest at all – even though it is – and A Day for Thorpey reminds us why we’re here in the first place. Cricket is competitive and cricket is tough, sure – few understood that better than the man we’re gathered to remember and celebrate – but also, cricket is company and cricket is community. When we say we’ll be talking about this contest for a very long time, that’s because its sporting and dramatic merits command us to, but it’s also because we’re social beings who need to talk – and to listen, and to be listened to, and to share, and to feel alive, and to feel loved.
Which is to say that it’s our job here to communicate to you what’s happening out in the middle, but if that was all we did, we’d not be doing our job. We’re also here to chat about anything that’s on anyone’s heart, and there’s an email address at the top of the page for a reason: so anyone reading can get in touch. We’re all equal parts of this beautiful thing of ours, and just as Thorpey famously made himself available to help those around him, no one reading this need ever suffer alone. Today, we’re raising money for Mind, and specifically Thorpey’s Bat and Chat – please do support them if you can, here or here – but in the meantime, if you need an inexpert ear, conversation or mate, you know exactly where we are and that it’s our privilege to hear from you. It gets dark sometimes, but it was dark in Karachi too.
Play: 11am BST