Pakistan set England a goal of 196 to gain 2nd T20 Global – reside! | Sport

Afternoon absolutely everyone and welcome to the 2nd T20 international of this so-referred to as summertime. The initial was, of training course, ruined by the rain. There are two points you will need to know appropriate absent: (1) the weather forecast is 90-for each-cent dry, and (2) the video game is likely out reside on the BBC. Not just the radio – the telly! And not even BBC2 – BBC1!!

It is 21 several years considering the fact that this final happened to an international cricket match, when the BBC shared protection of the 1999 Planet Cup with Sky. The Beeb did not, alas, go out with a bang. England, the hosts, have been so hapless that they managed to tumble out of the tournament just before the formal topic tune was produced. There was a vintage semi-last, which could not have been closer, but the final, concerning Australia and Pakistan, was dismally a person-sided.

It was a diverse earth in them days. Our most important be concerned was irrespective of whether the convert of the millennium would freak out our computers. Twenty20 hadn’t been invented, and there were still cricket lovers who regarded as the 50-about sport indecently quick-shifting. Hell, Jimmy Anderson hadn’t performed for England, or even for Lancashire.

So right now we’re heading to social gathering like it’s 1999. With a bit of luck, the BBC will ship a automobile for Tony Lewis. (Observe to everyone finding that identify doesn’t ring a bell: he was an exquisite Glamorgan batsman who captained England in 1972-73, when Ray Illingworth did not fancy heading to India and Pakistan, and then turned the Sunday Telegraph cricket correspondent as nicely as the Beeb’s front man.) Interviewed in The Moments yesterday, Lewis said that his period experienced been all about “storytellers”, exactly where today’s broadcasters had been “innovators”.

That seemed a refined acknowledgement that the BBC coverage, well-beloved though it was, tended to be pretty staid. A different way of putting it is that in Lewis’s working day the commentators have been approximately all middle-aged white men (not that I can converse about that), whilst now the BBC’s face of cricket is Isa Guha. Of all the previous England cricketers who have moved into the commentary box, she is a single of the youngest, at 35, and probably the liveliest.

If there are any young folks under your roof, do stimulate them to watch – if important, by telling them they’ll possibly hate it. And let me know what they make of it all. Perform is owing to start off at 2.15pm, for some cause, so I’ll be back again just following 1.45 with the toss and the teams.