Shubman Gill boils over at Zak Crawley but ‘it’s just part of the game’ for KL Rahul

Three days of cricket that often failed to match the red-hot temperatures it has been played in ended on Saturday with six minutes of rancour, Shubman Gill exhorting Zak Crawley to “grow some fucking balls”, and both sides accusing the other of time-wasting. The sudden outbreak of tension came in the day’s extraordinary conclusion, in which England’s openers used every tactic in their armoury to prevent India squeezing a second over into their brief spell in the field before stumps.India’s first innings ended – for 387, precisely the same score England got in theirs – 14 minutes before the day was due to conclude, and when Crawley and Ben Duckett emerged to start their second knock there were only six minutes remaining. The action that followed was punctuated by discussions between the batters, while Crawley on one occasion pulled away as Jasprit Bumrah neared the end of his run-up after spotting movement behind the bowler’s arm, and on another shook his hand in apparent agony and called for the physio after the ball bounced into his glove. “He’ll be assessed overnight and hopefully he’ll be all right to carry on tomorrow,” deadpanned Tim Southee, England’s coaching consultant

Anisimova endures a hot Wimbledon nightmare after entering the Swiatek bakery | Jonathan Liew

This is what a scream with no vowels sounds like. This is the weight of the soul leaving the body. The arms are no longer connected to the legs, the legs have been severed from the lungs, the lungs have lost contact with the heart and the heart is getting ghosted by the brain. Amanda Anisimova sits on her chair, baking in the heat, stewing in sadness. She dabs her face with a towel and hopes people won’t notice she’s wiping away tears

Ball bother is dominating the India series but the Dukes is not the problem | Barney Ronay

And so it came to pass, an hour into the third day’s play, the first sight of Umpire Paul Reiffel fiddling with his ring-piece, brandishing his ball handcuffs and spending five minutes of an extended towel and chill break worrying about gauge, swelling and improper engorgement.Ball anxiety has been a frustratingly prominent feature of the England-India Test summer. Has any other series been so defined by concerns over the ball? Not chicanery or tampering, but complaints, bitching and even punishable dissent over its general condition and the possible need to change it?This has been the backbeat to summer, rather than Bazball, friction between the teams (we miss you Virat) or even old favourites such as the death of Test cricket or the undue influence of the Board of Control for Cricket in India. The visitors seem most bothered, with Rishabh Pant by far the most vocal critic of the Dukes ball, regularly appalled by its performance, fined for hurling it to the ground at Headingley, and even moved to return to the subject before this Test.India got the ball changed twice on the second day here, but only after a lot of chat and frowning consultation of the silver bracelets

Zak Crawley stokes flames and sparks India’s fury in tetchy heatwave Test | Andy Bull

Shubman Gill takes issue with England opener’s delaying tactics at end of gruelling day of blood and sweat cricketAs recently as 1878, a crowd of about 15,000 people paid to watch 18 men spend six days walking in endless circles around the Royal Agricultural Hall, in a 500-mile race for the inaugural Astley Belt for endurance pedestrianism. The competitors were made to eat, sleep and go to the toilet in little tents set up by the side of the track.According to the reports, by the fourth day there were three “forlorn, destitute, ragged” men left in contention. “Their boots were hanging to their feet by shreds.” Everyone else had been finished off by injuries, irritation and exhaustion

Stokes conjures England magic to halt India and put third Test on knife-edge

It has been a tough old series for England’s bowlers. As well as wrestling with docile pitches and doughy Dukes balls in a lengthy heatwave, they have come up against an India batting lineup that is rich with talent and seriously gutsy with it. The upshot has been perspiration outstripping inspiration for long passages of play.Not that those two elements are mutually exclusive and in Ben Stokes, England have a cricketer who thrives on delivering both. On a gripping third day of this third Test, as India were bowled out for 387 in 119

England v India: third men’s cricket Test, day three – as it happened

Righto, another enthralling day of Test cricket in this series. There is nothing to split these two sides at the moment (okay, two runs). I’ll be back on the tools in the morning. Have a good evening, bye.In comes Bumrah in his inimitable fashion – stuttering daintily like a shire horse in tap shoes