BUMBLE AT THE TEST

GUESS WHO? NOT SIMON

LAST week at Lord’s, I reported that I was mistaken for Aggers. At Edgbaston, a steward called out: ‘Good morning, Simon.’ I saw him again in the coffee queue and he added: ‘You have a great day, Simon.’ I replied: ‘I’m sorry, I’m not called Simon.’ He insisted: ‘You’re Simon Hughes…’

HARMY’S STILL GOT IT!

WE were having dinner at the hotel on Thursday when we were joined by Steve Harmison. He still plays for the academy team up at Ashington and told us about batting the other day with his lad, Charlie. They went for a quick single only for Harmy to fall in the middle of the pitch and pull a muscle. Needless to say, he was run out.

WARM-UP LEAVES ME COLD

EVERY morning, I watch Craig Overton, Haseeb Hameed (right), Sam Billings and Jack Leach warming up — a bunch of nonplaying cricketers. Many years ago, I just wanted to get out there and play! This lot are being deprived of cricket. They’re not going to keep their form with throwdowns and star jumps.

DRINKING PROBLEM AT LORD’S

I WAS watching the T20 Blast between Middlesex and Surrey at Lord’s. You know how much I go on about time-wasting but there was a moment which took the biscuit. After four overs of a 20-over game, one of the opening batsman called for a drink! My Sky colleague Ian Ward has a solution. He thinks that if any batsman wants a drink outside the scheduled breaks, he’ll have to leave the field and go down as ‘retired out thirsty’!

HOLDING’S SWAY

WHEN Michael Holding (right) speaks, we listen. Along with Ebony Rainford-Brent, he eloquently educated us all last summer as to why Black Lives Matter. His book — Why We Kneel, How We Rise — is all fact. I urge you to get hold of a copy. He was a great bowler and he is also a great man.

ZAK’S BEEN FRAMED!

THAT old chestnut, the foreshortening lens, cropped up when England thought they had Devon Conway caught in the slips for 22. Zak Crawley appeared to get his fingers under the ball. The umpires gave a soft signal of not out and Michael Gough upheld the call but it was a clean catch. Back in the day, the batsman asked the fielder: ‘Did you catch it?’ A far better system.

TAYLOR REFUSES TO GO DOWN

ENGLAND seemed passive up to tea but afterwards Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad got to work and got the ball swinging. Conway was dismissed and they put Ross Taylor through the ringer. Taylor used all his experience and somehow survived. He was like a boxer on the ropes who used all his defences. It was a thrilling passage of play.