While The Leg Glance is posting pictures of cats on Twitter, it falls to me to take up the cudgels and write the review of the day’s play. Now I’m having to write this before the end of the day’s play, with England at the commencement of this piece standing on a very steady 55/2 – I mean 55/3 as James Vince finishes his test career – and stand on the precipice. Carry on with me as we take England down in the last 50 minutes of play.
Definition of optimism…
The day started with Pakistan in the ascendancy with a small lead and four wickets remaining. A solid session for either team and the game may well swing their way. It was Pakistan who took the honours. Sarfraz, without making a massive score this series, once again showed he has a lot to offer with a 44, in support of the increasingly confident, and permanence personified of Younus Khan. I’m going with Younus, by the way. Then after Wahab stayed around to support Khan on the departure of the busy keeper, the lead inexorably rose to Edgbaston levels. Wahab’s Sunday Club Cricket stumping brought Mohammad Amir to the fray, who chose this time to make his test best score. England were looking increasingly punchless, and, it has to be said, not like a World Number One.
Suddenly the almost complacent approach of England’s legion of supporters was looking flawed. This wasn’t the tail stretching the lead, more the imperious, immovable Younus Khan. His contempt for Ali’s efforts, a salutary reminder of our spinners shortcomings exposed again, was frightening. It was summed up with him on 192. He pushed a two to mid-wicket sitting too deep, and every man and his mutt knew what his next move would be. And so it happened, biffed for six over mid-wicket and a double was up. This was majestic stuff, and the lead went over 200. Younus fell via a full ball from Jimmy (think I was watching the Men’s Eights at the time) for 218, joining Rahul Dravid and Sanath Jayasuriya in the last 20 years to visit the South London pastures and come back with a double, and he’d played the vital hand.
Woakes was again the pick of the bowlers, and again Broad seemed a little off kilter. It hasn’t been his greatest summer. Jimmy was rather under-bowled today, it seemed, but all four quicks bowled around the same amount of overs (29 for the elderly, 30 for the youth). Moeen Alis’s 2/128 with an economy rate well over 5 has to be concerning. But as we’ve said, as may have said, there aren’t a litany of options out there to take his place.
It’s 65 for 3 at this time.
A selection of Vince tweets….
There’s been a more forthright tone to this guy’s tweets this summer. Lord knows why. This one was from yesterday!
Yes. It probably did.
It would take a heart of stone not to laugh.
More Stocks. Also Alec Swann still around. Beginning to wonder. But while I agree about his contention about Bell, wasn’t Swann the one who didn’t have KP in his top 10 English players he’d seen? Maybe I’m watching the wrong sport.
OK. Enough of that. I’ll top and tail this at 6:30….
The day finished with England on 88 for 4. They are a long way away from doing anything to avert a defeat. They lost no more wickets after I saw the end of Root to a plumb LBW that he decided to review – as plumb as Hales, who also reviewed his. We’d better hope no-one gets sawn off.
Pakistan have done superbly well in this game, outplaying us yet again – they won here in 2010, they were in the driving seat in 2006 when the ball tampering incident took over, and won here in 1996, 1992 and were very much on top in 1987. They love SE London, just like your author.
Oh. I didn’t mention the skipper. It really doesn’t matter. There will be time to discuss matters when the series finishes. But don’t invoke the great captains of the past, before time. Our media, our fans, our players seem to get ahead of themselves. This game bites you on the arse.
Good luck to Ballance, Bairstow, Moeen et al to get us to a total to bowl at, and this test might have a real sting in the tail.
Comments on Day 4 tomorrow. Anyone wanting to catch Selvey on CWOTV, let me know what happens….I’m off to a birthday bash!
Being Outside Cricket 
Reminiscent of another day three I remember well:
http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/current/match/63508.html
Glad I no longer care enough to be as depressed as I was that day. Pretty sure Cook won’t be going to the theatre either.
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I was thinking of exactly the same match myself. I was certainly depressed by that. Horrified would be an accurate description, Today I felt faint amusement. And I enjoyed Younis’ innings, which I can’t say about Waugh’s.
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That was genuinely one of the worst days in 35 years following team sports, right down there with Graham Taylor’s excuse for a football team in Oslo in 1993. It was also, for me, the official end of any delusion that England could match Australia… for over 16 years.
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Perhaps Cook might go to a farm machinery auction or a barn dance?
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I missed the entire day’s play except the last half hour or so, and have just caught up on C5. I have to confess, going into this match, I rather hoped for a strong Pakistan performance. You see, all the Number One in the World hype has got to me. I can’t see how it is anything other than preposterous to think of this England side as number one, or even as a contender. The weaknesses at opener, 2 middle order slots, spinner – you know. Having said all that, if they do pull this one out of the conflagration, they will deserve all the accolades.
But I can’t see YJB, Moeen etc getting enough runs this time.
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Hales LBW to Shah. Cricket is sweet sometimes.
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It’s either testimony to England or an indictment of the standard of current test cricket that this team is anyway near number 1 in the world. They rely on just 4 batsman, (Cook, Root, Bairstow, and the spin bowler, Ali) helped out by a few bowlers to get them a score. (Stokes is missing) Time and time again one of these 4 have bailed them out. (Ali in the first innings and without who ENGLAND would have struggled to 250.)
If these batsman had failed at key times in the last 3 years England would be languishing near the 4-5 in the rankings. If this sounds harsh it has to be set aside against they eulogising of the media who have claimed this team is better than anything over the last 30 years. At one point this afternoon an England fan on Crickinfo asked the following question…..
“Why aren’t England going at their normal 4 runs an over.” I kid you not. A fortune has been spent in dumbing down the typical England fan in the last few years. Turning them into a sort of ECB crazy person.
It is amazing that I still wouldn’t rule ENGLAND out of this match. If Pakistan have to chase anything over 140 I wouldn’t put my house on it. But the most likely result is now a 2-2 draw.
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I have to say I’ve been especially disappointed with Broad and Anderson both yesterday afternoon and evening and this morning. They had a light workload yesterday after their opening spell and they should have been bowling some of the overs that Ali was bowling when he was tonked all over the place yesterday evening. As well as that in quite friendly bowling conditions this morning, they simply didn’t cause enough problems.
That said, I want to give real credit to Younus Khan. The guy falls under the radar a fair bit due to Pakistan’s lack of test matches in comparison to others but 32 test tons speak for themselves and he gave a bit of a masterclass.all told. The way he dinked the ball into the leg side to go up to 195 to 193 had everyone giving their own round of applause and of course he couldn’t help himself but smack the spin for the maximum to bring up the double ton. Way to go!
I did think at the start of the day that England would limit the damage but not only did Pakistan have two centurions with one being a ‘daddy’ but the likes of Sarfraz and Amir made contributions to help emphasise the advantage.
A well rested Pakistan opening attack, for the first time really put Cook under pressure with no freebie cuts or pulls/flicks to play. They bowled full and to the off-stump channel. Not at all surprised that in those circumstances he was hesitant and nicked off with the nigh on verbal fellatio about him suddenly becoming a dasher being shown up for what it was.
Much of the rest was a bit predictable including the soft Vince dismissal. This game will be done by lunch I reckon.
One consolation was meeting up with Sean B for a tea-time beer or two. Nice one!
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Just watched a great Olympic tennis SF between Del Potro and Nadal – great play, great crowd, great occasion. I’ve watched a fair bit of the golf as well and it has worked out well – the course is plenty good enough, the crowds have been growing day-by-day and the stage is set for a head-to-head between two top players tomorrow.
Thanks heavens thanks to Giles, cricket doesn’t have any of this nonsense. Can’t have the English season disrupted for two weeks once every four years. It would cost the ECB [insert made-up amount of money of your choosing here]. And well done the BCCI too – they keep control of image rights which is what really matters to the game and their poor millionaire players don’t have to conform to WADA drug-testing standards.
And if the 90% of ICC members who want cricket in the Olympics don’t like it, they can go stuff themselves.
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Broad going to the BBL if he’s not in England’s winter ODI squad:
http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/story/1045783.html
#mercenary
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C’mon Simon, he’s a professional cricketer, free to take his labour where he pleases. All the overseas players who turn up for a hit and giggle in our T20 then piss off mid competition to the CPL, for a few bucks more, are no different.
If Eng don’t want him for ODIs, rightly or wrongly, he can either revel in a Nottinghamshire winter or stay in the shop window via the Big Bash.
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Er, that was about the double standards of other players who were labelled mercenaries when they wanted to play in franchises.
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I getcha.
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The Dutch beat Nepal today in a 50 over game with a mere 199 balls to spare.
Bet Nepal play in a Division Two if one is ever created before the Netherlands do.
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I was privileged to witness a YK masterclass. I was worried that his last visit to England would not reveal him as the class act that he is. Well, we sure saw it yesterday and today on a pitch that saw England get 328 and 82/4 thus far.
This ” could” go deep tomorrow but it makes little difference. England need another 250 runs to give them a hope in hell.
At least we will get a result.
No1 in the world. Er…….no.
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“Oh. I didn’t mention the skipper. It really doesn’t matter. There will be time to discuss matters when the series finishes.”
I look forward to it. He looks ridiculously calm and smug (as his side struggles to try to get level) in his sponsored sunglasses back in the hutch for the second time, picking his nose and laughing.
Sorry he’s no leader … he’s a self-entitled prick who need never worry about losing a test match given the media support he gets. I used to like him when he just scored runs in a boring way…
Now? Well I shouldn’t commit it to print.
Give me Misbah or Younus as a proper leader every time.
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I think it is important to note, as if I have to say it again, that Cook is a fine player, a truly world class opening bat, and one of England’s greatest players. I don’t want him dropped. I don’t think he’s useless. I think he has become a better captain for the reasons TLG says.
But that’s just not enough is it? It never will be.
I know others feel more strongly than I do. I know why they do, and for the events of 2014 I will find it hard to be a mad keen supporter of him. I can’t see it ever happening. But that will never be understood.
But to compare him to Brearley as a captain? They seriously must be taking the piss. I put him alongside a Graham Gooch type skipper. That isn’t meant as an insult.
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We’re not really going to extrapolate that 2 minute video on cricinfo into ‘MSM claims Cook is better captain than Brearley!’ are we….?
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Extrapolate the comment how you like GZ. I’m totally used to people interpreting what I think. Can’t do anything about it. Talking sense to them never works.
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You could try just answering a straight question, I guess.
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You did your own extrapolation. You chose to interpret:
As to this applying to all the main stream media, which of course would be nonsense, because they did not say that. But the world’s largest cricket site posed it as a question. Not some nonsensical little blog, not some twitter feed.
Now I’ve set out the facts for you, which is more than you deserve playing this silly game, I have given you a straight answer.
You going to come on here commenting on the cricket, or picking at the carcass like you have done in the past? As I said in June, how odd both Adrian and GZ pop up within a couple of days of each other. Peculiar.
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Have you seen the video? It couldn’t be more trivial- it’s just a 2 minute fan vox pop filmed before the day. I honestly don’t think anything at all can be inferred from it and I was surprised to see it coming up in your post. That’s why I asked the question.
Also – what is with it everyone getting accused of being someone else on this blog as soon as they put forward a different point of view….?
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You’ve had your say.
Enjoy the rest of your evening.
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Cheers….I guess that’s cleared that up then….
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Oh he can play. I’ve no objection to that. But as our great, greatest, leader? Sorry. That’s just bullshit and he lives the most privileged of lives as an England cricket captain.
Worse, this team is now shred of any players who might challenge him/his,leadership and he still couldn’t lead a horse to water, never mind getting it to drink.
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I was advised the cricinfo piece was a bit of fluff. So I watched it. It was a bit of fluff. But who thought that question was in all reasonable?
Cook is a perfectly serviceable captain now. Two years ago he was an abomination and he and his coach cost us test matches. Now he seems to be in control and doing a fairly decent job. What I have never liked is the media blowing smoke up his arse. Any time a catch went to hand, it seemed it was Cook’s foresight that was unique in it doing so. We’ve heard it. Hussain has been the worst at it.
Should be enough for some to get their teeth into.
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Looked at the Selvey thread for the first time for a while – within fifty comments I’d read one comment implying Pakistan were match-fixing in this series, one comment claiming England’s problem in last Tests of series had been in dead rubbers until now and one comment describing Younus’s innings as “unexceptional” and “plodding”.
Gave up.
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Pakistan match fixing has been mentioned in the comments on this blog.
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As predictable as the Perseid meteors.
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In this series? When?
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This gem earlier this week: “Every Test match England play these days is exactly the same. Top order loses 4/5 wickets for 100- 150 odd runs, and then recovers through lousy catching, and bowling to make 350-400. Just as well Pakistan have no history of match fixing otherwise some people might question what they are watching.
What did Napoleon say about give me a lucky general over a good one?
I don’t know why people even bother debating Ali’s role in the side as the spinner. He is picked purely as a top order number 7 batsman. The spinning part is irrelevant. He is picked for runs not wickets. And in this era of poor teams it works.”
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If you are going to quote me at least have the decency to name me.
Sarcasm is lost on you then? But thanks for monitoring this site for us. I’m sure we wouldn’t know what to do without your ever vigilant observation.
I’m glad my words made such an impression on you. Im touched you remembered.
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I don’t think the sarcasm was lost on anyone Mark, that was kind of the point.
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Excellent points from Mark Butcher on the verdict. England aren’t very good in London on flat pitches against teams which won’t get rolled over, and who can build old fashioned innings. Austrailia last year and Pakistan this year. (Still time to turn it round here.)
A team who want to be number 1 should be a bit better on good pitches. I didn’t see the start of play today but did Cook start with Joe Root? Or was that after lunch? Anyway wasn’t viewed as great captaincy by the new Brearley
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Can’t stand that Younus Khan.
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Liar. You love him.
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Yeah, ok, I do. That was fantastic. I luuuuurve batting. I don’t care who does it. When I see a batsman playing shots that I know no other player on the field can match, I get all a-quiver.
We used to have a bloke like that.
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http://www.espncricinfo.com/blogs/content/story/1045303.html – slapped wrist for HisEDness…
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I’ve normally got alot of time for cricinfo but they’ve done really poorly on this. That statement leaves one concluding that they deserve congratulations for doing the right thing, it’s more like a boast than an apology. And it spends more words praising Smith than admitting he was caught plagiarising, or sourcing as they prefer to describe it. I’m surprised thery weren’t big enough to admit they screwed up, and just apologise, that’s all that was needed.
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Subash has done an absolutely terrific job. If people have not seen this article, I tell you you must read it.
Sambit Bal ought to resign.
http://thecricketcouch.com/blog/2016/08/08/follow-up-3-on-ed-smith-pulls-a-melania-trump-espncricinfos-double-standard/
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This tweet from Sambit Bal is quite breathtakingly self-righteous and utterly tone deaf:
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Heard absolutely no contrition from Ed Smith. Some people may think we are “out to get him” but that is not true. I don’t want people sacked. Plus, FICJAM gives us plenty of material, a pompous target needing to be shot down. Someone who places himself above us. We mere 9 to 5 mortals.
So while recovering cancer patients nicking a couple of balls commentary from another BBB site is beyond heinous, copying out tracts of an article gets you another piece within a week or so. Way to show him Sambit.
Different strokes for different folks, I guess.
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I expect people will be split on this along roughly the same lines as they were on you know who’s pieces on you know who and you know what.
Personally, I will be changing my #1 vote in the next writers’ poll, for the first time (including notional votes for 2012 and 2013) in five years.
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“He has combined intellect, erudition, research, and curiosity about human behaviour with first-hand knowledge of sport”.
If that’s wrist-slapping, I’ll have some of that!
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Charlie Sale, he of the scandal mongering Mail, a source of hardly unimpeachable value has said…
Test Match Special commentator Ed Smith has been suspended from his CricInfo columnist role after a recent article about sporting stress was allegedly remarkably similar to a piece in The Economist.
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Slapped wrist, but not sacked like their commentator who was recovering from cancer, and copied some one else’s work while he just missed one over. And the boss took to Twitter to say plagiarism would not be tolerated.
It seems if you are under real stress certain things won’t the accepted. Perhaps someone should write a piece about the bennifits of stress. Oh wait……….
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Sambit Bal made his bed, and he now needs to lie in it. Ed Smith made his bed and now he should lie in it.
But it doesn’t happen to the “stars” does it?
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A Cricketing View has taken the ball and run with it.
http://cricketingview.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/ed-smith-pulls-melania-trump-but.html#!/2016/08/ed-smith-pulls-melania-trump-but.html
Abridged (not @abridg_ed!) version:
“What Smith has done to The Economist’s (accurate) description of Crum’s work is similar to what he has done to their (accurate) description of Selye’s work. He has, it appears, replaced a word here and there, and done so in such shabby fashion that it ended up misrepresenting the original work. Even if we discount the probable plagiarism, Smith’s account is wrong.”
He’s also been tweeting about the total lack of explanation on TMS, and that Smith is even using his TMS platform to promote his most recent piece for Cricinfo, on national stereotypes.
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The end of this article is very important.
You see, this nails it. While picking apart an article is in some ways enjoyable, it is quite frequently headbangingly frustrating. There is not enough cricket writing out there. But when we purvey something that is in some ways controversial or inflammatory, the beasts will raise against us and damn us. We’ve seen it. But when they get picked up on it, we’re expected to keep our traps shut and not ask awkward questions – you know, the mystery of the KP photo and all that. Smith is brazenly seeing this out with the assistance of the boys club around him. As Kartikeya says in this piece, we do this because we love the game, and love writing and arguing (well, debating). When someone who makes his stock in trade how damn clever he is, when he is caught being foolish, we’re expected to give him a free pass.
A very good blog piece. Thanks for sharing nonox.
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We’ve seen over the past two or three years that England have trouble stringing two consecutive good performances together. I didn’t see yesterday’s play, but I watched the first two days, and apart from the catching (which, of course, is a very large but), don’t think we played terribly badly overall, but two players are probably out of their depth at this level. We have to give a lot of credit to the Pakistani team, especially, in this match, to Younus. It was inevitable that he would do one on England eventually, and it’s our good luck that it took him until the fourth test to do so. He is one of the all-time greats, and especially a murderous player of spin, which is why I think criticism of Ali should be tempered. He’s had a good series with the bat and a mixed one with the ball, but that should be seen in the context of how well the Pakistanis play spin, particularly compared with the Indians, who capitulated to Ali a couple of years ago. Maybe it’s time to end the obsession with all-rounders and pick a specialist spinner, but who is making a case for himself? Remember the long dearth of quality spin England had before Panesar and then Swann rose to prominence (not helped by recent England captains, Strauss excepted, not being good at handling their spinners). Ali is a tad expensive but has a healthy rike rate, but his first innings bowling is not up to scratch. That is the difference between him and Swann, who could not only contain a side in the first innings but often take wickets then as well.
A drawn series will be a fair result, though of course there should be a fifth, deciding test. It’s been an entertaining series, better than the last four Ashes put together.
England should take Bell to India and as well as Vince (no-brainer) will probably drop Hales, though I still think it’s a shame he hasn’t been tried in the middle order.
I must take issue with the idea that England didn’t “deserve” to be no.1 anyway — if not, then who does? Getting to no.1 at the moment is largely a matter of playing enough home matches over a three-year period, and any side that does that “deserves” to be no.1. On that basis, you’ve got to admire Pakistan, who never play any real home matches and have punched well above their weight without a fraction of the resources of the so-called Big Three. But they will surely face a difficult period of transition very soon with the imminent retirements of Misbah and Younus (and Hameed, who is also the wrong side of 35, has probably already played his last test).
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Sorry, I meant Hafeez obviously, not Hameed, the Lancashire opener, whose career is very much on the rise!
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My suspicion is that for India (and Bangladesh if the tour actually goes ahead) Vince won’t make the tour and Ballance will but only as a back-up: the returning Stokes will fill one of those gaps, and everyone will shove up a slot to accommodate Rashid (a no-brainer as the second spinner). I’m ambivalent as to whether Bell should be recalled (he’s averaging a modest 37 in the Championship this year, although he does of course have a proven track record), but it’s not like he could have done any worse than Vince, for crying out loud. We’ve played some quality cricket in this series, but in the end the number of passengers being carried was too much to bear when our quality players had an off day. 2-2 seems a fair result, in my opinion.
Your last paragraph is interesting – my take is that if England don’t have the look and feel of a deserving number-one side as a result of their various problems, then most of the other contenders don’t really deserve to either. We’ve all seen Australia’s problems against decent spin recently and on any surface with sideways movement, whilst India’s seam bowling is a bit hit-and-miss and they lack a quality all-rounder to balance the side, although Ashwin could potentially fill that slot if he continues his batting development. Outside Vijay (who mystifyingly has been left out when fit the last two matches) Kohli and Rahane, their batting isn’t that much more settled than England’s. (And of course, their terrible record outside the subcontinent and Caribbean counts against them.) Pakistan would probably be the most deserving, for the reasons you give (I believe they should go top if Australia and India both fail to win the last tests of their ongoing series), but they’ll almost certainly struggle to sustain it with their imminent spate of retirements.
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Just a reminder:
2016 – ICC fines Broad for Tweet:
Explaining his decision, Richardson said: “One of the most fundamental principles of the sport is to always accept and respect an umpire’s decision. In this case, Stuart ignored this golden rule and made inappropriate comments in regard to the umpires’ decision.”
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/aug/13/stuart-broad-england-match-fee-twitter-social-media-alex-hales
2012 – ECB fines KP for Tweet:
“Pietersen, who described the presence of the former England opener on the commentary team as “ridiculous”, was judged at a disciplinary hearing involving both the team director, Andy Flower, and England cricket’s managing director, Hugh Morris, to have breached his contract with comments that were “prejudicial to the interests of the England and Wales Cricket Board”.
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2012/may/24/kevin-pietersen-ecb-tweeting
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Play resumed in Colombo after a rain delay.
Herath’s had to retire hurt after a blow in the box. He’s only seven runs short of having scored more runs than any Australian batsman in the series.
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Warner gone in the 4th over, beaten on the inside edge by SL’s 4th spinner. 21/1.
Brendon Julian on commentary – “Taking the positives, that’s Australia’s highest opening stand of the series”.
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Will they avoid the follow on?
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The SL innings was a mine of bizarre batting stats:
1) First test were Nos. 6 and 7 have scored a century against Australia since Leyland and Ames in 1936.
2) Only the second test ever where the bottom six have scored 300 more than the top five. The other was the famous match in ’36/37 where Australia reversed the batting order after rain and Bradman made 270.
Credit to Cricinfo for those. Wouldn’t like to pass their research off as my own….
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CWOTV
Selvey asserting how difficult it is to comment on a county player he hasn’t seen.
Quite right too Selv. Perhaps we should invite journos who do get around the grounds, there are plenty of them just not in MSM
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Are you waiting for the lachrymose tribute?
Not enough Collomosse on this. I have a lot of time for his work.
UPDATE – Neil Walker pats Selvey’s hand and says “no-one better”. Don Selvione.
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Was it the Selvey retirement party? Large sherry and a gold watch?
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No. But with Selvey and Walker there, two people totally enraptured with their own voice, Collomosse seemed hardly to get a word in edgeways. Tom does super work in the Standard, and flies under the radar. Selvey and Walker would paint their aircraft luminous green and playing “One Voice” at top volume.
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One thing I would say from this series whatever happens here today, Pakistan are a much better team away from home than India.
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TMS Text: “12:09 Mohammad Amir begins with a maiden, Bairstow respectfully keeping him out. Cookie Monster is watching on intently from the stands, checking the score on his phone. Or checking something on his phone.”
What are the chances of him checking out BOC?
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…aren’t phones still banned from the dressing room or is Cookie allowed a private line to his FlowerGod to order up the next opening partner from the rank and file….?
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The Cookie Monster they were referring to being a bloke dressed up as said character in the stands, captured by the Sky cameras and subjected to Bumble’s wit on air.
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Oxenford graduates from the Ravi School of Umpiring.
On its own that was a mediocre decision, combine it with his attempt to fire Younus out yesterday with one going six inches over the stumps and it’s a shocker.
Ravi, Llong, Reiffel, Wilson, Erasmus – it’s not an easy job but if this is the elite panel….
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I think England have done well in this series to remain competitive against a clearly superior Pakistan side. I have been a little disappointed with Pakistan to be honest, I thought they would win the series, maybe 3-1 or 3-0. They have the better batting, the better spin bowling, and the pace bowling has been pretty even.
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Stuart Broad walking off looking less than chuffed is always a fun moment in cricket.
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Nasser Hussain going on about how well Broad was batting and how easy it would be to give it away with a slog – Broad reverse-sweeps to next ball into the hands of slip.
Broady went off like he’d suffered the greatest injustice of the Twenty-First Century and he’d have reviewed it if there were any left. Hot Spot showed it hit the middle of the bat. Still, he get on and pay that 20% of his match-fee fine for that Tweet quicker.
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Can the chopper in Giles Clarke to do the presentation?
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40 run target is quite nice for PK, trivial, but gives them a chance to hang around in the sun for an hour or so to enjoy the impending victory.
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Meanwhile….
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