Over-by-over updates from at Edgbaston, 11am BST start
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41st over: England 169-4 (Brook 53, Lawrence 17) Mohammad Abbas starts from the other end with the keeper up to the stumps. Lawrence takes him for consecutive boundaries, a flick through square leg and an edge along the ground. England are off to a flyer.

40th over: England 160-4 (Brook 52, Lawrence 9) Razaullah’s first ball of the day is a hot, hot lifter that beats Dan Lawrence. After wearing another lifter on the elbow, Lawrence clips firmly through midwicket for four. Nice shot.

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1st over: Pakistan 4-0 (Ayub 0, Azan 0) A welcome start for Pakistan, with leg byes travelling down the leg-side for four. Robinson, on 99 Test wickets, beats the bat with one that jags away from the left-hander … before nipping one back in for the leg-before! And up goes the finger! Ayub looked to leave and is hit well outside the line … and it’s travelling well over the stumps. Robinson must wait a little longer for No 100.

The anthems have wrapped up. Time for Ollie Robinson to wobble the ball down. Saim Ayub is on strike.

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“Selected scuttlebut,” says Ian Copestake, promisingly, “from Everton fans on the train from Birkenhead to the game is that the fans have been lied to. Promises made by the new owners (shiny new stadium not mentioned) have not been fulfilled. Mutiny is round the corner (probably at Sandhills).”

An unexpected proposal from John Stedman. “I like the new(ish) Dining Across the Divide series [in the Saturday magazine] and hereby propose a new feature: Drinking Across the Sporting Divide, which you can pitch to your taskmasters in Guardian Towers.

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Out come the players, some of them holding babes in arms – including Marcus Rashford, who has a big smile on his face.

The first email of the afternoon comes from Dave. “Hi Tim, loving the MBM.” Thanks! “Just wondered if there’s any insight into why Sesko seems to find it so hard to get a start.”

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62nd over: England 266-9 (Atkinson 38, Tongue 14) Scrap that: Atkinson takes a leg-bye off the second ball of this over. As Tongue prepares to face Abbas, the keeper, Mohammad Rizwan, calls for a helmet and goes up to the stumps – so Josh Tongue is now being treated like Joe Root. The ploy could backfire by making Tongue’s nicks harder for the slips to pick up. And it doesn’t seem to bother Tongue, who plays an uppish flick for a single to steal the strike.

61st over: England 264-9 (Atkinson 38, Tongue 13) Ali bowls to Atkinson, who promptly steps away to leg, dreaming of a six over backward point, but connects only with thin air. The over ends in a flurry of singles – one to each batter and then a tight one to Atkinson, who may have decided that he needs to protect Tongue from Abbas.

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Hull, naturally, are in orange too, with black stripes. United are in ivory as Bruno Fernandes gathers them for a pep talk.

The teams come out, and so do the fireworks. The MKM Stadium is a happy swirl of orange smoke.

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In fact, that’s quite a decent, if soggy, rabbit hole to head down for an OBO discussion. The Butterfly Effect of rain delays. Which games and whose careers might have looked significantly different if the wet stuff hadn’t fallen at a particular time or other?

I’ll wrack my brains, right now I’m just thinking of Tim Henman v Goran Ivanišević in the 2001 Wimbledon Semi Final:

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“Consensus,” exclaims Richard Hirst, “get thee behind me! If they weren’t called Brazil would we be so readily predicting victory for a team whose playmaker spent most of last season failing to prevent West Ham being relegated, whose defensive midfielder has all the mobility of a traffic cone, whose…… well, you get my drift.

“Yes, they’ll probably win, but if Japan get in amongst them there could be a surprise.” For sure.

England lose eight wickets for 130 runs in Nottingham to cede control of deciding Test match to New Zealand

49th over: England 228-4 (Brook 2, Smith 1) Nathan Smith started with a wicket maiden, using the crease, swinging the ball and deploying wobble seam. After dismissing Root, he has Brook in his sights, with Blundell still standing up as he did for both these superstars at the Oval. Smith beats Brook outside off with the ball that doesn’t jag back in, and Brook may well be relieved to get down the other end with a dab to third man.

48th over: England 226-4 (Brook 1, Smith 1) In a shock development, we have a scoring shot! Jamie Smith, facing O’Rourke, gets a thick inside edge on his first delivery and takes a single to square leg. Harry Brook wants two, which might have turned a drama into a crisis. O’Rourke then produces a sharp yorker which Brook does well to keep out with a late jab, and a little calm descends as Brook gets off the mark with a push into the covers.

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And here’s our reporter at the game, Paul MacInnes. “Ground already packed for a match that has been highly anticipated in Philly,” he writes. “The French are here is big numbers (I followed a load of them to the ground today) but the Iraqi contingent is hardly to be sniffed at. They’ve packed out the stand behind one goal, and have been visible all over the city for the past few days.

“Just quickly, but the pre-match has been a weird one. Big load of load music and two hype merchants in the stands getting everyone up. But not all attempts have proven equal. There was a big cheer for the players as the teams were read out (and especially Mbappé) but not so much interaction when the call went up for everyone to ‘Join us in a round of applause for peace!’. I can only imagine Gianni Infantino will be saddened when he hears the news.”

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60th over: New Zealand 267-4 (Mitchell 37, Blundell 6) Blundell, who loves joining Mitchell to torment England, tucks Tongue for two and cover-drives for three, uppish but safe.

“Good morning.” says John Starbuck. “I was wondering if James Rew, unfortunately drafted in a bit too soon, should change his name to Roux, seeing it’s been something of a mixture so far.” Ha.

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2 min The first foul is committed by Morgan Rogers, needlessly, on Sander Berge – they were in the centre circle.

1 min Fulham kick off and play the ball around at the back. They’re in all white, so they bear a very slight resemblance to Real Madrid. Villa are in a lot of claret and a little blue.

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1 min Brentford kick off, lump the ball forward and Igor Thiago wins a corner!

“Given today’s match between two solid London sides,” says Peter O’Connor, “a poser. If there were an independent state of London, where would its football league figure among the Big Five European leagues?”

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Both teams go into a huddle. No ref in the middle of either.

The players walk out into the fog of a firework display. United seem to be in their off-white strip. Sky reckons Rayan will be on the right for Bournemouth with Tavernier as the 10.

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1 min Villa get forward right away but the first free kick goes to United. Harry Maguire lobs it long, to little effect.

Bruno Fernandes addresses the United huddle, with no ref in the middle. The cameras find Emi Martinez, who was sent off here in May.

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The players are out there. Bukayo Saka, Arsenal’s stand-in captain, leads his team as they hand-slap their way along the Everton line. Mikel Arteta greets David Moyes with the obligatory hug, plus a broad smile. The crowd sing North London Forever and give themselves a round of applause.

“Bayern have just drawn 1-1 at Leverkusen too,” says Lenny Peters. “So it’s clearly a tough place to go.”

Jacob Bethell’s excellence was still not enough to carry England over the line as India set up a final showdown with New Zealand

England’s first task is to stop Abhishek Sharma and Sanju Samson getting off to a flyer. As Finn Allen showed yesterday, an opener can win a semi-final all by himself.

Will Jacks belts out God Save The King like a peroxide version of a Chelsea pensioner. As soon as it finishes, Harry Brook pops a piece of chewing gum into his mouth. The young chaperones look on with mild curiosity from under their yellow bucket hats.

There were big wins for City at the top of the table while Nottngham Forest fell short against Wolves and Burnley stunned Palace

Alessia Russo has just scored Arsenal’s fourth goal of the night. Sarah Rendell has the details.

That last news item makes this next email even more topical. “The LA Galaxy vs Los Angeles FC derby,” says Marek Wojenski in Connecticut, “is known as El Tráfico.”

Tourists win toss and elect to bat first in series finale
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As the Aussies spread out with pink numbers on their backs, Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett stride out to open the innings. On TNT, which had had an even worse series than England, Graeme Swann is at the microphone. “This is where you want someone to do an Alastair Cook,” he says. “To be 35 not out at lunch.” Good luck with that.

“Hello Tim, and happy new year,” says Andrew Benton. Happy new year to you too, and everyone. “Who could replace Brendon McCullum? I do think he should go given his stated aim was to win the Ashes, but who could take over? There seems to be a dearth of suitable candidates. But there seems not to have been much discussion in the media on it in any case. What’s your take?”

Australia are all out for 152 before skittling England for 110 and surviving a single second-innings over on a frenetic Boxing Day at the MCG

The players are out there. England go into a huddle, then disperse. And here comes the most significant element on the scene: Travis Head’s moustache.

“And merry Christmas to you!” says Gareth Wilson. “If I can gently disagree with Andrew Benton, what is most galling, and slightly puts your lovely stat on runs difference to bed, is that Australia have not been amazing. They haven’t needed to be. Sure – one Travis Head innings, one Alex Carey Test, and some good Starc, but none of those by themselves should have been enough to go 3-squat up.

”England have faced a historically poor Aussie team and STILL blown it. It’s depressing, but hey, 0-0 right?