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Brian Bennett blazes century but England scent three-day win after follow-on

The inequality between England and Zimbabwe as Test nations has been reflected on the field over the first half of this one-off Test match at Trent Bridge. Thursday’s flow of runs for the former was followed by a cascade of wickets from the latter, as Zimbabwe finished day two following on, 30 for 2, after being dismissed for 265 in their first innings, still 270 shy of England’s mammoth 565 for 6 declared.
And yet, the story on Friday was not of the dominating team, but of the dominated, as a lone hand by opening batter Brian Bennett to the tune of 139 made this one-way traffic watchable. Bennett’s second century in the format now ranks as Zimbabwe’s fastest, clocking in at 97 deliveries, and only their third against England.
The 21-year-old, playing in his seventh Test, now has four fifty-plus score in 12 innings. He did not take a backward step, with 104 of his runs from fours, most of them sweetly struck, including three in a row off Gus Atkinson that took him to three figures. Boundary numbers 18 (a square drive) and 19 (a punch down the ground) moved him to 99, before Atkinson offered enough width for a back-cut that was steered expertly through deep third.
An impassioned celebration was matched in the stands, as pockets of Zimbabwe supporters erupted with glee, in amongst a strong ovation from locals. And he kept all enterained with further crisp strikes, particularly down the ground, before England finally decided to test him with short deliveries.
They were vindicated when Josh Tongue, playing his first Test since the 2023 Ashes encounter at Lord’s, dug the penultimate legal delivery of the 53rd over into the armpit of Bennett, who fended to Ollie Pope at short leg. An acrobatic take was soon for nothing as replays showed Tongue had overstepped.
Bennett’s reprieve, on 139, was the fourth he had been given. But he could not make it count this time as the same duo combined legally to remove the right-hander in similar fashion, albeit with a far simpler take for Pope. Just 13 overs of play later, Bennett was making a second walk back, trapped LBW by Atkinson as the first to go in the follow-on innings for just one from nine deliveries.
As frustrating as England found Bennett’s enterprise, they were never really up against it, barring a period when his 65- and 60-run stands with Craig Ervine and Sean Williams respectively had the visitors sitting relatively pretty on 156 for 2. By the end, the hosts were able to tick off a few nuggets that may come to benefit them when India arrive next month.
Harry Brook’s morning cameo – eventually the last man to fall, for 58 – was a broadly useful hit out against a weary attack who were still a man down with left armer Richard Ngarava unable to take the field after his back spasm on day one. Five overs into Zimbabwe’s first innings, Sam Cook having become the first England debutant to bowl the first ball in his maiden innings since Martin McCague did so here in 1993 against Australia, registered his maiden Test wicket when Ben Curran edged to Brook at second slip.
That would be Cook’s lot from his opening 17 overs in the format, 1 for 72 and a fair few narrow misses, including Bennett edging through the cordon and past his own stumps on 16 and 32 respectively. But there was better luck for Shoaib Bashir, who became the youngest English bowler to take 50 Test wickets with the first of his 3 for 62 that has now more than doubled his first-class haul this summer. His first two across three matches for Glamorgan had come at a grim average of 152.00.
There was also encouragement for Ben Stokes, who bagged two wickets in 11 deliveries in his first appearance of the year after replacing Bashir in the attack following a botched caught-and-bowled attempt that split the off-spinners left ring finger.
Brought on first change at the Radcliffe Road End after 12 overs, Bashir started with a full toss that was guided through extra cover by Ervine, before producing a beauty to take the left-hander’s edge, low to Brook at first slip. A bit of bounce then did for Williams, who played onto his stumps.
It looked like Bashir was done for the day when Sikandar Raza, on three, danced down the wicket and smashed back at the bowler, who put in a valiant effort to his right to claim the return catch. Bloodied, and with two balls remaining in his 13th over, Bashir had to leave the field, with Stokes using the opportunity to bowl for the first time since his hamstring operation at the start of the year.
Having teased an over here or there to taper into form, citing bowling as the hardest thing to get right following an extended period out, Stokes almost made an immediate impact. His first legal delivery – having started with a front-foot no ball – squared up Bennett on 89 but was shelled inexplicably by Root at first slip.
The error meant Stokes had to make do with a remarkable spell of two dismissals in 11 balls rather than three in 14. He was finally on the board with a devilish delivery that turned Raza inside-out – this time an edge flying through to Jamie Smith behind the stumps – before Wessly Madhevere was unpicked by the surprise inswinger after a diet of outswingers, handing the No.6 batter a 10-ball duck.
Bashir eventually returned in the evening session, and made up for lost time with an immediate pearler when reintroduced to the attack for the 57th over, bowling Tafadzwa Tsiga through the gate with a classic off-break. An aborted caught-and-bowled chance off Blessing Murzarabani was a wilfully missed opportunity for a fourth, his injured finger clearly a factor, but the end came quickly when Atkinson found the tall quick backing away for the ninth and final dismissal.
Atkinson soon had his third of the day when Bennett was undone by a lack of bounce, and Ervine’s tame bunt to short leg – another for the Tongue-Pope combo – was followed by a slow trudge off from the Zimbabwe captain.
Even allowing for Bennett’s brilliance, it has been a tough couple of days for otherwise willing opponents. Day three promises to be tougher still.
Brief scores:
Zimbabwe 265 in 63.2 overs (Brian Bennett 139, Craig Ervine 42, Sean Williams 25, Tafadzwa Tsiga 22; Gus Atkinson 2-58, Shoaib Bashir 3-62, Ben Stokes 2-11) and [f/o] 30 for 2 in 10 overs (Sean Williams 22*, Ben Curran 4*; Gus Atkinson 1-01)trail England 565 for 6 dec in 96.3 overs (Ollie Pope 171, Ben Duckett 140, Zak Crawley 124, Harry Brook 58; Blessing Muzarabani 3-141) by 270 runs
[Cricinfo]
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Nissanka leads SL’s strong start in response to Bangladesh’s 495

Sri Lanka took a shade under 15 minutes to wrap up the Bamgladesh innings on the third morning in Galle, and then made a brisk start in running down the visitors’ total of 495. Sri Lanka did that by keeping a run rate of touch under four.
Pathum Nissanka (46) and Dinesh Chandimal (22) had put on unbeaten stand of 53 by the lunch break, while the deficit had been trimmed down to 395. The only blip for the hosts was the loss of Lahiru Udara for a 34-ball 29, after he had chipped a leading edge back to Taijul Islam. The 31-year-old had impressed on his debut up until that point, scoring six boundaries in his brief stay.
Sri Lanka set the tone for their innings from the off, with neither pacer safe in the early exchanges. Both Hasan Mahmud and express Nahid Rana – his pace was consistently in the low to mid 140s – being punished for any errors in line and length. Udara’s drives on the up were a particular highlight, and he will be kicking himself at not making more of this opportunity.
Nissanka, who had taken a back seat during the early exchanges, became more proactive following Udara’s dismissal, though Bangladesh will feel like they gave a few too many loose deliveries.
For instance, Nissanka’s three boundaries off Taijul all came against ones that had been dropped shorter. It served as a pressure release valve, one Sri Lanka would have been grateful for with Taijul otherwise doing well in varying his pace on a surface that had begun to show starting signs of assistance for spin.
The six-foot off spinner Nayeem Hasan, meanwhile, was the most expensive of the bowlers going for 16 in his three overs, though his extra height – and the bounce he derived from that – had caused some issues to the batters.
Off just his third delivery he got one to spit back past Nissanka’s inside edge on to his back pad, and then later on had Chandimal edging a drive past slip. But chances like that were few and far between, as Sri Lanka’s batters had it mostly their own way.
Earlier in the day, Asitha had got Rana to glove a loose ball down leg side as Bangladesh’s innings was brought to a swift close. The visitors had added 11 runs to their overnight total. Asitha finished with innings best figures of 4 for 86.
Brief scores: Day 3 Lunch
Sri Lanka 100 for 1 (Pathum Nissanka 46*, Lahiru Udra 29, Dinesh Chandimal 22*, Taijul Islam 1-34) trail Bangladesh 495 in 153.4 overs (Monimul Haque 29, Mushfiqur Rahim 163, Najmul Hossain Shanto 148, Litton Das 90, Asitha Fernando 4-86, Milan Rathnayake 3-39, Tharindu Rathnayake 3-196) by 395 runs
[Cricinfo]
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Sri Lanka claw back after Mushfiqur 163, Litton 90

Mushfiqu Rahim, Najmul Hossain Shanto and Litton Das scored 401 runs among them, but the complexion of the game changed after a two-hour rain interruption as Sri Lanka came roaring back late in the day, to leave Bangladesh on 484 for 9 at stumps of day two in Galle.
It meant the 20.4 overs bowled in the final session saw five wickets fall for 61 runs, and resulted in a dramatic Bangladesh collapse following two mammoth back-to-back stands – 264 and 149 – between Shanto and Mushfiqur, and then Mushfiqur and Litton.
Brief scores:
Bangladesh 484 for 9 in 151 overs (Monimul Haque 29, Najmul Hossain Shanto 148, Mushfiqur Rahim 163, Litton Das 90, Milan Rathnayake 3-38, Asitha Fernando 3-30, Tharindu Rathnayake 3-196) vs Sri Lanka
[Cricinfo]
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Airbus strikes Vietjet deal at Paris Air Show, hopes for tariff rollback

Airbus has struck a deal with Vietnamese budget airline Vietjet for up to 150 single-aisle jets at the Paris Air Show as the aviation industry’s hopes to return to a tariff-free trade agreement were given a boost by United States Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy.
The French plane maker announced the deal on Tuesday.
Airbus is the main supplier of jets to Vietnam, accounting for 86 percent of the planes currently operated by Vietnamese airlines. The export-dependent Southeast Asian country is under pressure from Washington to buy more US goods.
Vietjet Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao said the scale of the airline’s orders was backed by plans to develop a major aviation hub in Vietnam, which Airbus says has seen its aviation market grow by 7.5 percent a year.
A deal for 150 A321neos could be worth around $9.4bn, according to estimated prices provided by Cirium Ascend.
The agreement was the latest in a flurry of business announced by Airbus at the world’s biggest aviation trade fair in Paris, France.
Airbus has made gains against its chief competitor Boeing as airlines reconsider purchases of the US-made jets amid ongoing tariff threats in recent months. In May, budget airline Ryanair threatened to pull orders of Boeing aircraft amid tariff threats.
Duffy said he wanted civil aviation to return to a 1979 zero-tariff trade agreement, in one of the clearest signs yet that the administration of US President Donald Trump might favour such a move. However, Duffy added that while the White House was aware that the US is a net exporter in aerospace, it was also dealing with a complex tariff situation.
“Now, again, you look at what free trade has done for aviation. It’s been remarkable for them. It’s a great space of net exporters,” Duffy said. “And so the White House understands that, but if you go over there and you see the moving parts of what they’re dealing with, it is pretty intense and it’s a lot.”
Trump’s sweeping 10 percent import tariffs are a headache for an industry already battling supply chain challenges and facing fresh turbulence from last week’s deadly Air India crash and conflict in the Middle East.
In early May, the US Commerce Department launched a “Section 232” national security investigation into imports of commercial aircraft, jet engines and parts that could form the basis for even higher tariffs on such imports.
Airlines, plane makers and several US trading partners have been lobbying Trump to restore the tariff-free regime under the 1979 agreement.
Boeing was having a subdued show and parking announcements while focusing on the probe into last week’s fatal crash of an Air India Boeing 787 and after it racked up huge deals during Trump’s recent tour of the Middle East.
Attention turned to another big Airbus customer, AirAsia, long associated with buzzy show finales and looking at buying 100 A220s, with Brazil’s Embraer seeking to wrest away the deal after losing a key contest in Poland, delegates said. Airbus was also expected to reveal Egyptair as the airline behind a recent unidentified order for six more A350s.
Even so, Airbus’s hopes of using the event as a showcase for its first significant deal with Royal Air Maroc faded after the airline postponed plans to announce a larger Boeing deal, delegates said.
[Aljazeera]
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