England 824 Pakistan 659 (match drawn)

After five days the Lords test match ended in a draw. I've been in Germany long enough now to see the amusing side of this: a sport which not only takes five days to play, but a sport which doesn't even get a result in five days. In case you are wondering why England didn't win by simply having more runs (824 of them in total), the answer is that Pakistan still had six batsmen left who could have made the difference had the match continued for another day or two.

But five days it is, although the match didn't last exactly five days: with about half an hour left to play both teams decided that they couldn't win, so they packed it in and went for a cup of tea.

Here is a picture from the bbc website of the Pakistani captain, Inzamam-ul-Haq, playing a forward defensive shot. The key to playing this shot is a good pair of trousers. They should be tight enough to not flap around, but elastic and roomy enough to let you take a good step down the pitch. Once you've got the trousers everything else (bat and front leg together, head directly above the ball, bat angled to the floor) will just fall into place.