England vs Zimbabwe Test: live score and updates from day 3

Times

24-05-2025

Elizabeth Ammon, at Trent Bridge
Oh we were so close to Ben Curran being dismissed! He was dropped by Ben Stokes at midwicket after his rash shot off Josh Tongue went fast in the air to Stokes's left. The England captain got a hand to it but it went down and Zimbabwe scamper a single.
Sean Williams is playing pull shots nicely, rolling his wrists to keep them down playing towards fine leg. Very controlled.
Elizabeth Ammon, at Trent Bridge
That's the hundred partnership and it's come from 121 balls. Williams has 72 of them but Ben Curran has been solid enough with some fluency. I've just seen his older brother Tom out of the back of the pavilion with his mates. Sam, the younger one, is playing for Surrey at the Oval, he is 33 not out.
Elizabeth Ammon, at Trent Bridge
Joe Root is having a bowl from the Stuart Broad End in search of his 72nd Test wicket. His wickets have come at 45 a piece but he has been a partnership breaker on occasions and his fourth ball finds an underedge that only just misses Curran's leg stump.
Elizabeth Ammon, at Trent Bridge
Ben Stokes is being very sensible. He has only bowled four overs. As much as I suspect he wants to try to be the one to break this partnership, it's far more important that he looks after his body.
There is a strong chance he'll play for England Lions in the second of the matches against India A next month. If he does he'll be captained by James Rew and would be a big thing for the young all-rounder skippering his Test captain.
Elizabeth Ammon, at Trent Bridge
Sean Williams is receiving treatment; he's been hit on the left wrist and there is actual blood. The players are having a drink whilst he gets taped up. Meanwhile Joe Root is talking to the umpire about the ball. His argument is that the ball is out of shape, so they are having a look at it. Regardless, it's been a good first hour for Zimbabwe.
Elizabeth Ammon, at Trent Bridge
Fifty for Sean Williams off 42 balls — his sixth Test half-century. He's looked very fluent this morning, bringing up his fifty, by drilling Josh Tongue down the ground and then taking him for another boundary the next ball.
The partnership is now worth 75 and this is a good sign for the tourists. It's good to see some fight even though they almost certainly know they're on a losing cause.
Elizabeth Ammon, at Trent Bridge
I was just asking a few colleagues what they'd made of Jamie Smith's wicketkeeping in this match and the consensus was that they hadn't really noticed it, which I think means he's done a good job. Like goalkeepers, you only really notice when they make a howling mistake.
Elizabeth Ammon, at Trent Bridge
Zimbabwe have survived the first half hour without any alarm, taking the partnership past fifty, but both Ben Stokes and Sam Cook are beating the bat and getting some bounce and movement.
Nevertheless the touring side haven't crumbled in a heap…yet…which is what some people were predicting. Every run is being cheered loudly by quite a big Zimbabwe-supporting contingent in the ground.
Elizabeth Ammon, at Trent Bridge
Ben Stokes is coming round the wicket to the left handed Curran and starts with a great delivery that is so hard for a left hander; angles in, extra bounce and there was a bit of a grimace on Curran's face as it flew past him
Elizabeth Ammon, at Trent Bridge
Zimbabwe have a 50 partnership between Sean Williams and Ben Curran, and the latter is looking much more assured today than yesterday. He is offering good balance and keeping his head still. Sam Cook is getting a bit of nip off the pitch from the Stuart Broad End.
Brian Bennett spoke of how much the loud Zimbabwe fans in the Trent Bridge crowd had spurred him on to his great total.
'To get that reception from a packed crowd was unbelievable,' he said. 'Before that I could hear them singing the war cries that we always hear at home and it gave me goosebumps. The crowds have been amazing the last two days.'
Elizabeth Ammon, at Trent Bridge
And Ben Stokes is going to kick off the morning with the ball. He bowled 3.2 overs yesterday taking two wickets for 11 and came through them fine, although didn't bring himself back on but he will be very, very carefully managing himself.
Elizabeth Ammon, at Trent Bridge
The Zimbabwe opener Brian Bennett's second Test century was inspired by seeing the names of the England centurions from the first day go up on to the Trent Bridge honours board.
The 21-year-old said it was an 'emotional day' as he led a Zimbabwe fightback for much of the day.
'I saw Zak Crawley's name go up on the honours board this morning and thought it would be very nice to see my name up there too,' Bennett said. He became the second Zimbabwe player to go on the board after Murray Goodwin.
Elizabeth Ammon, at Trent Bridge
Good morning from Trent Bridge where it is very cloudy, pretty chilly but it is dry. The cover is off, the players have warmed up and we'll start on time.
Richard Ngarava is injured and we aren't sure if he will bat – he didn't yesterday. So England may only need to take seven wickets.
Steve James, at Trent Bridge
And then there was the curious case of off-spinner Shoaib Bashir, who had a spectacularly fruitless spell on loan at Glamorgan earlier this season, taking just two wickets in three matches, and here he was taking three wickets, and he could have had five had he taken two return catches.
There were moments of horrible inconsistency but two of the wickets came from absolute beauties, with left-hander Craig Ervine caught at slip and right-hander Tafadzwa Tsiga bowled through the gate. The height of the ceiling has become a cliché but you could see here why England reckon his to be quite so high.
Simon Wilde, at Trent Bridge
Shubman Gill has been named captain of an 18-man India Test squad to tour England this summer in a five-match series that starts at Headingley on June 20. Gill will be leading the side for the first time, following the recent departure of Rohit Sharma, and at 25 will be the youngest man to captain India since Sachin Tendulkar in 1997.
Jasprit Bumrah captained in Sharma's absence twice in Australia last winter but as a fast bowler whose fitness needs managing following recent injuries he has been spared a formal leadership role. It is possible Bumrah will not play all five Tests given that they span less than seven weeks.
Steve James, at Trent Bridge
Both Gus Atkinson and Josh Tongue initially looked a little short of a gallop, but their extra pace was telling later on, as it was from the skipper when earlier bowling a mesmerising few overs, taking two wickets and moving the ball so much more in the air than the others that it was as if he had sneaked his own ball on to use.
Steve James, at Trent Bridge
Some observations here: firstly that a chap called James Anderson also made his Test debut against Zimbabwe, the last time they were here playing a Test, in 2003, and he conceded 17 from his first over as Dion Ebrahim took three fours. He went on to do rather decently. He actually took five for 73 in that first innings on debut, but the crucial difference, of course, is that he was 20 years old then, and Cook is 27 now.
Cook has been banging vainly on the selectors' doors for a long time, and it took a fine performance for England Lions in Australia this year for them finally to convince themselves that Cook needed this opportunity at the highest level. An added factor ahead of this winter's Ashes was the change seen recently in Australian Test pitches, where much more live, green grass has been spied and the Kookaburra balls have been appropriately roused, and as a result Scott Boland, who operates at only a touch above 80mph, has positively thrived.
Steve James, at Trent Bridge
Eyes immediately turned to the speed gun. Sam Cook had just bowled his first ball in Test cricket, indeed the first ball of Zimbabwe's first innings, and attention turned to how quickly he had bowled it.
Why? Simply because lack of pace has long been the reason for Cook's absence from the England Test team, despite having been the outstanding seam bowler in county cricket for many years.
The radar's answer was promising. It read 81mph. That is not quick, of course, not in Test cricket anyway, but it is not as slow as some had feared. Indeed for the first spell of six overs he bowled, Cook managed to keep the speedometer above 80mph.
● Read in full: Sam Cook finds that, at his pace, there's no margin for error
Mike Atherton, at Trent Bridge
Ben Stokes had come on to replace Shoaib Bashir halfway through the 37th over, after the spinner `had split a finger dropping a return catch, and on an afternoon when the other seamers toiled, Stokes immediately looked like he was bowling with a different ball and on a different pitch.
In three eye-catching overs before tea, Stokes took two wickets, bounding in like a man who had never been away instead of someone having his first bowl in a competitive match for five months. After an initial no-ball, his rhythm looked excellent and he dismissed Sikandar Raza with a snorter that moved late and bounced, and then set up Wes Madhevere with a collection of outswingers, before bringing one back the other way.
Such is his importance to the balance of England's attack this cameo spell was the highlight of England's performance with the ball, and it made up for his brief appearance with the bat in the morning. Stokes opted to prolong England's innings first thing, but Ollie Pope added only two to his overnight total, before edging a drive from Tanaka Chivanga, after which Stokes got in a tangle and top-edged a hook off Blessing Muzarabani.
Mike Atherton, at Trent Bridge
Cricketers rarely need reminding of the game's capricious nature and its ability to induce delight one minute and disappointment the next. Brian Bennett, Zimbabwe's 21-year-old opener, had one of those tumultuous days, scoring a brilliant hundred before being dismissed cheaply second time around, after Zimbabwe were asked to follow on. England now have designs on a three-day victory to get their summer off to a winning start.
But what a hundred it was first of all, and what a moment for him and his family. On a bright, warm Nottingham afternoon, Bennett back-cut Gus Atkinson for a third consecutive boundary, his 20th, and ran to the non-striker's end emitting a roar of delight, raising a clenched fist to the skies and acknowledging the generous applause by planting a kiss on the badge of his helmet, much as West Indies' Kavem Hodge had done at this ground 12 months before.
● Read in full: Ben Stokes finds rhythm on return as Brian Bennett earns Zimbabwe respect
In case you still need a reminder, here the two squadrons having at it today.
England: 1 Zak Crawley, 2 Ben Duckett, 3 Ollie Pope, 4 Joe Root, 5 Harry Brook, 6 Jamie Smith (wk), 7 Ben Stokes (capt), 8 Gus Atkinson, 9 Sam Cook, 10 Josh Tongue, 11 Shoaib Bashir
Zimbabwe: 1 Brian Bennett, 2 Ben Curran, 3 Craig Ervine (capt), 4 Sean Williams, 5 Sikandar Raza, 6 Wessly Madhevere, 7 Tafadzwa Tsiga (wk), 8 Richard Ngarava, 9 Blessing Muzarabani, 10 Tanaka Chivanga, 11 Victor Nyauchi
Hello and welcome to The Times' coverage of the third day of the one-off Test match between England and Zimbabwe. It's one-way traffic, as you would expect, in Nottingham and there is every chance that the match gets wrapped up today. However, the weather is not as nice today as it has been. Will that help Zimbabwe? We'll have updates.