Just back from The Oval, still waiting for my extremities to thaw out. On the face of it, twas madness to go today when the forecast is so much better for the weekend, but my friends had taken the day off work so we gave it a go and were rewarded with about three hours' play. Horrible conditions for anyone who isn't called Mohamad Abbas, who bowled beautifully for his two wickets. Burns actually batted pretty well and it was a surprise when he edged behind. Vince took an absolute screamer off Ryan Patel; quite astonishing given the temperature out there. The interesting decision of the day was to promote Jordan Clark to number 5 when Patel was dismissed, and we wondered if the idea was to send him as a sort of night watchman before the rain or bad light ended play early. That didn't quite happen, and Clark was dismissed cheaply, but Jamie Smith looked fine anyway. Pope started skittishly, as is his wont nowadays, but settled in the bat tidily for his unbeaten 48. We started taking bets on which ball of the over would see him a third of the way down the wicket as it all seemed pretty random. But his innings became increasingly controlled, which was good to see,
