Welcome to The Crawley Zone, where ceaseless backing doesn't always deliver tangible results

Even when my luck's right out; well, it turns out my luck's also right in.

- Barney Ronay

On a lovely morning at Lord's, one of those days where even the outfield seems to ripple under the hard flat London heat, the first day of the third Test dished up another instalment in the extraordinary cricketing life of Zak Crawley.

At times, entering The Crawley Zone, it can be hard not to feel a moment of double take. What is this thing? Why is it happening? Is there anything that might actually interrupt the progress of one of the most weirdly frictionless Test careers, an entire elite sporting existence that seems most of the time to be taking place at a mate's picnic?

On the face of it this was just a so-so day for Crawley as England batted first on a slow and sometimes tricky pitch. But it was also a lucky day for Crawley; lucky because an hour into the morning session he was dismissed not by hack or a swipe, of which there were a few, but by an absolute beauty from Nitish Kumar Reddy.

The delivery was slanted in, right-arm over the wicket on a full length and activating a hardwired defensive push. Crawley didn't really come forward. He played with low hands, but saw the ball rear on an otherwise placid pitch, then straighten malevolently and zing through to Rishabh Pant off the outside edge.