OFFICIALS GIVING FANS THE H-UMP

The final say from Lord's

- JEREMY CROSS

IT'S safe to describe this Test match as a slow burner.

And if it gets much slower, it will stop.

At least the Indians tried to breathe some fire into it at the death, surrounding Zak Crawley (below) in the final over and giving him some choice verbals.

The visitors appeared unhappy at Crawley's time-wasting tactics, despite having wasted plenty of their own throughout the day.

And the umpires just stood there and let the players do what they wanted.

Which was fitting, because the officials in this game so far have been as authoritative as a couple of wet sponges.

The failure of Paul Reiffel and Sharfuddoula (top) to help maintain an acceptable over rate has been shameful.