Midway through the second session of the day, as Mohammed Aamer continually beat the outside edge, Kamran Akmal, the Pakistan wicketkeeper, became the centrepiece of a conversation between the two television commentators.
"He has got a pair of gloves that have got springs in them," said David Lloyd, the former England coach.
"Rather, he seems to have bricks in them," Rameez Raja, the former Pakistan opener, added.
Those remarks came after yet another spill by the glove man, off a regulation leave by the batsman, and both commentators did have a little chuckle at the embarrassing slip.
The Pakistan bowlers, however, could be pardoned for failing to see the funny side of it, especially Aamer and Danish Kaneria who suffered most.
Aamer should have got Andrew Strauss, who was on 15 at that point, in the fifth over of the day with a superb delivery that moved away from the batsman.
The bowler had already started his celebration, before stopping in his tracks as the wicketkeeper grassed a catch that most schoolboys would have gratefully accepted.
Aamer did not despair. He maintained his intensity and was rewarded for his persistence three overs later. He cramped Alastair Cook on the off-stump and the edge went to Imran Farhat at first slip.
Look north
BBC business reporters, like a new raft of government officials, are being removed from the national and international hub of London and surely the quality of their work must suffer.
If you go
The flights
There are direct flights from Dubai to Sofia with FlyDubai (www.flydubai.com) and Wizz Air (www.wizzair.com), from Dh1,164 and Dh822 return including taxes, respectively.
The trip
Plovdiv is 150km from Sofia, with an hourly bus service taking around 2 hours and costing $16 (Dh58). The Rhodopes can be reached from Sofia in between 2-4hours.
The trip was organised by Bulguides (www.bulguides.com), which organises guided trips throughout Bulgaria. Guiding, accommodation, food and transfers from Plovdiv to the mountains and back costs around 170 USD for a four-day, three-night trip.
What is blockchain?
Blockchain is a form of distributed ledger technology, a digital system in which data is recorded across multiple places at the same time. Unlike traditional databases, DLTs have no central administrator or centralised data storage. They are transparent because the data is visible and, because they are automatically replicated and impossible to be tampered with, they are secure.
The main difference between blockchain and other forms of DLT is the way data is stored as ‘blocks’ – new transactions are added to the existing ‘chain’ of past transactions, hence the name ‘blockchain’. It is impossible to delete or modify information on the chain due to the replication of blocks across various locations.
Blockchain is mostly associated with cryptocurrency Bitcoin. Due to the inability to tamper with transactions, advocates say this makes the currency more secure and safer than traditional systems. It is maintained by a network of people referred to as ‘miners’, who receive rewards for solving complex mathematical equations that enable transactions to go through.
However, one of the major problems that has come to light has been the presence of illicit material buried in the Bitcoin blockchain, linking it to the dark web.
Other blockchain platforms can offer things like smart contracts, which are automatically implemented when specific conditions from all interested parties are reached, cutting the time involved and the risk of mistakes. Another use could be storing medical records, as patients can be confident their information cannot be changed. The technology can also be used in supply chains, voting and has the potential to used for storing property records.
More from Rashmee Roshan Lall
Founders: Abdulmajeed Alsukhan, Turki Bin Zarah and Abdulmohsen Albabtain.
Based: Riyadh
Offices: UAE, Vietnam and Germany
Founded: September, 2020
Number of employees: 70
Sector: FinTech, online payment solutions
Funding to date: $116m in two funding rounds
Investors: Checkout.com, Impact46, Vision Ventures, Wealth Well, Seedra, Khwarizmi, Hala Ventures, Nama Ventures and family offices
Brief scoreline:
Manchester United 1
Mata 11'
Chelsea 1
Alonso 43'
