Now then Nick Compton, what have you got for us? I hear that his highest first-class score came on this ground - 254* when he was playing for Somerset. He waits with that unique stance - pads virtually covering the stumps, head turned fully towards the bowler - and pushes back a Lakmal maiden. 

England 39-1 (15 overs, won toss)

Batsmen: Hales 24*, Compton 0*

Fall of wicket: 39-1 (Cook 15)

Bowling: Eranga 6-1-23-0, Lakmal 7-2-16-1, Pradeep 2-2-0-0

Full scorecard

Paul Holland: If I was a betting man I'd stick something on Cook being out for 4 in the 2nd innings.

Michelle Garland: Oh dear. That's the way the Cookie crumbles.  

Looking again, Cook was hanging his bat miles away from his body. Lakmal was round the wicket, the ball first angling in then nipping away. Cook's feet, about the line of leg stump, went nowhere, leaving him fencing at the ball as it moved away. Karunaratne moved to his left, swooped low and clung on as the ball rattled around in his hands.

Michael Vaughan
Ex-England captain on BBC Test Match Special

"I've been really impressed with the way that Nick Compton has come out and spoken. He's been really honest and open and he hasn't hidden away. But he'll be really nervous, he knows he needs a number by his name. You just hope that you can get over that first 10 or 15 minutes and not get a jaffa."

The players have taken drinks at the fall of the wicket, Nick Compton coming out to join Alex Hales. I'm waiting for a replay of the Cook wicket to see just how wide it was...

Michael Vaughan
Ex-England captain on BBC Test Match Special

"It's a wonderful low catch, but you've got to leave that. Cook will be disappointed that he jabbed at that delivery. There was a little bit of bounce from Lakmal, he just got it to hold up in the surface."

Zoe Symes: Would love see Cook smash a 6 to reach 10,000... about as likely as a pig learning to fly but we can all dream!

Lakmal to Cook, skipper pushing down the ground for two. Five short of 10,000.

Michael Vaughan
Ex-England captain on BBC Test Match Special

"I've been very impressed with the way that Alex Hales has defended. He's playing it nice and late, whereas in South Africa he was very eager to get to the ball so the edges carried."

Now then, Thomas Page on Twitter tells me that the ticket price/number of sales relationship relies on something called the elasticity of demand. In you can explain that in a live-text sized entry, please do. New bowler Nuwan Pradeep into the attack, Alex Hales not even thinking about playing when the ball is more than a nanometre outside off stump.

Michael Vaughan
Ex-England captain on BBC Test Match Special

Image source, AFP

"I'm sure Cook's thinking about those seven runs. He just wants a couple of short deliveries."

The floodlights are on, the bright lights beaming down on the lush green, brightening an otherwise grey Durham day. Hales, hogging the strike, bunts Lakmal down the ground for three, allowing Cook to reacquaint himself with the bowling by leaving alone outside off stump. In the ground, a chap with the most wonderful blond mane watches on. He could genuinely get work as a He-Man impersonator.

Hales is ticking now, feasting on the breakfast buffet that is being served up by Shaminda Eranga. Bacon, sausage, beans, fried eggs, black pudding. No grilled tomato, because it has no place in a decent breakfast. Too full, driven for four. Too short, cut for four. Time for a bowling change I reckon.

Edward Norman: If Durham gave free tickets to post-exam students they'd make more money on the bars than £30 a head to have an empty ground.  

Lloyd Blackler:  Paid £1 for whole 2001 Galle Test. Stood with the locals on the mound. Swelteringly hot! Snuck into stand in pm. Brilliant!

Richard: It's not just ticket money, a full crowd eating and drinking all day must spend a fortune. I bet a beer snake costs a few grand!

Alex Hales is once again incredibly watchful, plodding his long front leg down the track to negate the slight swing of the goattee-bearded, mullet-bobbing Suranga Lakmal. When Lakmal twice gets too straight, Hales works through the leg side for a couple, then a single.

Richard Anderson: A ticket for days 3, 4 and 5 at the Hagley Oval in Christchurch for NZ v Aus cost the grand sum of £24.

Jonathan Squires: Paid £45 for my ticket on Sunday. And that was a cheap price... Ashes Test was closer to £70 last time at Durham.

Hannah Gawthorpe:  £40 for my ticket on Sunday, totally worth it especially since there's no work to get up for on Monday!

I think we're safe in our assumption that this pitch has less pace than Dwayne Leverock. The ball is barely carrying to Sri Lanka keeper Dinesh Chandimal. Cook, into the nervous 9,990s, takes a couple off his pads, then squeezes two more through third man. History beckons.