Being umpire with Stokes in full flow would be pretty precarious as well, Bruce Oxenford's shield gadget, external might not stand up to a straight drive. Philander again from the Pavilion End and there is not much on offer for the left-hander yet.

Image source, Reuters

Chris Parker‏: Scariest position in all of cricket - short leg to Ben Stokes with a spinner bowling.

Stokes sweeps Maharaj for a single to open his account. The crowd will be hoping for some more substantial strokes.

Heather Doole: What do I love about cricket? Chris Morris applauding Joe Root's 50. That's what I love about cricket.

A few nasty, dark clouds, as dear old Tony Greig might have said, and there are a few spots of rain, but nothing to concern the umpires. Two slips and a gully for Philander to Stokes, who defends his first six deliveries, the crowd waiting expectantly for some of those lusty blows.

Remember this?

Phil Tufnell
Ex-England spinner on BBC Test Match Special

Another nice little bit of bowling - slightly slower, slightly tossed up, Root had to fetch for it and it was straight down Morne's neck.

Image source, Reuters

Dan Norcross
BBC Test Match Special

If Root gets to 96, he will reach 5,000 Test runs, and will be the third youngest man to do so behind Sachin Tendulkar and Alastair Cook.

50 for Rootpublished at 14:07 BST 30 July 2017

14:07 BST 30 July 2017

Eng 180-3 (lead by 358)

The thick-set Vernon Philander has been through it in this match - in hospital on a drip only a couple of days ago and in the previous over he appeared to fall over his feet to concede a four. He sends one down so wide that it is half-stopped at first slip. Root completes a masterful 29th Test fifty and new man Dawid Malan gets off the mark in style with a flick off the pads to the mid-wicket boundary.

Isaac Christopher: If Joe Root reaches 50 today he'll maintain the sequence of consecutive scores of 50+ per test match. What's the record?

The record is 12, Isaac (held by AB de Villiers). This would be Root's ninth.

Phil Tufnell
Ex-England spinner on BBC Test Match Special

There was a bit of spin there, a bit quicker and a bit wider and it was neatly taken by De Kock. A nice bit of bowling from the Maharajah.

Jonathan Agnew
BBC cricket correspondent on TMS

Well bowled by Maharaj, he tossed it a little bit wider and De Kock did the rest. We'll see more of Westley - he was playing in the interests of the team.

Jonathan Agnew
BBC cricket correspondent on TMS

Back in the days of amateurs and professionals, they used to come out of separate gates here, as they had separate dressing-rooms. The professionals tended to be the bowlers, they did all the hard work. When I came here as a youngster, there was a 1st XI dressing-room and a 2nd XI dressing-room, and you had to knock on the door of the 1st XI room to speak to John Edrich, Geoff Arnold or whoever.

Big Morne hasn't quite got the radar right yet, he's up at 86mph but there is not much movement off the seam now and Westley guides one through the gully for four.

Adam Botley‏: Perfect situation for Root and others to open the floodgates whilst Westley continues to plug away.

Image source, Reuters

Here's an unusual field for Maharaj, two short covers 15 yards from the bat and about three yards apart, but somehow Westley bisects them with a delightful back foot punch to the boundary, a sumptuous stroke. It's a plan for Westley, they don't use it to Root.

Jonathan Agnew
BBC cricket correspondent on TMS

There's a good dungeon of dressing-rooms here. So when I was selected to play for England against West Indies in 1984, with Michael Holding and Malcolm Marshall running in, when the captain starts to scour around for a nightwatchman, I hid in a broom cupboard for 20 minutes. By the time I came out, Pat Pocock - who was nearly 40 - was already padded up. He saw it through and was out for nought the next morning, and got his second successive pair.

Plenty of children at the ground today, a nice family feel to the atmosphere and thankfully no big hairy men dressed as schoolgirls, which could disturb a child for life. They get in for a pound tomorrow, the kids that is, excellent value. But at Bognor Regis Town Football Club of the Vanarama South, kids can get a season ticket free, how good is that? No immediate signs of the accelerator from England, a second successive maiden from Morkel.

Phil Tufnell
Ex-England spinner on BBC Test Match Special

I remember that Blowers was commentating on my first-class debut, external at Worcester. He said: "I've not seen this Tufnell before, but I understand that line and length is not his forte."