Duckett, Crawley guide England to 117 at lunch, chasing 371

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    At Headingley in Leeds, England’s openers Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley made substantial progress towards a significant run chase against India on the final day of a gripping test series opener. By lunch on Tuesday, the pair had collectively scored 96 runs to edge closer to England’s formidable target of 371, reaching 117 without loss and needing just 254 more. Duckett stood at an unbeaten 64 while Crawley was not out on 42. They kept up a brisk scoring rate of 3.9 per over, precisely what’s required to achieve their goal.

    Despite challenging conditions that included overcast skies, floodlights, and a pitch offering turn and movement, Duckett and Crawley displayed discipline and resilience. The surfaces presented no undue threat to England’s batsmen. Even the Indian bowling spearhead, Jasprit Bumrah, couldn’t find a breakthrough; he was only able to beat Duckett’s bat a couple of times. Similarly, Mohammed Siraj did manage to trouble Crawley in his opening spell but failed to secure a wicket.

    Once Bumrah and Siraj were taken out of the attack, Duckett and Crawley capitalized on the bowling of Shardul Thakur and Prasidh Krishna. Before the lunch break, Bumrah returned but missed a hard caught-and-bowled chance off Crawley when he was on 42. A previous review by India also proved futile as Crawley was erroneously assumed lbw; the ball turned out to be clearly going down the leg side.

    Duckett reached his 20th score above fifty in his 34th test match, tallying 64 runs from 89 balls, which surpassed his previous innings’ 62. This century partnership saw the openers surpassing a milestone of 2,000 runs, marking them as England’s most prolific opening pair since the days of Alastair Cook and Andrew Strauss, who last featured together more than a decade ago.

    England is on the brink of completing its second-highest successful run chase, a feat it’s achieved consistently under the guidance of coach Brendon McCullum. With 17 pursuits under his leadership, England has emerged victorious 11 times, indicating a high success rate in ambitious run chases.