At Headingley, England won the first Test of their ongoing five-match series against India. With 350 more runs to score on the last day, the hosts cruised to a five-wicket victory.
Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley successfully weathered the spell of Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj. Although few runs were scored, their staying at the crease meant a lot more to the English. The flow of runs accelerated immediately when Prasidh Krishna and Shardul Thakur entered the bowl.
Ben Duckett went on to score his 15th half-century in Tests.
It came from only 65 balls. England had reached their team’s century by the conclusion of the 25th over. Bumrah granted Crawley a huge reprieve a few overs before the end of the first session. The speedster squandered a superb caught-and-bowled opportunity. England went into lunch with all ten wickets in hand.
The hosts had an incredibly positive start following the lunch break. By the end of the 38th over, they had already got to 165/0. Yashasvi Jaiswal dropped Duckett on 97 for a deep backwards square leg. He went on to score his sixth Test tonne in the following over. Following a brief break due to rain, Prasidh Krishna struck to remove Zak Crawley (65 off 126) and Ollie Pope (eight off eight).
Joe Root joined Duckett in the centre. Duckett was the most aggressive of the two throughout their time together at the crease. Shardul Thakur’s twin strike came in the 55th over of the innings. Duckett (149 off 170) was dismissed one short of 150. Harry Brook, who was dismissed on 99 in the first innings, headed back for a golden duck.
Root and Ben Stokes made sure there were no more hiccups till teatime. They strengthened their position once the third session began. They appeared to be on course to lead their team to victory before Stokes (33 off 51) was dismissed by Ravindra Jadeja on a reverse sweep. Jamie Smith had a tough start. On his sixteenth delivery, he registered his first boundary.
Bumrah was nowhere to be found after a three-over explosion following the tea break. The other bowlers struggled to stop the flow of runs. On the final ball of the 81st over, Root hit a four past Gully to reach fifty. Smith closed things up in style, scoring 18 runs off Jadeja. He finished unbeaten on 44 of 55 deliveries. India was comprehensively trounced in the end.
India
