Ben Duckett century leads England fightback against India: third Test, day two – as it happened | England in India 2024

That’s all for today’s coverage. We’ll be back at 3.30am to confirm whether Bobby Ewing has just emerged from the shower to inform us that England are 48 for seven, following on, or whether England really are going toe to toe with India in India. Thanks for your company, goodnight.

“Innit warming that AB de Villiers is still watching Test cricket and enjoying it as a neutral,” writes Adam Hirst. “Same with Kallis, he never quite seemed to get the recognition as a genuine great that he should have had. What an innings. As good as anything from an England player.”

Mark Wood speaks

[What brought your more please, four wickets on the run out?] 100 per cent the run out; Sarfaraz doesn’t know how unlucky he is!

[On Ben Stokes dropping a catch with Wood on a five-for] He said sorry. Normally I can’t say anything as I’m the worst fielder in the team, but after that run-out I can just say ‘Howay, mate’…

[On Ben Duckett] Amazing. And as a bowler, class to watch after you’ve put in all that toil. It looked like India weren’t sure on their fields at times: they’d move a man and he’d hit it exactly where the fielder had been. He’d sweep it behind, then he’d sweep it in front. Amazing to watch.

There’s a long way to go. Hopefully we can get their bowlers into a second or third spell – if they’re cramping after seven overs [as Jasprit Bumrah did], if we can get them to 25 hopefully it’ll be a bit different then.

Say it again

Ravichandran Ashwin (500*) speaks

I’d like to dedicate the 500th wicket to my father. He’s been through the thick and thin of everything I’ve done in my life. He’s had heart attacks every time I’ve played. He’s been a constant support and I’m sure he’ll be very happy today. Five-hundred wickets is done and dusted now; we’ve got a game hanging in the balance.

I feel pretty fresh. The way England play, you don’t have to bowl a lot of overs. They play every over like it’s a T20 or a one-day game. It gives us less time to think but it also means less labour.

The surfaces in this series have enabled the batsmen to have a reasonably good time in the first three or four days. I’d expect this pitch to get really tough for the batsmen on day five. We just need to hang in there, wheel away and exercise discipline.

England have been in similar situations in the series and we have found a way to claw our way back into the match. They put you under pressure and it’s important how you react to that. The game is neck and neck.

Imagine how good Ben Duckett will feel when he sees this tweet from the genius’s genius.

Duckett’s innings also contained an unlikely twist: he stole the thunder of the man who has been his nemesis. Ravichandran Ashwin took his 500th Test wicket when Zak Crawley was caught at short fine leg, yet he only held the headlines for about five minutes. Honestly, it was a staggering innings, a mash-up of Virender Sehwag (brutal speed of scoring) and Steve Smith (uncanny, innovative problem-solving).

Ashwin may well have the final word, and we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that England are still miles behind, but this has been Duckett’s day.

Stumps: England trail by 238 runs

Duckett is not out! Oof, it pitched fractionally outside leg. Just as Pope looked not out to the bleary naked eye, so that looked out. It’s 1-1.

I think this is out. Duckett missed a slightly weary clip to leg and was hit on the back pad in front of middle stump.

INDIA REVIEW FOR LBW AGAINST DUCKETT!

35th over: England 201-2 (Duckett 132, Root 4) With Duckett rather than Root on strike, Rohit Sharma brings on Ashwin for Bumrah – and it may have worked.

34th over: England 200-2 (Duckett 131, Root 4) Siraj goes round the wicket to Duckett with a funky field: gully, no slip, deep square, fine leg, deep backward point, cover, extra cover, mid on, mid off and one other position I’ve forgotten.

Siraj, who has outbowled Bumrah today, has a strangled LBW shout when Duckett whips around a ball that would have missed leg. A rare maiden is on the cards until Duckett takes a single off the last delivery. That also brings up England’s 200, in the 34th over.

33rd over: England 199-2 (Duckett 130, Root 4) Root inside-edges an inducker from Bumrah onto the pads. Bumrah started to appeal for LBW before he processed the inside edge.

The rest of the over passes without incident. Eight minutes left, so almost certainly two overs.

32.1 overs: England 197-2 (Duckett 130, Root 2) India try to get the ball changed. Kumar Dharmasena plays the role of the Man from Del Monte’s curmudgeonly sibling. The odd thing is that, while England have pulverised India in this session, it’s now India who have nothing to lose. In the grand scheme, a wicket in the last 10 minutes would probably put them on top.

Bumrah does come on to replace Jadeja. His first ball is cut for Duckett… and then Bumrah calls for the physio. He’s feeling his hamstring. Never mind the match; this could be a series-changer. Or it could just be cramp: he consumes a sachet of pure health and goes back to his mark.

32nd over: England 196-2 (Duckett 129, Root 2) Siraj continues, reward for taking the wicket of Pope, but surely Rohit Sharma will give Bumrah a crack at Root before the close. A quiet over, two from it.

“Pip pip old Smythee,” says Robert Wilson. “We all bang on like fanboys about beautiful pace bowler actions. Even the most dunderheaded and inarticulate of cricket fans can do a reasonable five-minute bit of wistful blank verse on the elegant biomechanics of a Wasim Akram or a Michael Holding. I’ve always loved a spiky or improbable action that produces top quality quick bowling. Like a unicorn wearing a trilby. And this pleasure always depends on finding the right simile. Malinga was great in this way. He looked like an enraged eight-year-old swiping the heads off dandelions after being told off for teasing his sister (plus that action actually made his bowling a LOT scarier).

“And now I’ve finally worked out why I like Bumrah so much. The ball comes out of the hand like it’s the Sistine Chapel. But his action is exactly that of a man trying to catch a puppy falling off a balcony. Great similes aren’t just beautiful, they’re also incontrovertibly true.”

31st over: England 193-2 (Duckett 127, Root 1) Duckett reverse hoicks Jadeja for six, possibly his most outrageous shot yet. This innings is so reminiscent of Steve Smith at his best, finding solutions and angles that the rest of us didn’t know existed – and all the while playing with an eerie, slightly eccentric tranquility. In the moment it’s hard to be sure but I think we’re already into the realms of great England innings overseas, certainly by an opener. He is 127 not out off 104 balls, for goodness sake, and at no stage has he stepped outside his comfort zone.

“Gilbert Jessop!” says Pete Salmon.

Arf. Given the last 18 months he’s had, with his record for the fastest Test century by an Englishman under threat every second week, we might need to alter the phrase “rest in peace”.

30th over: England 182-2 (Duckett 119, Root 0) I don’t really believe in Hawkeye conspiracy theories so I’ve no doubt that was the correct decision; it just didn’t look out to the (slightly bleary) naked eye. Rohit Sharma only reviewed at the last second; it was an inspired decision. As was the plan for Siraj to pepper Pope with short stuff. I think there were five short balls in a row, then the fuller one took the wicket.

WICKET! England 182-2 (Pope LBW b Siraj 39)

INDIA REVIEW FOR LBW AGAINST POPE! Pope is clattered on the noggin when he misses a pull off Siraj. Was that a slower bouncer or did it stop in the pitch? Either way it hit him on the helmet so he will undertake a concussion test.

When play resumes, Pope pulls a sharp bouncer just wide of Rohit at square leg. But it was a no-ball so he wouldn’t have been out anyway. The excitement continues with a big LBW appeal against Pope that is turned down by Joel Wilson,. While Siraj is appealing, a fielder flings the ball for four overthrows.

It looks high but Rohit Sharma has gone upstairs.

29th over: England 176-1 (Duckett 116, Pope 37) Pope reverse-sweeps Jadeja for four. Duckett slog-sweeps Jadeja for four. Even Dame Fortune is rooting for England: an inside-edge from Duckett flies over the stumps and away for two.

I have never seen India look as rattled during a home Test. This isn’t an England cricket team. This is a myth, a spook story that criminals tell their kids at night. “Rat on your pop, and Bazball will get you.” They could well end up losing this series 4-1, but who cares. They’re the most life-affirming England team since 2005, maybe forever.

28th over: England 163-1 (Duckett 108, Pope 32) Even a great team, and India are most certainly that, struggle when they are put under pressure. Siraj bowls a rank bad ball that is tickled for four by Pope. The controlled authority of England’s batting, while scoring at six an over, is mind-blowing.

27th over: England 156-1 (Duckett 106, Pope 28) Pope premeditates a lap for four off Jadeja, then gets another boundary with the blind scoop he played so thrillingly in Hyderadbad. This is crazy. Jadeja has an LBW appeal turned down when a ball skids on to hit the pad; it would have missed leg and Rohit Sharma – who only has two reviews left – stays downstairs.

“I’m old enough to remember when England supporters like myself pined for the security of the opening partnership of Messrs Strauss & Cook, those sedate, ‘safe pair of hands’ country solicitors,” says Brian Withington. “In comparison Crawley and Duckett bat like a pair of coke-addled city firm killers spending their hostile takeover bonuses before break of day. Glorious, isn’t it?”

Sure is, and I like the Wolf of Wall Street imagery. But the first three words of your email… you don’t need to be a supercentenarian to pine for the days of Strauss and Cook, do you? I bet there’s at least one irritatingly precocious 13-year-old who could tell you all about watching Brisbane 2010 in the small hours. I know because he starts on the Guardian sports desk next week.

BEN DUCKETT MAKES A WONDERFUL HUNDRED!

25th over: England 140-1 (Duckett 98, Pope 20) Pope takes a quick run on the off side and is knocked off his feet when the throw from Jadeja hits his bat. He was home by that point, with the single bringing up the fifty partnership. Later in the over Pope is beaten, waving instinctively at a shortish awayswinger. That’s the kind of ball that gets Joe Root out.

There are still 18 overs to bowl tonight, though they might not get them all in. Play will finish at 5pm local time, 11.30am GMT.

24th over: England 138-1 (Duckett 97, Pope 19) Jadeja replaces Ashwin, who took his 500th wicket but also went at five an over. There’s only one man near the bat apart from the keeper, a reflection of how well this parst have played. The moment India take the second wicket they will be all over England again.

“Mike Brearley could do with putting his psychological training to good use to produce an academic study into the effect height has upon batting approaches,” writes Tom Van der Gucht. “Looking at the likes of Duckett and Warner, you wonder if they have a Scrappy-Doo psychology whereby they feel under threat and need to go out bristling and scuffling.

“By contrast, Crawley has a lofty sense of entitlement based on his lankiness and subsequently has a natural confidence that allows him to attack with arrogant disdain as he wearily dispatches balls to the boundary with apparent lack of care.”

That would certainly explain the 48-ball hundred Joe Pesci scored in my dream last night.

Drinks: England trail by 308 runs

22nd over: England 131-1 (Duckett 92, Pope 18) Ashwin has a strangled LBW shout against Pope, who inside-edged a sweep onto the pads. England accept the risks with the sweep because they know the rewards. Duckett slog-sweeps Ashwin magnificently for six, then pulls for four when Ashwin drops short next ball. Pressure affects even an all-time great like Ashwin. His last delivery is too straight and turned for three by Duckett, who has raced into the nineties from only 75 balls. This is quietly bonkers, if that’s not a contradiction.

21st over: England 117-1 (Duckett 79, Pope 17) That was also the last ball of the over – a slightly worrying one for England because Bumrah got a fair bit of reverse swing.

Duckett is not out! Oof, it did scrape the under-edge as Duckett jabbed his bat down. That’s an absolutely fantastic decision from fragrance-peddler and occasional umpire Kumar Dharmasena.

I think this will be out. It sneaked under the boot and thumped into the back pad. Duckett has two hopes: a) that it scraped the bottom of the bat and b) that it might have missed leg.

INDIA REVIEW FOR LBW AGAINST DUCKETT! If it’s not bat first he’s in trouble, because it was a blistering yorker from Bumrah,

20th over: England 115-1 (Duckett 78, Pope 16) Duckett skids back to cart Ashwin past mid-on for four. Ashwin looks befuddled, wondering how the hell that ball was hit to that part of the ground for that many runs.

In his unorthodox problem-solving, Duckett reminds me quite a lot of Steve Smith. And that, lest foam be forming in your non-English mouth, is where the comparison ends.

Statgasm department: Ben Duckett in Tests in India

• 2016-17 Average 6.00, Strike rate 34.61

• 2023-24 Avge 51, Strike rate 102

19th over: England 109-1 (Duckett 73, Pope 15) Bumrah replaces Kuldeep, who was bullied for 42 from six overs. Duckett hit 29 of them from only 16 balls. This is such a key passage of play, especially with Joe Root the next man in. If Bumrah gets as much reverse swing as he did in Vizag, it’s hard to see England getting close to India’s total of 445.

Pope makes a statement by clipping his first ball, an attempted yorker, through midwicket for four. The rest of the over is played fairly watchfully. Ominously for England, the last ball comes back a long way to take Pope’s inside edge. I assume it was reverse swing, because a pessimist is never disappointed.

18th over: England 104-1 (Duckett 73, Pope 10) Ashwin is on the cusp of another milestone: he needs one more left-hander for 250 in Test cricket, which is almost more remarkable than 500 overall.

If Duckett is No250, he won’t die wondering. He muffs a reverse sweep and then nails a slog sweep to deep wicket for four. Even after a relatively sedate spell, Duckett has 73 not out from 65 balls with 15 fours.

17th over: England 100-1 (Duckett 69, Pope 10) Out of nothing, Pope jumps down the track to drive Kuldeep sweetly over midwicket for six. He still looks a bit wired, though, and almost runs himself out later in the over by going for a non-existent third run. Duckett sent him back in time.

“I have little truck with all this talk of Crawley & Duckett solving the problem of England not having a proper opening pair since Cook & Strauss,” harrumphs Ewan Glenton. . “The problem is far older than that: the last duo that can be taken seriously was Boycott & Gooch.

“As everyone knows double acts have to have two syllables one 1. Greenidge & Haynes have already been mentioned; I grew up with them, Wiener & Laird, Edgar & Wright, Morecambe & Wise, Little & Large, Starsky & Hutch, Bodie & Doyle, Torville & Dean, Sooty & Sweep…

“There’s a reason why The Two Ronnies didn’t call themselves Barker & Corbett, The Dukes of Hazzard wasn’t called Bo & Luke, and why neither Chas & Dave nor Smith & Jones can ever be ranked with history’s greatest ever musicians or comedy duos. Of course these two are both worth their places in the team, but if I was in charge of selection I’d shuffle the order: Duckett & Pope, Crawley & Stokes, for example.”

A splendid email, full of persuasive examples and irresistible logic. But I think there may be a fly in the ointment.

16th over: England 92-1 (Duckett 69, Pope 2) Another probing over from Ashwin, who has slowed the run rate and fired up the wickets column.

We need a Popeometer to quantify how jittery he is at the start of each innings. If the first innings in Hyderabad was 8.7, this is maybe a 6.2. Come on, come on, come on, get through it.

15th over: England 90-1 (Duckett 68, Pope 1) Pope survives a stumping referral after playing and missing at a gorgeous wrong’un from Kuldeep. His back foot stayed ground. That Ashwin wicket has changed the mood, and Kuldeep is able to bowl his first maiden. He won’t want to get his figures laminated just yet, but 5-1-34-0 looks a lot better than 4-0-34-0.

14th over: England 90-1 (Duckett 68, Pope 1) Ashwin has taken 69 per cent of those 500 wickets in India. His record overseas is fine (153 wickets at 29.90) but at home, whether on flat decks or bunsens, he is irresistible: 347 wickets at 21.22.

RAVICHANDRAN ASHWIN TAKES HIS 500TH TEST WICKET!

13th over: England 89-0 (Crawley 15, Duckett 68) England are going after Kuldeep, trying to dent his confidence before he gets into a rhythm. Duckett sweeps and pulls him to the midwicket fence, which gives him 13 boundaries in the last 34 deliveries. That’s extraordinary, especially as there has been such clarity and variety in his strokeplay.

I’m still not sure I agree with it, mind. What kind of animal smokes marijuana at his own confirMATION hits 13 boundaries in 34 balls while opening the batting for England in a Test match?

12th over: England 79-0 (Crawley 15, Duckett 58) Ashwin’s first over is relatively quiet. There was an LBW appeal when Crawley made a mess of a reverse sweep, but Ashwin immediately signalled that he thought there was an inside-edge.

11th over: England 76-0 (Crawley 15, Duckett 55) Duckett inside-edges a reverse sweep off Kuldeep that loops wide of slip. His response is to larrup another boundary, this time with a slog sweep to cow corner, before Crawley drives Kuldeep classily back over his head for four. This is sheer delightful batting.

Enjoy it while it lasts: here comes Ravichandran Ashwin, who is on 499 Test wickets and has a formidable head-to-head record against Duckett. Not just in a former life, either.

10th over: England 67-0 (Crawley 11, Duckett 50) Duckett belts Siraj for two fours in three balls, then cuts a single to bring up a marvellous 39-ball fifty. That has to be one of the fastest by an England opener in Test cricket, but at no stage has it felt wild or uncontrolled. He struggled in Siraj’s first two overs; since then he has played with a serene certainty.

Crawley ends a fine over for England with a pristine extra-cover drive for four. That’s the 11th boundary in the last six overs!

9th over: England 54-0 (Crawley 7, Duckett 41) Now Duckett unfurls the reverse sweep, clouting Kuldeep over backward point for four to bring up the fifty partnership with Zak Crawley and Ravichandran Ashwin.

“Morning to the unassailable Rob!” honks Felix Kirby. “I write (sporadically as ever, and with Bags for Life beneath my eyes) from Oxford. Although — like any self-respecting student — I’m not given to waking up before 10, I’ve been sitting at my desk since 7, trying and failing to memorise Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. Do you think I could get away with asking a violinist to crunch out a downbow with all the agricultural brio of a Stokes mow over cow corner? Or a timpanist to drive it into the pitch? (And can ‘mow’ be used as an adjective?) Asking for a friend.”

It’s the millennium, language is incidental.

8th over: England 48-0 (Crawley 6, Duckett 36) Duckett times Siraj down the ground for a majestic boundary, his sixth in the last 13 deliveries. A slugged pull makes it seven in 15 balls, a thrilling reversal of pressure.

Of the 160 men who have scored at least 1,000 Test runs opening the batting, nobody can match Duckett’s strike rate of 88. Only Virender Sehwag, who pound for pound is the greatest attacking opener of all time, even comes close.

7th over: England 40-0 (Crawley 6, Duckett 28) Rohit Sharma turns to spin straight after tea – not Ravichandran Ashwin but Kuldeep Yadav. Duckett sweeps him for successive boundaries to move to 28 from 27 balls.

“In reply to Kim Thonger and Icelandic Cricket predictions of English plenty, can I be permitted to observe that the only way that the five-run penalty conceded by Ashwin can definitely be shown to have decisively impacted the result is if England follow on, post a target and then bowl India out for 0-5 runs less than that target,” writes Brian Withington. “Nothing else can preserve this narrative imperative, although you might be surprised how long I spent deciding to include 0 in the ‘range of inevitability’ above …”

Why is everyone asking for permission all of a sudden? Did I miss a Blackadder marathon last night?

“My hypothesis for the shabby catching relates to Bazball’s optional practice,” says Gary Naylor. “That’s intended to promote its relaxed environment and we see the benefit every Test. But catching is about concentration and reflexes, which diminish when tired. That’s when the practice and muscle-memory needs to take over – train hard, play easy. England are paying a high price for some substandard work in the field.”

Do we know they don’t practice as much as other teams or is that just part of their PR? The greatest trick the devil ever pulled is convincing the world he couldn’t care less.

This is the eighth time in nine innings that Crawley and Duckett have added at least 30 for the first wicket. They aren’t quite the new Greenidge and Haynes, but they are England’s best opening partnership for a decade.

Tea: England trail by 414 runs

5th over: England 25-0 (Crawley 5, Duckett 14) For the time being Duckett looks far more comfortable against Bumrah. He slashes four to third man, a deliberate stroke, and larrups another boundary through extra cover. Shot!

“Great to wake to a mention of Wilfred Rhodes,” says Pete Salmon. “I always think of him as the Mornington Crescent of cricket. All questions resolved by shouting his name. Only AC Bannerman and Gilbert Jessop run him close, I think. Any others?”

I don’t know why but this concept – and especially the phrase “All questions resolved by shouting his name” – is going to tickle me for days.

4th over: England 16-0 (Crawley 4, Duckett 6) Siraj is bowling beautifully. Duckett is beaten three times – twice playing attacking shots, once pushing defensively – during an excellent maiden. Siraj is so dangerous when he gets on a roll, a bit like Stuart Broad, so the last thing England want to do is give him an early wicket.

“While I encourage your steadfastness in staying away from X,” writes Krishnamoorthy V, “the only downside is you are missing this glorious handle.

“I would like to know what the Iceland cricket admin is smoking.”

Maybe they’re in the Night Country as well.

3rd over: England 16-0 (Crawley 4, Duckett 6) Having middled sweet bugger all in the previous over from Siraj, Duckett times his first ball from Bumrah through the covers for four. That’s such a good shot. In fact it’s almost as good as the statistic with which TNT Sports have just enriched out lives. In this series Crawley and Duckett average 71 against Bumrah; the rest of the England squad have a combined average of 6. S-I-X. Facing the new ball helps, but there’s a lot more to it than that.

Bumrah attempts to address that disparity with a good delivery that pops to beat Duckett’s forcing shot.

“Permission to make a sweeping statement based on a tiny sample size?” says Felix Wood. “Stokes’ constant changing of the field to find the edge is meaning England’s fielders aren’t getting into the zone of each ball. All the drops this innings have been from fielders not being quiiiite ready or in Root’s case coming up too soon. Now I see it written down that looks like nonsense. Still, as Boycott would say, you cant afford to have to take 15 wickets per innings in India, and this really feels like an opportunity missed for England.”

Permission granted. But how do we explain the previous 20 Tests? They just had a bad day and a half I think.

2nd over: England 11-0 (Crawley 4, Duckett 1) Ben Duckett makes a nervous start against Mohammed Siraj. He’s beaten outside off stump and gets a leading edge that rolls into the off side for a single. Crawley addresses Siraj more confidently with another crisp drive for two, this time between extra cover and mid-off.

A terrific over from Siraj concludes with two nipbackers that hit Crawley on the pad. The first was missing leg, the second was too high.

1st over: England 8-0 (Crawley 2, Duckett 0) Bumrah starts the innings with a no-ball. His one imperfection for the innings out of the way, he settles into the usual groove. Crawley – who has played him better than any other England player – drives crisply for two before leaving a ball that only just misses off stump.

It was a good leave, but for a split-second his heart will have been in his chest, where it always is, but beating faster than usual.

“In answer to Brian Withington (103rd over),” writes Finbar Anslow, “I’ll see his Moeen Ali and raise him a Tony Greig (but you have to admit that English spinning allrounders are a bit thin on the ground).”

Wilfred Rhodes would be in the conversation: batted everywhere from No1-11 and took 15 wickets (I think) to beat Australia in 1903-04.

Here come the Indian players, with Mohammed Siraj is among their number. But first for England’s openers, it’s another trial by Bumrah. They will start their innings on 5-0 after India were penalised for practising their moonwalk on a good length.