by Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett showed an unbroken 117 to drive England’s hopes of 371 and draw the first blood in the Rothesay series in Headingley.
Josh Tongue swore, England would go to victory on the fifth day, from which India’s KL Rahul had predicted that it would be a “blockbuster”, but initially it was a slow burner on a cloudy morning in Leeds.
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However, after a winding first session in which India has difficulty creating, England became a lot to create, and Duckett did not perform at 64 and Crawley, who were beaten on 42.
They avoid the risk of expanding 96 on Tuesday morning to their total, largely by Change Bowlers Prasidh Krishna and Shardul Thakur after a more vigilant approach to Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj.
All eyes were aimed at Bumrah under cloudy and stormy conditions. In England’s first innings he was irresistible with the new ball, and while Duckett carved him away early, Bumrah followed a Jaffa that demanded tempting on the edge of the left -hander.
Crawley and ducket were able to negotiate Bumrah’s four-over burst without many other alarms. When Krishna arrived, Ducket struck the slips, was on the way and then cut more significantly.
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Crawley followed a cautious approach, but after having slapped Krishna through the ceiling a few times, he mediated a train shot that landed safely in Deep Midwicket.
Duckett passed from India on his half century and moved for a large part of the session for a rallies and received a request a quarter of an hour before the break. The switch went without reward, although the returning Bumrah fell a hard return to excite Crawley to 42 at lunch.
