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England lay foundation for victory charge against India / Photo: © AFP
England lay foundation for victory charge against India
Openers Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett held firm with an unbroken century stand against a Jasprit Bumrah-led attack to give England hope of a remarkable last-day win in the first Test against India on Tuesday.
England were 117-0 at lunch at Headingley on Tuesday, needing a further 254 runs to reach a target of 371, with Crawley 42 not out and Duckett unbeaten on 64.
The closest India came to separating the pair was just before the interval when Bumrah, in his second spell, dropped an exceptionally tough low, left-handed caught and bowled chance from Crawley's drive.
If England achieve their target, it will be just behind their record fourth-innings chase of 378 against India at Edgbaston three years ago.
And it would be the second-highest chase in a Test at Headingley, surpassing their 362-9 against Australia in 2019 when current captain Ben Stokes' unbeaten century secured a stunning one-wicket Ashes win.
England resumed on 21-0 -- needing exactly 350 more runs to go 1-0 up in this five-match series.
Crawley (12 not out) and Duckett (nine not out) were confronted with the daunting task of facing Bumrah, the world's top-ranked Test bowler and fresh from a five-wicket haul in the first innings, in overcast conditions.
It was not long before Bumrah got a ball to jag sharply past the outside edge of Duckett's bat.
But India squandered a review when Mohammed Siraj tried to overturn an lbw verdict in favour of Crawley, on 21, when replays indicated the ball would have missed leg stump.
The openers managed just 42 runs in Tuesday's first 12 overs -- a relatively sedate run-rate in England's aggressive 'Bazball' era.
But they denied India a breakthrough in a session where they scored 96 runs in 24 overs.
England cashed in on the other members of the India attack as left-hander Duckett drove and pulled Prasidh Krishna for two boundaries on his way to a 66-ball fifty including eight fours.
India's Rishabh Pant had become only the second wicketkeeper to score two hundreds in a Test when he made 118 on Sunday to follow his first-innings 134.
But, despite five individual centuries in this match, India would have been in an even stronger position had they not suffered collapses of 7-41 and 6-31 at the back end of each innings.
G. Pires--JDB
