India vs England: A Duckett-list century for the ages
Thirty minutes north of Elland Road lies Headingley, a similarly atmospheric ground, home to some of the greatest English triumphs, none greater than Ben Stokes' fourth innings Houdini against Australia in 2019. Almost six years later, they have another moment to rival that Ashes win. On a stop-start, sun feeling a bit shy kind of day, the hosts managed to hold their nerve over India to take a 1-0 lead in the five-match Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy.
The hosts' usual suspect — Joe Root — took them home but it was Ben Duckett who orchestrated this run chase. Before dissecting the southpaw's century, his contribution will be vindication to the 30-year-old. At Nottinghamshire's media day just before the start of the English cricketing summer, he was asked about Jasprit Bumrah. The opener, who had faced the pace ace in India last year, was mindful of his threat but maintained that Bumrah wouldn't surprise him. That was taken out of context. Soon enough, he was forced to delete his X account because people hadn't taken kindly to his thoughts.
Forget Bumrah, none of the Indian bowlers on show surprised him. He did have a sizable dollop of luck — you need that when you are getting over 130 on the final day of a Test — in the form of close calls and several plays and misses.
But like all of the aggressive (and successful) modern openers, his methodology is dependent on compartmentalising. "Did I get beaten off the very previous ball?" Doesn't matter. "Did I misjudge the line?" No problems. "Did I get lucky?" Time to forget about it.
Unlike all of the other aggressive modern openers, he has a very compulsive need to play at everything. He has left somewhere between 1-2% of all deliveries he has faced as an opener (for context, Virender Sehwag used to leave over 10%).
Late on Monday, he left one delivery. On Tuesday, he didn't leave. When he finally left, he had 149 from 170 (21x4, 1x6). From start to finish, he batted like someone who believed he was going to win this Test for his side.
It included a phase in the first session where both Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj were constantly testing the outside edge of Duckett in overcast conditions.
So, one of Bazball's primary operators decided to play the situation. Off Bumrah, he scored 5 off (one boundary, one single, 19 dots and two maidens) 21. The pacer beat him on a number of occasions but he didn't let it get to his head. You could also say that Bumrah didn't surprise him. It was just two athletes giving it their all.
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