Ben Duckett’s audacious innings (133 not out) kept England in the hunt in the third Test in Rajkot. At close of play on Day 2, the visitors were 207 for 2, trailing India by 238 runs.
In the final session, it was all about Duckett. The southpaw swept, reverse-swept and employed the occasional switch-hit to leave the Indian spinners searching for answers. Right after tea break, Duckett swept and reverse-swept Kuldeep Yadav a couple of times into the boundary hoardings. And that was followed by an exhibition of sweeps and reverse sweeps. There were so many of them that it was hard to pick which was the highlight of all those cross-batted strokes.
The England opener also took on Mohammed Siraj by thwacking him for three boundaries in an over. Ultimately, Ravichandran Ashwin was introduced into the attack and he immediately made a breakthrough by dismissing Zak Crawley. That also turned out to be Ashwin’s 500th Test wicket as he became only the second Indian to reach the landmark after Anil Kumble, who was incidentally in the commentary box when the former reached the coveted milestone.
Ollie Pope, who replaced Crawley at the crease, also played with a sense of freedom. However, the last two hours belonged to Duckett. As he neared the century mark, he started to expand his game, bringing out the punch and drive. In the 26th over, Duckett scored his first Test ton in India by smacking Siraj through mid-on for a boundary. It was a redemption of sorts for the left-hand batter, as he had failed in India in 2016. And he was soon dropped from the national side. He also had to shift over to Nottinghamshire from Northants.
Late in the day, India did make a breakthrough, with Siraj getting an LBW decision overturned in his favour against Pope. Duckett and Joe Root then took England to stumps.
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In the first two sessions, India piled on the runs, with Dhruv Jurel (46) and Ashwin (37) making decent contributions. Jurel, on his Test debut, looked quite compact against the pace-bowling duo of James Anderson and Mark Wood. He also seemed reasonably confident while playing the spinners. Although he was dropped twice during his stay.
Lower down the order, Jasprit Bumrah also added some useful runs before India were bowled out for 445. Meanwhile, England would rue all those missed opportunities. Wood was their best bowler on show, bagging four wickets on what is largely a very good pitch for batting. The track is offering a bit of turn and also keeping a tad low. But as it is a very slow deck, the batters are able to adjust for any kind of turn and defend. The bowlers would have to wait for the cracks to open up further to have a big say.
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