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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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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.<\/p>\n
If England achieve their target, it will be just behind their record fourth-innings chase of 378 against India at Edgbaston three years ago.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
England resumed on 21-0 — needing exactly 350 more runs to go 1-0 up in this five-match series.<\/p>\n
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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.<\/p>\n
It was not long before Bumrah got a ball to jag sharply past the outside edge of Duckett’s bat.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
The openers managed just 42 runs in Tuesday’s first 12 overs — a relatively sedate run-rate in England’s aggressive ‘Bazball’ era.<\/p>\n
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But they denied India a breakthrough in a session where they scored 96 runs in 24 overs.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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