England vs India Test 2025: Ben Duckett, Zak Crawley break a 24-year-old English record in Headingley
A fabulous opening partnership from Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley put England on course for a series lead on the final day of the opening Test against England in Headingley.
The left-hander struck his sixth Test century while his partner went past 50 as the opening stand soared to 181, before rain forced a delay during the second session of play.
Once play resumed, India were able to finally break the stand as Prasidh Krishna found the edge of Crawley's blade—taken sharply at the wide first slip by K.L. Rahul. However, the openers had provided the ideal platform for England to scale the chase.
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During the partnership, Duckett and Crawley broke a 24-year-old record set by Marcus Trescothick and Michael Atherton for the highest opening partnership for England in the fourth innings of Tests.
The previous record of 146 was set during the 2001 Old Trafford Test against Pakistan—a game that England eventually lost by a massive margin of 108 runs.
Strangely, the target for the home side in that game was very similar (370), and they were in control through the openers before losing the plot against Pakistan's potent attack.
Saqlain Mushtaq picked up four wickets while Waqar Younis and Wasim Akram shared five wickets between them, as Pakistan secured a famous Test win in England.
Coming to the Headingley Test, it's been a similar (if not better) start for England with Duckett and Crawley batting with authority. There were moments of uncertainty for both batters, occasionally against Mohammed Siraj and Jasprit Bumrah, but clear-cut chances were far and few to speak of.
Chasing a strong target of 371 to go 1-0 up in the series, England resumed the final day's play at 21/0, with another 350 more runs needed for victory.
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Given their natural attacking style of play under Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum, the hosts were not going to play for a draw. Yet, Duckett and Crawley did show patience in the initial hour of play, knowing fully well the threat of a fifth-day pitch and the challenge of a 350-plus chase.
Crawley was content in playing second fiddle as he focused on rotating strike and holding one end up.
Duckett also started similarly, but soon accelerated and kept the scorecard moving at a brisk pace. His trademark cuts and pulls were out in full display, as were the reverse sweeps to put Jadeja off his radar.
There was just a bit of help from the surface for the bowlers, but the pace off the surface was slow, allowing the batters to adapt. However, India's bowlers were also guilty of being inaccurate with their spells, often not bowling to their fields.
The rain break may have come at an opportune moment for the visitors, who had been going nowhere till then.
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Krishna, guilty of bowling too short on this pitch, got one a bit fuller and tempted Crawley into the loose drive that found the outside edge. The dismissal was symbolic of how the bowlers still had something to extract from the surface.
In the 2001 Old Trafford Test, England had slipped from 146/0 to 261 all out, in what was a sensational batting collapse.
The Headingley surface might not be as spicy, and the Indian attack as a whole is certainly not up to Pakistan's early 2000s bowling unit, but this game is not over by any means.
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