Duckett-Crawley slams most 50+ partnerships as opening pair against India in Test

LONDON: England openers Zak Crawley-Ben Duckett continue their brilliance against India as the duo now has the most 50+ (8) partnerships for an opening pair against the Men in Blue in Tests.

They achieved this feat in their outing in the fifth and final match of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy against India on Friday at the Oval.

Duckett and Crawley in 18 innings have added 984 runs as opening pair against India the most runs by an England openers, against the Men in Blue surpassing 932 runs in 20 innings added by Alastair Cook and Andrew Strauss.

Duckett is the second highest run scorer for England in the ongoing Test series against India, he has slammed 408 in 8 innings at an average of 51.00 with two fifties and a hundred under his belt.

On the other hand, Crawley has got starts in the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy but has not converted them into big scores; he has managed to make 264 runs in eight innings at an average of 37.71 with three fifties under his name.

Coming to the match, a five-wicket haul by pacer Gus Atkinson and a quickfire 92-run opening stand by Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley pushed India to the back foot during the first session of the second day of the fifth Test against England at The Oval on Friday.

At the end of the session’s play, England was 109/1, with Crawley (52*) and Ollie Pope (12*) unbeaten. They trail by 115 runs. India kick-started day two at 204/6, with Karun Nair (52*) and Washington Sundar (19*) unbeaten.

The duo started the day on a positive note, with Nair and Sundar getting a boundary each against Josh Tongue in the first over of the day.

Nair did survive a leg-before-wicket against Atkinson, but Josh Tongue got him lbw for 57 in 109 balls, with eight fours. Tongue sprayed it down the leg side and well outside off, but the ball nipped back in sharply and beat the inside edge of Nair’s bat to crash into his back pad knee roll. India was 218/7, with the 55-run partnership over between the duo.

Sundar also holed it to the deep square leg in the hands of Jamie Overton, with Tongue getting his wicket for 26 in 55 balls, with three fours. India was 220/8.

Mohammed Siraj and Prasidh Krishna were done away with by Atkinson, who got his five-wicket haul. India was bundled out for 224 runs in 69.4 overs.

Atkinson (5/33) and Tongue (3/57) were destructive with the ball for England, never letting India settle with a massive partnership.

Brief Scores: England: 109/1 (Zak Crawley 52*, Ben Duckett 43, Akash Deep 1/46) vs India. (ANI)