After the innings of his life, Ben Duckett left it to others to sing his praises and maybe understandably so. The opener was unbeaten in a single day, a rapid-fire 133 runs on the second day of the third Test ending with the promise of extra to come back.
Instead it was over to Ravichandran Ashwin and Mark Wood to appraise the innings, the previous having dominated Duckett again in 2016 – a brutal first style of Test cricket – solely to take a seat among the many spinners taken down on the day. England had responded to India’s 445 all out by racing to 207 for 2 in simply 35 overs.
“Ben Duckett is a phenomenal talent so credit to him, he’s made a wonderful hundred today,” Ashwin stated after stumps, his five hundredth Test wicket secured. “I wanted to clap, but the hardcore competitor in me didn’t allow me to. But I’m very happy for him. A couple of the shots he hit, especially the slog sweeps, were really special.”
Wood was merely “over the moon” to have his ft up after figures of 4 for 114 in England’s earlier toil. Not that his teammates greater up the order are more likely to supply an excessive amount of respite, their blistering method unlikely to be throttled again.
“To be that far behind in the game and go out and play like that showed real bravery and skill,” stated Wood, glowing about Duckett’s counterattack.
“The way India changed the field and then he’d hit it somewhere else, it was just such a skilful innings against a good attack. He’s a nightmare to bowl at in the nets – we try to get him to leave the ball but he never leaves any.
“It’s been hot, he’s spent all that time in the field [130.4 overs]. He had that capability to then go out there and play with the freedom and clarity of mind, to play those shots and pick the right ball and still be there at the end.
“Maybe he hasn’t gotten the accolades that he would like with big scores but this was his day and it was amazing to watch, especially as a bowler that’s just bowled plenty of overs.”
While Duckett had loved his greatest day so far as a Test cricketer, his previous rival had locked down immortality; Ashwin, who eliminated Zak Crawley throughout a frenetic remaining session of 176 runs and two wickets, turned the ninth bowler to succeed in 500 Test victims and the second for his nation after Anil Kumble.
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“I’d be lying if I said 500 doesn’t mean anything. It probably does. At the moment, it hasn’t sunk in,” stated the 37-year-old, earlier than explaining how the pandemic modified his perspective. “It gave me a really good reflection of where I stood in life, what I wanted to play for. This game is all I love and I think I had lost some of that love before that and I managed to rediscover it.”
Ashwin was the centre of one other speaking level on the day, changing into the second Indian participant formally warned for operating down the pitch throughout his innings of 37 – a breach of the legal guidelines – and incurring the lesser-spotted 5 run penalty from the umpires Joel Wilson and Kumar Dharmasena.
He added: “They clearly warned some of our batters yesterday for running on the pitch. I was aware of it, but my poor motor skills didn’t allow me to get off the pitch in time. If the English media and players think it was on purpose, it wasn’t. If that’s how they want to treat it, so be it. I don’t think that pitch is breaking up.”
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