After five days of toil and a fair bit of angst about the call to bowl first, England emerged victorious, reeling in a target of 371 runs in the final hour of the match to beat India by five wickets. Headingley had another entry into its annals of absurdity, as had this remarkably spirited England team led by Ben Stokes.
There were a few nerves and setbacks on an epic final day, moments when this new-look India team summoned up the tamasha and squeezed. But at 6.28pm, as Jamie Smith launched Ravindra Jadeja into the stands, a chase underpinned by Ben Duckett’s sublime 149 was wrapped up to claim a 1-0 lead with four to play.
Among the biggest surprises was that Jasprit Bumrah went wicketless in the fourth innings as England – and a pitch that held firm to the end – successfully repelled India’s champion bowler. Smith applied the coup de grâce to finish on 44 not out, while the ever-unflappable Joe Root was out there with him on a classy 53.
But this seismic chase – the second-highest in England’s history after knocking off 378 against India at Edgbaston three years ago – was broken open by an assertive 188-run opening stand between Duckett and Zak Crawley, 65. For Shubman Gill, in his first Test as India captain, every boundary they slotted was a gut punch.
This match was also history, but not the kind Gill would have wanted. His side became the first to register five centuries in a Test and go on to lose, with Don Bradman’s Australia, in 1928, the only team to do so after four. Central to this were lower order collapses of seven for 41 and six for 31 – both induced by Josh Tongue – as well as a number of dropped catches.
For Stokes, on the ground where his legend was cemented during the 2019 Ashes, it represented vindication for that much-debated decision at the toss. As well as his 21st win, this was the sixth time since he and Brendon McCullum came together that a target of 250-plus runs was iced (MS Dhoni’s India is the next best on four).
The mentality shift the past three years has been quite something and if Jonny Bairstow was the original spirit animal of Bazball then Duckett has slipped into the role since. This was summed up in Rajkot last year when the opener was asked what kind of target England could realistically chase down and he replied: “The more the better.”
It was said with a twinkle in his eye – something inevitably lost in the swirl of social media memes that resulted – and a target of 557 proved, ahem, a mere 434 runs too many. As with every joke, there was a kernel of truth to be found within: Duckett has an innate up-and-at-’em attitude that is in sync with the project overall.
Aged 30, Duckett is also a far more seasoned, intelligent cricketer than some of those memes would have it. When he and Crawley set about laying the foundations with England’s highest opening stand in a winning chase, it was not an explosion of boundaries from the outset, rather a conscious decision to see off the threat of Bumrah and the spikiness of Mohammed Siraj and then target the relief bowlers.
There was a running duel with the ever-combustible Siraj along the way and plenty for Gill to ponder. Bumrah’s overs were always going to have to be managed shrewdly, while striking a balance between attack and defence was a challenge. Once again the left-right, short-tall pairing of Duckett and Crawley was messing with lines and lengths.
Duckett’s smarts were borne out by the numbers: his first 51 balls brought 25 runs followed by 77 from his next 70 as a reverse-swept four off Jadeja sealed his sixth Test century and unquestionably his finest.
The pick of the shots? That came on 137 when, with Jadeja bowling to a 6-3 field, he repeated the dose but this time sent the ball soaring into the crowd. Needless to say he was named player of the match.
India had their chance to snuff out Duckett sooner and not for the first time it was Yashasvi Jaiswal who let it slip through his fingers. A top-edged pull on 97 had evaded a running dive off the rope with Siraj, the bowler denied by the fumble, shooting India’s wunderkind the kind of glance that could curdle milk.
There were always likely to be spells where India would induce some panic and folks expected Bumrah to be the one to pull the trigger. Instead, it was the less-heralded Prasidh Krishna who shut down Crawley’s handsome innings mid-afternoon and then jackknifed Ollie Pope with an inswinger that cannoned on to the stumps.
From 206 for two, England responded with a flurry of 47 runs to get the home support up once more, only for Gill to turn to the previously anonymous Shardul Thakur and see him whistle up two in two balls. Duckett slapped one to cover, while Harry Brook – he of the three-lived 99 in England’s first innings – was strangled down leg first ball. With Stokes soon in a tangle, it needed rain and tea to settle things down.
That tangle did not improve after the resumption, Stokes untrusting of his defence to balls that started spitting out of the rough from Jadeja. The England captain did manage to nail four boundaries for 33 runs – the bulk of a 49-run stand with Root – before a reverse sweep off the left‑armer ballooned to slip. With 69 required, England five wickets down, India sensed their chance to pounce.
Staring them down was Root, however, who, along with Smith, saw things home in style. There were some crisp strokes before fireworks at the end when Smith finally took a shine to Jadeja. But this was an impressively calculated chase and pre-match orders from Stokes to get smarter had clearly registered.
