LONDON: ON a challenging Oval surface having enough assistance for the pacers, batting was never going to be easy. India witnessed it first hand when they were invited to bat by England skipper Ollie Pope on Thursday. Day 1 was difficult and two rain breaks only added to the batters' woes but Friday gave them some respite with sun replacing the clouds.
But with grass on the surface and the ball moving in the air, batting still was a task. Josh Tongue's delivery, which nipped back in to trap half-centurion Karun Nair in front of the stumps, highlighted the challenge batters were facing. Unfortunately, India could not make the most of the slightly better batting conditions and were folded out for 224 in the morning session.
If not fully, Shubman Gill and Co were expecting at least some help from the strip when they came out to bowl. And they were not wrong. It helped England bowlers, who at times were spraying all around, when they were batting. England openers Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett, however, had some other plans. They came out all guns blazing, derailing India's bowling attack. India had no reply to their ruthlessness as they plundered runs much to the dismay of Indian pacers and took the game away from them.
Crawley attacked Mohammed Siraj and Co playing proper cricketing shots, Duckett's approach was entirely different. The latter reverse pulled Akash Deep for a six and then scooped Siraj for another maximum. They also seemed to have zeroed down on a specific bowler to launch an attack. Crawley was harsh on Siraj while Duckett took on Akash Deep forcing the India captain to change the ends to begin with.
The first six overs, except the second one bowled by Akash Deep, saw at least one boundary being hit by the English openers. The home team reached 40 in six overs and by the end of the 10th over, they were 71 for no loss. Gill replaced Akash Deep with Prasidh Krishna and brought the Bengal pacer from other end but all went in vain as the English duo could not be reined in.
The left-hand opener might have departed for 43 off just 38 balls but by then he along with Crawley had taken England to 92, only 132 runs shy of India's first innings total, in just 77 balls. Crawley continued in the same vein till Prasidh dismissed him after lunch. His knock of 57-ball 64, which included 14 fours, once again gave England an upper hand in the contest.
Crawley and Duckett have played a key role in helping England execute their style of play - Bazball - in the longest format. They have often given a quick start to the team throwing bowlers in disarray. Their approach has been the same in the ongoing series and by executing it to almost perfection they have accumulated 539 runs from their partnership in eight innings at a strike rate of around 79 and average of approximately 67.
More than the runs they score together, it's the way they get those runs that matters. Be it their 188-run partnership off just 254 balls in the first Test at Leeds or the 166 runs they added for the opening wicket from 217 balls in Manchester during the fourth Test, it all helped their team's cause putting England in the driver's seat. The first match they won chasing an improbable target of 371 while the fourth Test ended in a draw thanks to heroics from Washington Sundar and Ravindra Jadeja.
During the 2023-25 World Test Championship cycle, the duo was placed third on the list of highest overall partnership runs. They scored 1086 runs from 33 innings in that period. Harry Brook and Joe Root were first on the list followed by Yashasvi Jaiswal and Rohit Sharma.
Their average might be on the lower side but apparently the duo has never cared for it. Given their style of play, especially Duckett, they have a liking to score runs at a quick pace. They did the same on Friday not only allowing England to wipe off the deficit in no time but also gave the team a lot of time to extend the lead to force a result in a game, which is going to be affected by weather.