LEEDS: A century by Ben Duckett lifted England to a stunning five-wicket victory against India on Day 5 of the Headingley Test in Leeds on Tuesday.
Chasing 371, England finished at 373/5 with Joe Root unbeaten on 53 and Jamie Smith not out on 44. The duo put on an unbroken 71 for the sixth wicket after England were in a spot of bother at 302/5.
It was England's second-highest successful run chase in Test history.
Earlier, Duckett's ton put England 101 runs from victory India when tea was reached at 269-4.
Duckett made 149 off 170 balls having hit 21 boundaries and an audacious reverse-swept six off spinner Ravindra Jadeja.
Duckett and fellow opener Zak Crawley laid a brilliant platform of 188 — more than half of England’s required chase — but were among the four wickets to fall in the afternoon that kept India hopeful.
In the middle were Joe Root on 14 and captain Ben Stokes on 13.
After a perfect morning for England, in which Duckett and Crawley took the score to 117-0, Duckett finally looked vulnerable after lunch, which started in drizzle.
He edged Mohammed Siraj on 82 through a vacant first slip, and was dropped on 97 by a diving Yashasvi Jaiswal, angering Siraj. That was Jaiswal's third drop of the match.
Soon after, Duckett reverse-swept Jadeja, his 14th boundary raising his hundred off 121 balls. He jumped and punched the air to celebrate his sixth test hundred and second against India.
Then a 20-minute rain delay, with the score at 181-0, seemed to break the openers' concentration because Crawley was out five minutes later.
Crawley was happy to let Duckett be the aggressor, and scored his slowest test fifty. When Crawley was out for 65 off 126 balls, he and Duckett had achieved the fifth highest opening stand in the fourth innings in test history, and dropped the odds in England's favor.
India pacer Prasidh Krishna, who had been going for six an over, was the unlikely wicket-taker. Then Krishna got a second 11 minutes later when he bowled Ollie Pope on 8 with a delivery that jagged back in.
Scoring freely, Duckett became the England opener with the second highest score in the fourth innings after Mike Atherton in 1995, and crowned it with the six over cover point off Jadeja. India wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant acknowledged it was audacious by tapping Duckett's arm.
Then he was out, surprisingly to Shardul Thakur to a catch in the covers.
Thakur then got two in two when Harry Brook tickled the first delivery he faced down leg straight to Pant.
Another shower forced an early tea with England still in charge, and no more weather expected to save India.