England opener Ben Duckett has slammed a century on Day 2 of the second Test match in Multan to help the visitors put up a solid fightback. The left-handed batter slammed a 120-ball century to continue his impressive form in red-ball cricket. The other English batters found it tough on the pitch used in the first test, but Duckett stuck with his fearless batting approach and counter-attacked the Pakistan bowlers to slam his fourth test ton.
The 30-year-old also became the fastest to complete 2000 runs in Test cricket in terms of balls taken, achieving the feat in 2.293 balls. He pipped former New Zealand skipper Tim Southee (2,418 balls) to get to the top of the tally.
Fastest to 2000 runs in Tests
2293 balls – Ben Duckett
2418 balls – Tim Southee
2483 balls – Adam Gilchrist
2759 balls – Virender Sehwag
2797 balls – Rishabh Pant
Duckett’s 114 off 129 balls looked to have kept England in the driver’s seat before it lost four late wickets in a sensational collapse against spinners Sajid Khan (4-86) and Noman Ali (2-75).
The left-handed opener smashed 16 boundaries to help England post a respectable 239/6. At one stage, England was cruising towards a big total with 211/2, but Sajid spun the web to turn the table. He got the better of Joe Root (34), Duckett (114) and Harry Brook (nine) in the final session to give Pakistan an edge over the visitors.
Duckett talked about his ferocious knock after the day’s play and said his approach is to put the bowler under the pressure especially the spinners who plays the sweep shots quite comfortably.
“Batting against spin, I like to think it’s a strength of mine. Batting against the new ball here can be a fraction easier at times. Obviously back opening with Zak was nice. (On his sweep shots) It’s a strength I like to go to. When you first walk out to bat, there’s a lot of men around the bat, my theory is to try and get rid of them and look to put the bowler under pressure as well. I didn’t hit all of them, but tried to get the field out and tried to make life easier for myself,” Duckett said.
Earlier, Pakistan’s tail had frustrated England by adding 107 runs after resuming at 259-5, with Jamal and Noman adding an invaluable 49 runs for the ninth wicket.
But from 358-8 at lunch, Jamal was dismissed off the very first ball after the interval, bowled by Brydon Carse, who finished with 3-50.
Spinner Jack Leach ended Noman’s 32-run knock by having him caught in the deep by Carse to finish with 4-114.
