England owned the first session on day 5 of the first Test at Headingley leaving the Indian bowlers frustrated. By the end of the first session, they are well and truly in the driver's seat.
Zak Crawley (42 runs off 93 balls) and Ben Duckett (64 runs off 89 balls) resumed their innings on 21 runs on day five and by the time the session ended had put up 117 runs on the board.
The duo were not bothered by any of the Indian bowlers including Jasprit Bumrah as they added 86 runs in the session and 45 runs in the last two overs. It was a chanceless innings from the openers who played the ball on merit.
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Ben Duckett Scores His 15th Test Fifty
Ben Duckett went past his 15th Test fifty and played a few attacking shots after he was well set. Crawley, after getting out cheaply in the first innings has digged deep.
Barring Jasprit Bumrah, the rest of the Indian bowlers have looked ordinary so far on day 5 when they needed to step up and help the lead bowler. Shardul Thakur bowled just three overs in the first session and just nine in the match so far. Prasish Krishna has tried his best to be consistent but has not been able to deliver his best balls on a regular basis. Ravindra Jadeja has been largely ineffective in the manner that he has bowled so far.
With the first session being wicketless, the pressure will be on the Indian bowlers to make things happen quickly at the start of the second session. There are still talks about India's poor slip-catching and whether it make an impact in the second innings too. Talks also has been about India's batting collapses in both the innings which is why many feel England are chasing at least 100 runs less than what they should have in the second innings.
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England Need 254 Runs, India Need 10 Wickets
At the start of the second session, England still need another 254 runs from 66 overs remaining. India need to strike early in the second session to get some momentum back into their camp and make England think a little. The second session will very much determine which side will win the contest.
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