Mohammed Siraj was furious with Yashasvi Jaiswal after the latter dropped Ben Duckett on the fifth delivery of the 39th over in the fourth innings of the first Test of the ongoing series between England and India. This occurred when Duckett was on 97. With this, Jaiswal set an unfavourable record for dropping the joint-most number of catches by an Indian in Tests in known data.
Siraj delivered a well-directed short ball to the left-handed batter.
Duckett lost control of the pull shot and ended up with a hefty top edge. Jaiswal took a little longer than expected to get off the blocks from the deep backwards square-leg, and although diving forward with both hands, he missed the grab. Siraj expressed his frustration. Gautam Gambhir sat pensively in the dugout with a stoic expression on his face.
Duckett capitalised on the opportunity and reached his tonne in the very next over. He hit a reverse sweep off Ravindra Jadeja’s bowling. The ball dashed across the line. Duckett showed how happy he was by punching the air and removing his helmet to soak up the adulation from the spectators at Headingley.
Duckett’s magnificent score was also the first century by an English opener in the fourth innings of a Test since Alastair Cook’s unbroken 109 against Bangladesh in 2010. This was his 14th boundary of the innings. At that point, he had scored 102 of England’s 176 goals. India appeared to be at a loss for what strategy to employ against the first pair.
Five balls into the 41st over of the innings, the umpires had had enough because of the heavy drizzle and opted to suspend play. The players made their way out of the field. However, it was just a 12-minute interruption. At the end of 41 overs, England were 181/0 with Duckett going strong in the middle while being partnered by Zak Crawley.
