Ben Duckett, England’s left-handed top-order batsman, praised both his team and India’s hard-fought performance in the first Test of the upcoming five-match series. He also emphasised the importance of getting through Jasprit Bumrah’s first new-ball spell in the fourth innings as they chased 371 runs.

Duckett’s 149-run outing in the fourth innings secured the victory. England eventually won the match by five wickets in the final session of the final day.

“Just a great game to be a part of; I felt India were fantastic, and to go into Day 5 and end like we did here is simply incredible. First and foremost, just getting through that period was critical, and we’d probably get the total, as is customary. So, we didn’t overthink anything, just got through Jasprit Bumrah first period with that new ball and then just played our natural games,” Duckett said while accepting his Player of the Match award.

Massive credit to our bowling team. Ben Duckett

Duckett praised England’s bowling attack for removing the tail with minimum damage to the scoreboard in both innings.

“Yeah, we were really behind the eight ball at points, India performed wonderfully well on Day 1 and there were certain periods in the game, and I give huge respect to our bowling side for getting the tail out swiftly in both innings. If we don’t do that, you could add 50-60 runs to that chase, and the game would change dramatically. So, both teams performed admirably, and it was a fantastic final day,” he said.

India took the lead in the first innings. However, they performed poorly in terms of their bottom six batters. They only scored 65 runs in total over two innings. This, combined with a number of mistakes in the field, contributed to their ultimate failure.