IND Vs ENG 1st Test: Record Chase, Duckett-Crawley Partnership & India's Lower-Order Collapses – Numbers That Stand Out

England achieved the impossible as they chased down a record target of 371 against India in the final hour on Day 5 of the series opener at Leeds on Tuesday. It was the second-highest successful chase for England in their Test history!

India, who dominated the Test for the first four days, were left stunned as their bowlers had no answers to England’s counter-attack on the final day at Headingley.

From the magnificent opening stand between Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley to Joe Root’s stubborn resistance in the fourth innings, from India’s dropped catches to their lower-order collapses in both innings, we look at the the Leeds Test.

Second-highest chase for England

England rewrote the history books mauling down 371 in the fourth innings at Leeds in just 82 overs at a rate of 4.54. It was the second-highest successful chase for England in their Test history. Incidentally, their highest also came against India at Edgbaston in 2022 when they gunned down 378 in under 77 overs with seven wickets in hand.

More similarities between Leeds, 2025 and Edgbaston, 2022 - Zak Crawley was involved in a century partnership for the opening wicket at Birmingham, just as he was at Headingley. Joe Root was defiant and remained unbeaten on 53 at Leeds. He hammered a brilliant undefeated 142 at Edgbaston.

Overall, it was the 10th highest chase for any team in Test history. Moreover the 350 runs England scored on Day 5 were the second-most in a chase on the final day of a Test behind Australia’s 404 against England, also at Leeds, in 1948.

England have now chased down 250+ targets on as many as 8 occasions since 2019 – the most for any team. No other team has achieved the feat more than twice – a direct consequence of ‘Bazball’!

England have scored at a rate of 4.63 since the New Zealand series in June 2022 – from when they officially adopted ‘Bazball’. It is the highest scoring-rate for any team in the last three years.

Next on the list is India, at a distant second position, with a run-rate of 3.59. It does not come as a surprise then, that they have dominated the longer format at home in this time-frame. England have won 16 of the 21 Tests they have played in their own backyard since that summer of 2022!

The Duckett-Crawley Partnership

Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley hammered 188 for the opening-wicket in just 42.2 overs. While Crawley was the anchor, Duckett – the aggressor smashed 106 off 130 deliveries during the stand which laid the foundation for a famous England victory. It was the fifth-highest opening-wicket stand in a 300-plus chase ever and the highest since 1995!

The Duckett-Crawley partnership have been an integral part of England’s Bazball revolution in Test cricket since the summer of 2022. No pair in the world has scored more runs between them than the England duo. They have smashed 2114 runs in 48 innings at an average of 44.97 with 4 hundred stands and 12 fifty partnerships between them since the New Zealand home tour in 2022.

Root – the fourth-innings’ hero

Joe Root played a crucial role with the bat in England’s chase on Day 5 at Headingley. He weathered the storm after England lost the wickets of Crawley and Ollie Pope in quick succession and did not panic even when Shardul Thakur got India back into the match dismissing Duckett and Harry Brook off successive deliveries in the 55th over.

Root was cool, calm and collected – qualities which have defined his batting over his celebrated Test career – and remained unbeaten on a match-winning 53. It was not a coincidence then that it was Root who was undefeated on a magnificent 142 on Day 5 at Edgbaston in England’s highest Test chase ever in 2022!

Root has a fantastic record in the fourth innings of Test matches which is a testimony as much of his technique and skills as of his temperament. He has a batting average of 52.77 in the fourth innings since 2020 – the highest amongst all batters who have scored a minimum of 400 runs in the fourth innings in this time-frame.

India’s Twin Batting Collapses

India ended on the losing side despite five hundreds in the match making the first team in history to achieve this dubious feat! India collapsed from 430/3 in the first innings to 471 all-out. They then fell like nine pins in the second innings too folding for 364 after being in a position of strength at 333 for 4. So, basically India lost 7 wickets for 41 in the first innings and their last 6 wickets for 31 runs in the second. This was a collapse of catastrophic proportions which allowed England to bounce back into the match and then take control of it.

10 Dropped Catches

India dropped a record 10 catches at Leeds – the most by them in any Test since 2011! Yashasvi Jaiswal was the culprit-in-chief and dropped as many as four catches – the costliest of which were the misses of Duckett in both innings. The dropped chances cost India dearly and was one of the major reasons for their defeat at Leeds.

Pant’s Twin Hundreds

Despite the loss, there were some big positives for India at Leeds. Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant and Shubman Gill registered fine hundreds while Jasprit Bumrah displayed his class with the ball in the first innings. Pant was the standout player for India at Headingley and created history when he became the first Indian batter to record a hundred in each innings of a Test in England. Only nine visiting batters have achieved this distinction!

Pant has now registered eight Test hundreds which places him at number 3 on the all-time wicket-keeper’s list. Only Adam Gilchrist (17) and Andy Flower (12) have more Test hundreds.

Pant is emulating and fast catching up with the most destructive wicket-keeper batter in the history of Test cricket. Adam Gilchrist batted in the lower-order for Australia and changed many a match on their head by counter-attacking and smashing the opposition bowlers to submission.

He blazed 13 hundreds against major adversaries – six of them at a rate of 100+ - from positions 6 to 8. Significantly, Australia won 10 and drew two of these 13 encounters.

Seven of Pant’s Test hundreds have come against SENA countries. He has a strike rate in the 70s for three of these tons and 80s in three others. The real outlier was 111-ball 146 against England at Edgbaston in 2022 (strike rate of 131.5).

Significantly, five of these seven hundreds came when India had their backs against the wall, losing early wickets after a top-order collapse. In 19 Tests at number five, Pant averages 59.7 with a strike rate of 81.8. Only Harry Brook has a higher scoring rate from the position (min. 1500 runs) in Test cricket!