England secure miraculous win over India in first test after Ben Duckett heroics

Of all England’s outrageous wins in the Bazball era, this was arguably the finest. In a distant penal colony, they were sniggering and carping when Ben Stokes put India into bat and they were 430-3 after 101 overs.

But after Ben Duckett played the innings of his life, and England eased home by five wickets with 14 overs to spare in the first Rothesay Test, it’s all gone quiet Down Under. The Aussies aren’t laughing any more.

If 1981 was the miracle of Botham’s Ashes and 2019 was the year Stokes was kissed by greatness, the Headingley classic of 2025 will go down as one of Test cricket’s greatest counter-punching wins.

Can we play here every week? England have unfurled some memorable victories in Leeds down the years, but Duckett’s glorious onslaught made a mountainous target of 371 look like a couple of flights of stairs.

And when Jamie Smith clubbed the winning six at 6.28pm, to put England 1-0 up in the series with a final flourish of splendid violence, it crowned a magnificent feast.

READ MORE: Jofra Archer faces disciplinary action from the ECB ahead of England return

READ MORE: India cricket star Rishabh Pant discovers punishment for incident during England Test

If Stokes feared the distant chase against world No.1-ranked Test bowler Jasprit Bumrah would be a minor miracle too far, he needn’t have worried. Squeaky Bumrah time never materialised and Duckett took over.

India somehow became the first side to lose a Test after scoring five centuries, and only one other (Australia against England in Melbourne back in 1928-29) had lost after making four hundreds.

Gloomy weather, with floodlights on full beam and pulses of drizzle sweeping across the ground, often made batting more difficult than at any time in the match.

But for 42 overs, England’s pursuit of their second-highest successful run chase in history was more plain sailing than a rubber duck in the bath.

Duckett and Zak Crawley’s 188-run stand wiped out more than half the target in England’s second-largest opening partnership in the fourth innings behind Mike Atherton and Graham Gooch’s 203 in Adelaide 34 years ago.

This century, the previous England openers to make Test centuries in the final instalment of a four-act drama - Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook - ended up with knighthoods.

Duckett and Crawley may have to bring an antique urn home from Australia next winter to get a tap on the shoulder with a ceremonial sword, but they provided a thrilling launch-pad for the chase.

Probably the best all-format opener in world cricket today, Duckett followed his 140 against Zimbabwe last month with the crown jewel of his six Test tons. His duel in the gloom with Mohammed Siraj was compulsive viewing just for the chat show alone.

Siraj was more wound up than a grandfather clock when Duckett, on 97, took on the short ball and Yashasvi Jaiswal grassed his third expensive chance of the match at deep square leg.

Moments later, England’s pocket rocket reached three figures off 121 balls and Duckett imperiously reverse-swept Jadeja for six before he drove Shardul Thakur uppishly to extra cover after smearing 21 other boundaries in a masterful 149.

His ton was the seventh of the match - only the second occasion in history to feature so many raised bats in a single Test. Len Hutton, Denis Compton and Don Bradman were among the centurions in an Ashes feast at Trent Bridge in 1938.

When Harry Brook followed his 99 on Sunday with a golden duck, and Stokes joined Mike Gatting into the doghouse of England captains perishing to an unnecessary reverse sweep, England still needed 69 to take the chequered flag.

But Joe Root’s 84-ball half-century and Smith’s sensible aggression took them home with few alarms.

Headingley loves Bazball, Stokes’ laughing cavaliers love playing at Leeds… and five months before a career-defining Ashes crusade, England’s countdown is off to a perfect start.

Nah then, cobbers - what did you make of that?