Duckett, Crawley put England in strong position against Pakistan

Centuries by openers Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley have put England in a strong position against Pakistan during the first day of the Test match in Rawalpindi on Thursday.

At tea on day one, England were 332-3 after resuming on 174-0. 

The 28-year-old left-hander pulled Pakistan paceman Haris Rauf for a boundary to reach the three-figure mark, but was out for 107 a few balls later off spinner Zahid Mahmood.

The milestone for Duckett came in his first Test in six years, after he debuted against Bangladesh in 2016 but was discarded after scoring just 110 runs in four matches.

Crawley (122), Duckett (107) and Joe Root (23) were dismissed in the space of 53 runs in the second session, with debutant leg-spinner Zahid Mahmood taking 2-127.

Earlier, 24-year-old Crawley drove Pakistan pacer Naseem Shah to the cover boundary to reach his third Test century in his 29th match, but not before overturning a leg-before decision via review.

The lanky 1.96-metre (six-foot-five) batsman showed his intent right from the start of the match, hitting three boundaries off Naseem´s first over of the day, and bringing up his half-century with another one off spinner Zahid Mahmood.

He narrowly missed the chance to become the first England batter to score a century before lunch, falling nine short.

Seven England batsmen, including current captain Ben Stokes, have scored a century before lunch in a Test — but none on the first day.

Crawley was eventually dismissed as he was cleaned up by Rauf, who claimed his first wicket on debut. The right-hander scored 122 runs in 111 balls.

England´s robust batting was the ideal start to the Test — their first in Pakistan in 17 years — after it hung in the balance Wednesday when several visiting players came down with a mystery virus.

The story includes input from AFP.