Thrilling Duckett century leads England counter

England 207 for 2 (Duckett 133*) trail India 445 (Rohit 131, Jadeja 112, Sarfaraz 62) by 238 runs

Rajkot: Ben Duckett's scintillating century led a breathtaking England counter-attack on the second day of the third Test against India in Rajkot.

The opener crashed his third Test hundred from only 88 balls in a swashbuckling assault on the India bowling in the evening sun.

Duckett added 84 from 80 balls with Zak Crawley for the first wicket then another 93 off 102 with Ollie Pope.

He was unbeaten on 133 from 118 balls at the close, with 21 fours and two sixes. Duckett had taken England to 207-2 from only 35 overs, 238 behind India's 445.

England started the day by removing nightwatchman Kuldeep Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja, finally out for 112, inside the first five overs, but were then frustrated by a partnership of 79 between debutant Dhruv Jurel and Ravichandran Ashwin.

It was the beginning of an eventful day for Ashwin, who was the culprit when India were penalised five runs for running on the pitch and then removed Crawley to become the ninth bowler to reach 500 Test wickets.

Even after getting through Ashwin and Jurel, England were frustrated by a last-wicket stand of 30 between Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammad Siraj.

Then came the Duckett pyrotechnics, another thrilling chapter in a superb series tantalisingly poised at 1-1.