England Triumphs over India by five wickets in first test

LONDON: England won the first Test in record-breaking fashion at Headingley on Tuesday, defeating India by five wickets.

The victory meant England became the first team to score five individual centuries in a first-class game against themselves — over the course of more than 60,000 matches — and still win.

Set a target of 371, England finished on 373-5 when Jamie Smith ended the match with a six while opener Ben Duckett’s 149 paved the way for a victory that gave the hosts a 1-0 lead in the five-match series.

Joe Root was not out on 53 at Yorkshire’s home ground.

India piled on 835 runs at Headingley with Rishabh Pant (134 and 118) becoming the second wicketkeeper to score centuries in both innings of the same Test.

Only three times in Test history has a team scored more runs in a match and lost. India’s collapses of 7-41 and 6-31 at the end of each innings at Leeds proved costly.

Brief scores

India 1st Innings 471 (S Gill 147, R Pant 134, Y Jaiswal 101; B Stokes 4-66, J Tongue 4-86)

England 1st Innings 465 (O Pope 106, H Brook 99; J Bumrah 5-83, P Krishna 3-128)

India 2nd Innings 364 (KL Rahul 137, R Pant 118; J Tongue 3-72, B Carse 3-80)

England 2nd Innings 373-5 (B Duckett 149, Z Crawley 65, J Root 53 no)

Result: England won by five wickets

Player-of-the-match: Ben Duckett (ENG)

Series: England lead five-match series 1-0