Watch: Pakistan broke England’s record-breaking opening stand in somewhat strange fashion, Ben Duckett being given out lbw despite being hit on the armpit.
The diminutive opener crouched to play one of his favoured sweep shots, but missed and was struck in front of all three.
Duckett played his part along with Zak Crawley in giving England a stunning start against Pakistan, putting up England’s highest opening stand since 2004/05, and their fastest century opening stand ever.
After a six-year absence from the Test side, he brought up his maiden Test hundred off 105 balls, but had to go soon after. Zahid Mahmood, a 34-year-old leg-spinner on his Test debut, got one to turn past Duckett’s attempted reverse-sweep, hitting him high on the body but still close to the stumps.
The on-field umpire was unmoved, and captain Babar Azam opted to utilise the Decision Review System, something unavailable earlier in the contest. This projected that the ball would have crashed into the stumps, had Duckett not got in the way, and the England opener was sent packing.
That began a stretch of Pakistan taking three wickets for 63 runs, with Crawley and Joe Root following not long after, the hosts coming back into the game.
Watch Ben Duckett get pinned lbw below:
Successful review and Zahid Mehmood takes his maiden Test wicket! 👏#PAKvENG | #UKSePK pic.twitter.com/J4ipbkSYBU
— Pakistan Cricket (@TheRealPCB) December 1, 2022