3 Things We Learned From The First Test Between England And India

England beat India by five wickets in the first Test at Headingley after a superb 149 from opener Ben Duckett helped make light of a seemingly stiff chase of 371.

Below AFP Sport looks at three aspects of a gripping encounter that ended with England 1-0 up in five-match series:

Tail-end runs and wickets matter

India became the first side in the more than 60,000 game history of first-class cricket to score five individual hundreds in a match and still lose. This remarkable feat can be explained by collapses of 7-41 and 6-31 at the end of each innings

England fast bowler Josh Tongue, who removed several tailenders while taking seven wickets during the match said:. I don#39;t mind bowling at the tail. You#39;ve got a good opportunity to take wickets. All I tried to do was to hit the pitch hard.

Pant a modern marvel

Rishabh Pant could yet end his career having surpassed Australia#39;s outstanding Adam Gilchrist as the most extraordinary wicketkeeper-batsman cricket has known.

His astounding audacity with the bat was on full display in Leeds as he became only the second wicketkeeper, after Zimbabwe#39;s Andy Flower, to score hundreds in both innings of a Test match with 134 and then 118.

Some of Pant#39;s shot-making, including over the shoulder flicks, at fast bowlers has to be seen to believed, with his continued involvement in cricket a triumph after he suffered life-threatening injuries in a horrific car crash in December 2022 that kept him out of action for 15 months.

KL Rahul, who made a relatively restrained 137 while Pant blazed away during the pair#39;s fourth-wicket second-innings stand of 195, summed up the India vice-captain by saying: I#39;ve had a few partnerships with Pant.

It#39;s hard for us to understand his mindset. You#39;ve got to let Rishabh Pant be Rishabh Pant, there#39;s obviously a method to his madness!

He#39;s averaging (around) 45 in Test cricket, there#39;s a lot of thinking behind the outrageous shots he plays.

Headingley delivers again

This match joined a long list of dramatic Test encounters at Headingley, the headquarters of Yorkshire, one of the cornerstone counties of English cricket.

There was the original #39;Headingley miracle#39; of 1981, when Ian Botham scored a barnstorming 149 not out and fast bowler Bob Willis took 8-43 as England won after following on against Australia.

There was the 2019 version, where current England captain Ben Stokes steered his side to a stunning one-wicket win over arch-rivals Australia with a remarkable unbeaten hundred.

Headingley also staged a two-day Test in 2000 when fast bowler Andrew Caddick led Nasser Hussain#39;s England to victory over West Indies.

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But visiting teams have enjoyed their fair share of Headingley heroics too, with England great James Anderson ending a 2014 Test in tears after failing to hang on for a draw alongside century-maker Moeen Ali as Sri Lanka claimed their first series win in England.