Ben Duckett races ahead of Gilchrist, breaks New Zealand star's record and becomes fastest in 2000 tests; bangs stellar century

England opener Ben Duckett hit a century to help the visitors put up a solid fightback on the second day of the second Test match in Multan. The left-handed batsman hit a 120-ball century, continuing his impressive form in red-ball cricket. The other English batters had a tough time on the field in the first Test, but Duckett stuck to his fearless batting approach and countered the Pakistani bowlers to hit his fourth Test ton.

The 30-year-old was also the fastest to complete 2000 runs in Test cricket in terms of number of balls taken, achieving the feat in 2,293 balls. He beat former New Zealand captain Tim Southee (2,418 balls) to finish at the top of the table.

Fastest to 2000 runs in Tests

2293 balls – Ben Duckett

2418 balls – Tim Southee

2483 balls – Adam Gilchrist

2759 balls – Virender Sehwag

2797 Balls – Rishabh Pants

Duckett's 114 from 129 balls seemed to have kept England in the driver's seat before they lost four late wickets in a sensational collapse to spinners Sajid Khan (4-86) and Noman Ali (2-75).

The left-handed opener smashed 16 boundaries and helped England to a respectable score of 239/6. At one point, England were heading for a high score of 211/2, but Sajid turned the net and turned the tables. In the final session, he outdueled Joe Root (34), Duckett (114) and Harry Brook (nine) to give Pakistan an edge over the visitors.

Talking about his heavy hitting after the day's match, Duckett said his approach is to put pressure on the bowler, especially the spinners who play the sweep shots quite comfortably.

“I think hitting against spin is a strength of mine. Hitting against the new ball can sometimes be a little easier here. Obviously it was nice to open the back with Zak. (In his swings) That's a strength I like to use.” When you first go out to bat, there are a lot of men around the bat, my theory is to get rid of them and also put pressure on the bowler, but I didn't hit all of them “I tried to get out of the field and make my life easier,” Duckett said.

Earlier, Pakistan's bottom-order had frustrated England by 107 runs after they resumed at 259-5, with Jamal and Noman contributing an invaluable 49 runs for the ninth wicket.

But with the score at 358-8 at lunchtime, Jamal was dismissed on the first ball after the break, bowled by Brydon Carse, who finished with 3-50.

Spinner Jack Leach ended Noman's 32-run win by having him caught in the deep by Carse and finished with 4-114.