Ben Duckett Tops Pant, Sehwag And Gilchrist For Huge Milestone With Multan Ton Vs PAK
Ben Duckett tonked a 120-ball ton vs Pakistan on Day 2 [Source: @englandcricket/x]
Ben Duckett shaped 114 attacking runs for England against Pakistan on Day 2 of the Multan Test on October 16. Opening the innings with Zak Crawley, Duckett formed crucial partnerships with Ollie Pope and Joe Root and raced to his fourth Test century from just 120 deliveries.
Through the course of his century, the cricketer also completed 2,000 runs in Tests, reaching the milestone figure in record time.
Ben Duckett smacks Test cricket’s fastest 2,000
Ben Duckett made his Test debut with a match against Bangladesh in Chattogram back in October 2016. To date, the elegant left-handed batter has featured in 28 matches for England. He brought up the 2,000th run of his career in his 51st Test innings, doing so against Pakistan in Multan in October 2024.
Notably, Ben Duckett took just 2,293 deliveries to complete 2,000 runs, thus becoming the fastest player in Test history to reach the landmark figure, in terms of number of balls taken. He soared past Tim Southee’s previous record of 2,418 balls for completing 2,000 Test runs.
Former Australian stumper Adam Gilchrist, ex-Indian opener Virender Sehwag and current wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant are other players to feature among the fastest run-makers to 2,000 runs. Here is a list of five of the fastest cricketers in history to score 2,000 runs in terms of number of deliveries.
Player | Number of Balls faced |
---|---|
Ben Duckett (ENG) | 2,293 balls |
Tim Southee (NZ) | 2,418 balls |
Adam Gilchrist (AUS) | 2,483 balls |
Virender Sehwag (IND) | 2,759 balls |
Rishabh Pant (IND) | 2,797 balls |
Ben Duckett’s 114 set up England’s early command before Pakistan spinner Sajid Khan tilted the tide back in favor of the hosts. Khan picked up three wickets in the space of an hour, including that of in-form Joe Root and Harry Brook.
The England cricket team will now resume their first innings at 239-6 on Day 3, to find themselves another 127 runs from Pakistan’s 336-run total.