RAWALPINDI: Opener Zak Crawley completed a quick-fire hundred soon after lunch Thursday on the opening day of the first Test against Pakistan in Rawalpindi.
The 24-year-old drove Pakistan pacer Naseem Shah to the cover boundary to reach his third Test century in his 29th match, but not before overturning a leg-before decision via review a ball earlier.
The lanky 1.96 metre (six feet, five inches) batter showed his intent right from the start of the match, hitting three boundaries off Naseem's first over of the day, and bringing up his half-century with another off spinner Zahid Mahmood.
That came off just 38 balls.
On his way to three figures he narrowly missed a chance to become the first England batter to score a century before lunch, falling nine short.
Seven England batters, including current captain Ben Stokes, have scored a century before lunch in a Test -- but none on the first day.
England's robust batting was the ideal start to the Test -- their first in Pakistan for 17 years -- after the start hung in the balance Wednesday when several of the squad came down with a mystery virus.
Ben Duckett then scored a maiden century to match Crawley's ton as England put Pakistan to the sword.
The 28-year-old left-hander pulled Pakistan paceman Haris Rauf for a boundary to reach the three-figure mark, but was out for 107 a few balls later off spinner Zahid Mahmood.
The milestone for Duckett came in his first Test in six years, after he debuted against Bangladesh in 2016 but was discarded after scoring just 110 runs in four matches.
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