ENG vs IND 1st Test: India set 371-run target, will England rewrite Headingley history again?
By Aditya Bhagchandani Published on June 23, 2025, 22:28 IST
India has posted a total of 364 in their second innings on Day 4, setting England a daunting target of 371 runs to chase down at Headingley. This follows India's first innings total of 471 and England's reply of 465, leaving the visitors with a lead of 370 runs going into the final innings.
Rishabh Pant and KL Rahul led the Indian charge again, with Pant smashing his second century of the match—118 off 140 deliveries—becoming only the second wicketkeeper in Test cricket history to score hundreds in both innings of a Test. KL Rahul added a resilient 137 off 247 balls. The duo's stellar partnership set the foundation before India lost wickets in quick succession.
England's bowling attack was led by Josh Tongue, who claimed three wickets including crucial blows at the tail, while Shoaib Bashir also picked up three, including the final wicket of Prasidh Krishna, who was caught at deep mid-wicket for a duck.
As it stands, England will need to script one of the most memorable chases in Test history. The highest successful chase at Headingley remains 404 by Australia in 1948, and more recently, England chased 359 in a miraculous win over Australia in 2019.
Can England pull off another historic win at Leeds?
Ahmedabad Plane Crash
Aditya Bhagchandani serves as the Senior Editor and Writer at Business Upturn, where he leads coverage across the Business, Finance, Corporate, and Stock Market segments. With a keen eye for detail and a commitment to journalistic integrity, he not only contributes insightful articles but also oversees editorial direction for the reporting team.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
‘We can chase anything': Tongue bullish as England look to overhaul India total
After blowing away India's tail for the second time in the game, pocketing a three-wicket maiden in the process, Josh Tongue said England were confident of scoring the 371 runs they need to claim victory in the opening Test, insisting: 'With our batting lineup we can chase anything.' England survived six overs before stumps to reach 21 without loss, leaving 350 to get on what is forecast to be a rain-affected final day. Should they reach their target it would be the highest successful run chase at Headingley – or for that matter anywhere in England – for 77 years, beating by nine the 362 they scored in the extraordinary Ashes encounter here in 2019. Advertisement Related: KL Rahul, the anti-Pant, torments England with precision of a maths nerd | Simon Burnton 'We're really confident,' Tongue said. 'If you look at our batting lineup it's obviously very strong. We play a positive brand of cricket. So I think chasing 371 is going to be a good thing for us to do. I feel like with that batting lineup we can chase down anything. Their bowlers are obviously going to bowl well in periods of the game. It's just soaking up that pressure and then reapplying it back on to them. 'We'll go for the win. That's the clear message in the changing room. It's just being as positive as we can. I don't see why we can't chase that down.' Tongue said of the wicket that 'when they were batting it flattened out', but KL Rahul, one of two Indian centurions alongside Rishabh Pant, said that had not been his experience across 247 balls at the crease. Forecasting 'a blockbuster finish', he warned England that their aggression could be their undoing. Advertisement 'There's definitely going to be a result. That's what England have said very openly and their style of cricket suggests that,' he said. 'That gives us a good opportunity to pick up 10 wickets. It was a very tricky wicket – I spent a lot of time batting out there and I didn't feel set at all at any stage. With this wicket you never know what to expect.' Though both enjoyed considerable success Rahul's precise strokeplay contrasted markedly with the charismatic and unconventional approach of Pant. 'You just stand there and admire and sometimes scratch your head about the shot selection and the cricket that he plays,' Rahul said. 'He's a unique player and you just let him be. He obviously has a method to his batting, which none of us understands but it seems to work for him. You just let him be Rishabh Pant.'
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
KL Rahul, the anti-Pant, torments England with precision of a maths nerd
Just 10 balls had been delivered on this fourth day, England had started brightly and had just been buoyed by the wicket of India's captain. For the batters a time perhaps for a little caution. At which point the freshly arrived Rishabh Pant faced his second delivery, bowled by Chris Woakes, hared down the pitch and swung his bat like a particularly clueless novice golfer, the ball spinning off the outside edge and flying over the slips and away for four. From the crowd the reflexive reaction was laughter, not inappropriately given this was the kind of behaviour associated normally less with people wearing cricket whites and more with those sporting outsize shoes, a red nose and plenty of face paint. Advertisement There were plenty more ludicrous moments on Pant's way to a second century of the game, an innings in which the only temptation he did not give in to was the one to perform celebratory acrobatics on reaching triple figures. But if his would have been the name on supporters' lips as they headed out of the gates at the close, the innings put together by the man at the other end was, in an infinitely less showy way, more interesting still – not just because of its quality but because of its contrast, KL Rahul cast perfectly in the role of anti‑Pant. The 33-year-old is by nature particularly well suited to batting with such showmen: there is no need to take any risks when the man at the other end is taking enough for two, and no reason for flamboyance when your partner is so prone to a dance and a swing. He managed to contrast not just with his teammate but even with himself, looking like a rock star, long hair spilling out of his helmet and over his collar, while playing like a maths nerd, all precise angles and economy of force; combining gloriously streamlined, economical movement with what sometimes appears an asinine stubbornness when it comes to budging the scoreboard. This can been seen as a failing, and he has a reputation for losing his way during innings, going through prolonged funks during which the possibility of run-scoring becomes little more than notional. Famously, talking about Twenty20 games, he once insisted that 'strike rates are very, very overrated' – which, given that it is a format in which success is predicated entirely on fast scoring, raised a few hackles (he has, to be fair, also scored the joint second-fastest 50 in Indian Premier League history). Kevin Pietersen once compared the spectator experience when Rahul is at the crease to watching paint dry. 'For me,' Rahul said in that discussion of strike rates, 'it's only about how I can win games for my team.' Here he played from the start as if he knew precisely which path would guide his team towards victory, and he might just have judged it perfectly. For the first hour of this fourth day it was also a path he negotiated very carefully. England sustained their bright start for the full hour, spirits replenished overnight, game in the balance, energy in the field, Brydon Carse straddling it with an outstanding spell. He, and later Ben Stokes, repeatedly located a spot, conveniently positioned if bowling over the wicket from the Kirkstall Lane end towards a right-hander, off which the ball could be relied upon to bounce unreliably, which the left-handed Pant was never bothered by but which allowed Rahul to demonstrate the lightning speed of his reactions. Those same reflexes also allowed him, when the ball behaved less wildly, to appear completely unhurried in his strokeplay. Rahul faced 43 balls in that hour, scoring just seven, before the smoothest of accelerations: 18 off 38 in the second hour of the day, 28 off 45 in the third, 20 off 25 in the fourth (though of course run rates are very, very overrated). Advertisement Related: England v India: first men's cricket Test, day four – live There were inevitable, and very occasional, imperfections, and three times he edged the ball in inconvenient directions: on 58, off Josh Tongue, high to Harry Brook at gully – who got two palms on it but could not hold on – on 71, off Stokes, into a particularly sensitive area of his own body, and then that final attempt to cut Carse that sent the ball into his own stumps, by which time he had scored 137 and slowly, stylishly shunted the match in his team's favour. And along the way such handsome highlights: leaning back to dab Tongue wide of slip, waiting to the last possible moment to cut Carse with a surgeon's precision into the gap between gully and backward point, or pulling the same bowler, again waiting, late enough that the few remaining sceptics suggested it was more accident than design, to open up the perfect angle. He became just the sixth Indian to score three centuries in this country, having spent the crucial part of his innings in partnership with the fifth. Turns out there are similarities between him and Pant after all.
Fox Sports
5 hours ago
- Fox Sports
Rahul and Pant centuries set England 371 target in Headingley test
Associated Press LEEDS, England (AP) — Centuries by Lokesh Rahul and Rishabh Pant helped India set England a steep target of 371 to win the series-opening test at Headingley on Monday. India was all out for 364 in its second innings and, in the last half hour of day four, England knocked 21 runs off the target and survived three overs from star pacer Jasprit Bumrah. England needs 350 more runs at less than four an over in the last three sessions on Tuesday, weather permitting. Some rain is forecast. The odds favor India on a fifth-day pitch but England in its 'Bazball' era is confident of chasing down the target. If it does, it will be a record for England at Headingley. Rahul hit 137 and Pant 118 — his second ton of the match — in a stand of 195 that turned the match India's way. They played a tight situation perfectly; absorbing intense England pressure in the morning then going on the attack in a stunning afternoon. They had some luck. Rahul was dropped on 58 and Pant edged twice into the vacant slip area. The unlucky bowler each time was Josh Tongue, but he contributed to routing the India tail again with three wickets in four balls. Monday actually started very encouragingly for England. On the day's seventh ball, Brydon Carse got India captain Shubman Gill to chop on and the visitors were a precarious 92-3. The pitch was lively, the bounce erratic and the ball was nipping around. Rahul, already on 47, and Pant battened down in their own distinctive ways. Rahul shouldered responsibility as India's senior batter while Pant was a danger to England and himself. He swiped at a few without a clue where the ball went. They shared only 63 runs in 24 overs to lunch but getting through the morning unscathed and grinding down England was a win for them. After lunch their attitude switched. They exploded, especially Pant, who seemed to have exhausted his patience. The pair struck only six boundaries in the morning but hit six in the first half-hour of the afternoon and were only getting started. Another trademark Rahul cover drive earned him two runs for his century from 202 balls. His ninth hundred was his eighth away from home. The first Asian opener to score three in England was all business and limited his joy to waving his bat and kissing the crest on his helmet. Meanwhile, Pant raced from 31 at lunch to 95 and went against the grain again by suddenly holding back. It took him more than five overs to hit five singles for his second hundred of the match. Pant raised his bat and helmet but there was no somersault as in the first innings, when he scored 134. He became only the second wicketkeeper in men's test history to score two hundreds in a match, after Andy Flower for Zimbabwe against South Africa in 2011 in Harare. Pant was also the first Indian to achieve twin tons in a test in England. Relieved to bag the milestones, he went back on the attack and was finally out going for another big shot, for 118 off 140 balls, including 15 fours and three sixes. Spinner Shoaib Bashir celebrated the wicket like it was the match-winner as Pant was caught at long-on, where he had hit Bashir for consecutive sixes and started cries of 'Ri-shabh Pant!' When Rahul was out dragging on Carse for 137 off 247 balls, India was 333-5 with more than 1 1/2 hours left to stumps. But any hopes of racking up 400 were ruined by another late collapse. India lost its last six wickets for 31 runs. In the first innings its last seven wickets were taken for 41 runs. In contrast, England's last four first-bat wickets scored 67, a factor India will have to taken into account as the home side chases with a deep and bold batting order. ___ AP cricket: in this topic
