England tempo bowler Mark Wood on Friday mentioned opener Ben Duckett pressured India to consistently change the sphere placement as he performed a “skilful innings against a good attack” in Rajkot on the second day of the third Test. Duckett cracked 21 fours and two sixes, scoring an unbeaten 133 off 118 balls that helped England make a robust begin in reply to India’s first-innings complete of 445. England completed the day at a robust 207/2, having erased virtually half of India’s complete and now path by 238 runs.

“He played with real bravery. To be that far behind in the game and go out and play like that showed real bravery and skill,” Wood advised the media after the day’s play when requested about Duckett’s third Test century.

“The way India changed the field and then he’d hit it somewhere else, it was such a skilful innings against a good attack. He’s a nightmare to bowl (to) at the nets; we try to get him to leave one but he never leaves any,” he mentioned.

“Maybe, he hasn’t gotten the accolades that he would like with big scores, but this was his day and it was amazing to watch.

“It’s a speedy outfield and we actually felt it was robust to comprise, and Ducky (Duckett) actually took it on and performed in an aggressive style to place the stress again on India,” Wood added.

The England quick revealed he was not aware of the rule where England were awarded five runs for Indian batters running on the pitch.

There were two instances where Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja ran on the pitch during India’s innings and umpire Joel Wilson awarded England five runs.

“I used to be not conscious, I used to be at deep-square on the boundary. When the umpire (signalled), I used to be like ‘what’s going on right here?'” Wood said.

“I truthfully did not know the rule which is fairly surprising for a global cricketer, however I simply assumed that when all of the lads had been taking a look at one another and guffawing, that one thing had occurred,” he said.

“Jonny (Bairstow) was very adamant about taking care of the wicket, he needed everybody to be off it. I get warned loads of instances for operating on the wicket once I bowl, so it is good to get one again off the batters,” Wood added.

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