After scoring his first Test century for more than a year Ben Duckett revealed that shedding some weight has helped him to pile on the runs, with a post-winter fitness regime catapulting him into the summer in form that was glimpsed in the first two games of the series and has been obvious in the third.
“It’s an area of my career where I haven’t necessarily helped myself or been great at,” he said, after scoring a 99-ball 113 on his home ground. “The biggest thing is I’m not getting any younger and I want to keep doing this, to keep having days like this, for as long as I possibly can.”
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Duckett lost about 6kg (13lb) after returning from his winter international commitments and adopting a new fitness regime in which he has started running for the first time. “I’ve been doing a lot of fitness and got the rewards today in the heat,” he said. “I had maybe a four-week block where I didn’t hit many balls. You don’t get many windows where you can go and lose the amount of weight I lost.”
The weight was not the only drop on Duckett’s mind, given the chance he edged to slip when on eight – karmic comeback, perhaps, for his being blamelessly run out at the Oval last week. “I was chatting to [fielding coach] Sarah Taylor this morning and I said I’ve got to get some luck eventually, that’s just how the game works,” he said.
England took New Zealand’s last six first-innings wickets for 77 at the start of the day, with Ben Stokes leading the way with three in his eight overs. “A lot of teams would have folded in the position we were in,” Duckett said. “We want to be a side that never gives up and wins from different positions, and when he’s doing that it’s pretty impossible for everyone else not to get on his back and do the same. That was just an incredible, incredible morning for us.”
As a result, New Zealand slipped from being at one stage 317 without loss to 438 all out. “We had a great opening partnership and yes, you want to score more runs, but England are allowed to bowl well and I thought this morning they bowled well, they took their chances, and here we are now,” said Daryl Mitchell. “But the cool thing is, e’ve still got a lead. Test cricket’s about five days, not just one or two, and we’ll be giving it everything we can to be there on that day five.”