LEEDS: Indian bowlers’ efforts to gain an early upper hand was thwarted by Ben Duckett’s doughty unbeaten fifty as England cruised to 117 for no loss at lunch on the final day of the first Test here on Tuesday.

Chasing a tough 371 for victory, England were served by Duckett (64) and Zak Crawley (42) at the break with the hosts still 254 runs adrift of the target.

Besides Bumrah, the other Indian pacers, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna and Shardul Thakur, were erratic and gave enough freebies for England batters, who were more than happy to oblige.

The best moment for the Indian bowling unit, of course, was produced by Bumrah when he beat the defence of Duckett with a lovely off-cutter.

Unfortunately, the second line pacers did not come anywhere close to create their own moment of magic, and remained ordinary.

Duckett and Crawley, who have together amassed over 2000 runs as Test openers, pounced on anything short or full to essay cuts, pulls and drives as England innings gained considerable steam, milking 96 runs in the first session after resuming from an overnight 21 for no loss.