Stats: Ben Duckett becomes fastest to reach 2000 Test runs in terms of balls taken

Left-handed English opener, Ben Duckett, continued with his impressive streak of racking up runs as he secured a stellar century against Pakistan in the second Test in Multan today. Other than going past the 1500-run landmark in the World Test Championship, Duckett also attained an elusive record in the longest format of the game.

Entering the match requiring 88 runs to reach the 2,000-run milestone as far as his Test tally is concerned, Duckett achieved it in just 2,293 balls. Quite surprisingly, the previous record was held by New Zealand's Tim Southee, who took 2,418 balls to reach the same feat. Playing in his 51st innings, Duckett averages an impressive 42.20. The 29-year-old brought up his half-century in just 47 deliveries, and his ton in 120 balls. Interestingly, this was the slowest of his four Test tons.

💯 YES DUCKY! 💯

A fluent knock brings Ben Duckett his fourth Test century ❤️ pic.twitter.com/2E9cLHET5g

— England Cricket (@englandcricket) October 16, 2024

Duckett was eventually dismissed for 114, a knock coming off 129 deliveries with 16 fours. Throughout his innings, he looked assured of himself with almost all of his boundaries being scored along the ground. Coming to him passing the landmark of 1500 runs in WTC, Duckett became the seventh Englishman to achieve the feat in the history of the championship.

Also Read: 'Well played Kamran' - Babar Azam lauds debutant Kamran Ghulam's knock against England in 2nd Test

Sajid Khan keeps contest evenly poised with four-wicket haul 

One of the many reinforcements made by the team management after the drubbing endured during the first Test, Sajid Khan, proved to be quite a handful as the off-spinner accounted for four of England's six wickets to fall on Day 2 of the second Test.

Also Read: Twitter Reactions: Sajid Khan's four-fer gives Pakistan upper hand at end of Day 2

Apart from Duckett's dismissal which was snagged at first slip, the rest of Sajid's dismissals saw him disturb the timber of Ollie Pope, Joe Root, and Brook to restrict the visitors from running away with the game.