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Duckett double hammers Kent promotion bid
- Updated: September 7, 2016
Kent 230 and 15 for 4 (Kleinveldt 4-8) trail Northamptonshire 384 (Duckett 208, Wakely 73) by 139 runsScorecard
A little after four o’clock on a resplendent late summer’s day at Beckenham, Kent summoned Hardus Viljoen, their overseas quick and a man who played Test cricket earlier this year, back into the attack. He might have assumed that his pedigree would command respect. Instead, he saw his first delivery scythed through midwicket for four, pulled with contempt off the front foot. The same result met Viljoen’s second ball though, to add to the ignominy, this was hit gun-barrel straight, a little to mid-on’s right.
In these two balls was the distillation of a singular and rare talent. Like his county, Ben Duckett has earned acclaim in the limited-overs game. Yet none of his brilliance with the white ball should obscure his excellence in first-class cricket. This is a man who is only 21, and yet has spent the summer mocking the notion that the choked county schedule should act as an impediment to all-format excellence. He now has 2619 runs in all formats this summer, more than anyone else.
It is the mark of Duckett’s summer that, in the pantheon of his most spectacular innings this year – 220 not out for England Lions in a 50-over game against Sri Lanka A, despite not coming in until the 12th over; an unbeaten 163 to lift the Lions to their target of 248 against Pakistan A; a brazen 84 in the semi-finals of the T20 Blast; 282 in the County Championship against Sussex; and 180 on a pitch turning viciously against Glamorgan – this audacious, thrilling 208 would not even sneak into the top five. What an ridiculous notion that is.
For vast swathes of this innings, there were no sign of the pyrotechnics that are the hallmark of Duckett in T20, instead plenty of impeccably judged leaves against Kent’s seamers, married with racing between the wickets and skilful working the ball into gaps. For all Duckett’s power and his 360-degree hitting, his greatest quality might just be the dexterity of his wrists, enabling him to manipulate deliveries past fielders placed for the exact shot. While there were a sprinkling of sublime extra cover drives, the most striking thing about Duckett’s 149-ball century, which would have been strikingly fast for most players, was the sense of a man playing within himself, of there being more to unleash.
And then it happened: an absurd reverse-pull off James Tredwell, hit with such nonchalance that Kent’s …
