N’ DELIVER Record-breaker Zak finds perfect partner in Buttler
TON OF FUN: Jos Buttler celebrates his century
ZAK CRAWLEY graduated from century-maker to record-breaker on a day when his partner batted more like Boycott than Buttler.
While Crawley racked up an astonishing
267 to put England on course for a fourth win of the summer, Jos Buttler collected
152 in his most Test-like innings to date. Incredibly for a player with a magical knack of finding a boundary, Buttler went
38 overs at one point without hitting the rope and it was perfect.
Buttler has made no secret of the difficulties he has faced batting in Test cricket compared to the white ball games, but at the Ageas Bowl he looked every inch the accomplished Test batsman.
He batted with patience, great skill and a calm approach that suggested he enjoyed leaving the ball almost as much as he enjoyed the 13 fours and two sixes he did hit.
Crawley was far more aggressive as they put on 359 for the fifth wicket, a new England record.
It meant that when Stuart Broad was bowled by Shaheen Afridi, Joe Root could declare on 583-8 and let his bowlers have an evening dart with the new ball.
And James Anderson picked up three quick Pakistan wickets to go to 596 Test scalps before the tourists closed on 24-3.
If the opening day had been one to remember for Crawley after scoring his first Test hundred, day two was the stuff of greatness as he joined some of the most elevated company in the history of the game.
Superb England batsmen from
Colin Cowdrey to Alec Stewart to Michael Vaughan to Andrew Strauss never got to raise their bat for a double hundred. And by doing so in just his eighth match and at only 22, he became the third youngest Englishman to do it after Sir Len Hutton and David Gower. Only nine times has an England Test batsman scored more in an innings than this and when he had made 222 he claimed the crown for the highest Test knock by a Kent batsman, beating Rob Key’s 221 against West Indies in 2004. England have found a No.3 and they should nurture him. Jonathan Trott was our last consistently successful No.3 and perhaps it is no coincidence that he spent last season as Kent’s batting coach and this summer working with England. When Crawley resumed on 171 he needed to show the discipline that Trott made his calling card and for 25 non-scoring balls that is exactly what he did against Naseem Shah (left) and Co. Eventually he found the boundary with another crisp flick off his pads and he was away.
At the other end Buttler had done much the same, trusting his defence before carving Mohammad Abbas for four to move to 99 when he was then given out caught behind.
The review system saved him and from the next ball the wicketkeeper reached his second Test hundred. 200 CLUB: Crawley salutes double-ton milestone