England beat India by 5 wickets in the first Test of the ongoing five-match series. In the series opener played at Headingley in Leeds from June 20 to 24, England chased down the target of 371 runs in 82 overs on Tuesday (June 24) to secure a famous win. Opening batter Ben Duckett scored 149 runs from 170 balls for the Ben Stokes-led side in the 2nd innings and added 188 runs for the first wicket with Zak Crawley, who made 65 runs from 126 balls. Apart from the duo, legendary Joe Root remained unbeaten on 53 runs from 84 balls, and wicketkeeper-batter Jamie Smith hammered 44 runs from just 55 balls. England’s win in the series opener helped Ben Stokes enter his name in the history books. Stokes became the first captain in the world whose team successfully managed to chase down a target of more than 350 runs in the fourth innings of a Test match on multiple occasions. In Test cricket, only on 14 occasions has a target of more than 350 runs been successfully chased down, and twice the feat was achieved by a Ben Stokes-led side. Before securing a famous win over India in Leeds on June 24 by chasing down a 371-run target, England chased down the target of 378 runs against India in 2022. During the rescheduled Test of the 2021 series played at Edgbaston in Birmingham from July 1 to 5 in 2022, India posted a target of 378 runs for England to chase down in the fourth innings, and riding on Joe Root’s and Jonny Bairstow’s unbeaten centuries, England successfully managed to achieve the objective for the loss of only three wickets in 76.4 overs. Joe Root was England’s captain in the four matches played in 2021, but Stokes led the side in the rescheduled match, whereas Jasprit Bumrah was India’s captain in that fixture. The win over India in Leeds also helped England equal Australia’s record of winning 33 matches in the World Test Championship (WTC). Since the start of WTC in July 2019, Aussies have won 33 out of 55 matches played so far, whereas England have won 33 out of 66 matches. Team India, on the other hand, has secured 31 wins in 50 WTC matches.