England v New Zealand: third men’s cricket Test, day two – live

Ben Duckett speaking to Sky Sports’ Ian Ward:

It’s been a bit of journey since last summer and you can see making a century on my home ground means a lot to me. I was quite emotional and tried to take it all in. With the heat I tried to start again, and a shame to get out but I’d have taken that at the start.

I’ve really felt it has been coming. I didn’t go to the IPL which isn’t new news but spent a lot of time here working on my game with Peter Moores and playing in the County Championship. It’s not gone my way in the first few Tests but the age I am now I believe in my game and thought a score was round the corner.

I nicked off on eight and when that went down I then thought maybe it was my day. I have been working extremely hard in the last few months.

It’s a good pitch to bat on. I didn’t have much time to think about that. I knew there would be boundary options and how quickly you can score here. I didn’t want to go into my shell and look for a score so just played my natural game.”

Originally published on www.theguardian.com — View original