Zak Crawley and Ollie Pope scored timely centuries after Ben Duckett smoked a ton of his own as England dominated a wayward Zimbabwe on day one of the four-day Test at Trent Bridge.
Those hundreds for the top-three batters saw the hosts reach 498-3 from 88 overs by stumps after losing the toss, with much of the intrigue towards the end of the day hinging on whether England would declare, a decision Ben Stokes ultimately opted against.
Zimbabwe, playing their first Test in England in 22 years, allowed the home side far too many easy runs on a belting batting surface.
The Chevrons were hampered by an injury to seamer Richard Ngarava as their opponents rattled along at 5.65 an over and Joe Root (34) became the fifth batter in history to pass 13,000 Test runs.
Richard Ngarava left the field ten minutes into the second session with what was later confirmed to be a back spasm.
He returned an hour and five minutes into the third, with a ginger step. He fielded for a few minutes but was soon back in the dressing room, which limited his day’s work to nine overs in the morning.
Seamer Blessing Muzarabani, who was also the most threatening of the quicks, bowled 20 overs while Sikandar Raza delivered 24 overs but little Zimbabwe tried hurt England.
The hosts’ top-order batted with exactly the right mix of caution and aggression, though the scoring rate of 5.66 would suggest only the latter.
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