Pace bowler Mark Wood praised Ben Duckett's “amazing” 133 not out as he led England's fightback on the second day of the third Test against India.
Duckett smashed an 88-ball century to take England to 207-2 in Rajkot, 238 runs behind India's 445.
“It was a skill level and a lot of bravery to be able to put together a quality attack like that when we were down 445 points…” Wood said.
“That's what the team is all about, playing it free and the way he played summed it up perfectly.”
Duckett reached his fifty in just 39 deliveries and then went on to score the second-fastest century by an England opener in Tests.
In total, he faced 118 deliveries and plundered 21 fours and two sixes.
“It was amazing to watch,” Wood told BBC Sport. “I couldn’t believe he hit the ball so cleanly. It wasn’t just luck.
“He was intentionally hitting those spots and really smashing them.”
Duckett, 29, has been in excellent form since being recalled to England last winter.
This was his third Test century and his average as an opener was 50.62. He is the only four England openers with at least 1,000 Test runs to have a better average.
“It was a fantastic innings from Ben Duckett,” said BBC cricket correspondent Jonathan Agnew.
“He is probably the one who has benefited the most from the free-spirited attitude of captain Ben Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum.”
Duckett shared an 80 stand with Zak Crawley and a 93 stand with Ollie Pope. He was held to the end by Joe Root, nine not out.
England defeated India with the debutant partnership of Dhruv Jhuler and Ravichandran Ashwin being held to 79 runs, followed by the final pair of Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj scoring 30 runs. It didn't even come close.
Despite Duckett's sensational innings, England still has a lot of work to do as batsmen to catch up with or surpass India's batting total. With England's bat looking like it will be in poor form till the end, any kind of lead in the first innings could be crucial.
“The balance of the game is right,” said Wood, who finished with 4 wins and 114 losses. “They will think if they can get wickets they will be at the top and if we can get another partnership then we will be at the top.
“I'm a bowler so I want to take the lead as much as possible. The game doesn't work that way so we'll have to see how it goes tomorrow.”
The day ended with two controversial moments.
In the morning session, India were penalized for running on the pitch. As Ravindra Jadeja had been cautioned on the first day, Ashwin's repeated counter-attacks gave England five runs to start their innings.
“Honestly, I didn't know that rule. It's quite shocking for an international cricketer,” said Wood, 34.
“When all the young people were looking at each other and giggling, I just thought something had happened.
“Jonny Bairstow was very adamant about looking after the pitch and wanted everyone to stay off the pitch. I was cautioned many times for running over the wicket when bowling. So from the batsmen I'm glad we were able to get one point back.”
Later that day, Pope was given a £39 deduction for his review of Siraj. Duckett was visibly annoyed when the ball was shown clipping the top of his leg stump.
Stokes criticized the DRS decision to award Crawley LBW to spinner Kuldeep Yadav during England's defeat in the second Test.
“Most of us were pretty disappointed,” Wood said. He said: “I was watching him live and I thought he was going to go over the stumps, which he didn't, but I thought he was going to be okay live.
“Technology is there to help the game, and we've seen how much it helps and moves the game forward.
“As a bowler, I think anything that hits the stumps should be out, so I'm a bit biased. Live, it looked quite different than what you see on screen.”
