'It is obviously frustrating...': Josh Tongue shares blunt verdict on Akash Deep's heroic half-century on Day 3 of Oval Test

England pacer Josh Tongue admitted that he was left 'frustrated' with Akash Deep's valiant knock of 66 on the third day of Oval Test. After being sent to the crease as a night-watchman in the final overs of Day 2, India didn't expect Akash to play a big inning or anything, they rather just wanted him to survive the day. However, the 28-year-old ended up exceeding all expectations and played a robust knock of 66, forming a big stand of 107 runs with Yashasvi Jaiswal to provide some much-needed stability to the visitors.

Akash's knock was laced with a total of 12 boundaries and saw him dominate against England's pace trio of Gus Atkinson, Josh Tongue and Jamie Overton. The India pacer also surpassed his previous career-best of 31 with the bat in the longest format with his gritty half-century in fifth Test.

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"Yeah, it's obviously frustrating. It's happened to me many a times where we just sort of said as a bowling unit, just bowl your best ball for as long as you can and hopefully either nick one or you bowled him," Tongue said at the post-day press-conference.

England team are relaxed heading into Day 4

On the other hand, Tongue also stated that the England team is 'pretty chilled' with the target that they have been given and added that the match will be a replay of Headingley Test where the hosts chased down the target of 371 on the final day of the match.

“It is a replay from Headingley. It will be a great day of cricket and a great day for us if we get the runs. How we play as a batting unit is very positive and very exciting. The batting we’ve got, I can’t see why we can’t give it a good go. We’re pretty chilled. Not much overthinking about it. I don’t see why we can’t chase down these runs," Tongue stated.

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Meanwhile, Day 3 of the Oval Test concluded with Mohammed Siraj dismissing Zak Crawley and leaving England on 50/1, 324 runs behind their target of 374 with 9 wickets in hand. It remains to be seen if the Three Lions will go on to seal the series with a victory in London or if the Men in Blue will pull off a bowling masterclass on Day 4 and level up the series with a memorable win.