Former India cricketer Dinesh Karthik was highly impressed with Akash Deep's knock of 66 during the third day of fifth Test against England. Even though Akash is a tailender and was sent to the crease as a night-watchman, he went on to defy the odds and brought up a hard-fought half-century during the first session. He formed a brilliant partnership of 107 runs alongside Yashasvi Jaiswal, taking the visitors' total over the 150-run mark.
Akash Deep hit a big number of fours in his inning
After getting dropped on 21 during the session, Akash went on to make the hosts pay big time and hit a flurry of boundaries to post his career-best score in the longest format. He was eventually dismissed by Jamie Overton after hitting a total of 12 boundaries in what was a highly entertaining knock.
Karthik stated that Akash's knock of 66 exceeded all expectations that India had from him and added that all the applause that he got from the crowd while heading back to the dressing room after getting dismissed was thoroughly deserved.
“They couldn’t have asked anything more from him. All they wanted him to do was probably just get past last night, which he did quite comfortably. But today, he came out there, played wonderfully well, gave a chance early. When you put down chances, that’s what happens. That’s the last thing you want, as it is, you’re a depleted bowling attack," Karthik said on Sky Sports.
“Then when you put down simple ones, it gets even tougher. He got lucky as well. A couple of the balls that he ended up edging just went in the gap in the slip cordon. But all in all, I think it is a wonderful effort. You pretty much can assess and understand the mindset of a team, depending on how your tailenders are playing," he added.
“Akash Deep’s effort as a batter, and you could see the applause that he got when he went back in, means so much to the team. It’s because what he’s done is actually take India to a very strong position. From here on, you’d expect the batters to bat deep and take India to a very strong and very good place," he further added.
Notably, Akash's inning of 66 is the second-best knock played by a night-watchman for India in red-ball cricket since 2000. He only fell behind Amit Mishra's inning of 84 which also came against England back in 2011. The knock also saw him surpass his previous career-best knock of 31 in Tests.
Meanwhile, after Akash's heroics with the bat, it was Jaiswal who carried India's innings forward and went on to score a tremendous century. The left-hander's sensational knock of 118 saw the visitors' lead go past the 200-run mark. It now remains to be seen how big of a target will the Men in Blue manage to put in front of the Three Lions.