IND vs ENG 5th Test: Akash Deep etches his name in history; joins elite club of Imran Khan and Shane Warne | Cricket News
Indian night watchman Akash Deep made a remarkable maiden Test fifty and shared a century partnership with Yashasvi Jaiswal on Day 4 of the fifth and final Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy Test against England at the Oval on Saturday. Deep scored 66 runs off 94 balls, helping India reach 189-3 and extend their lead to 166 runs at lunch.Deep’s performance was particularly notable as he became the 12th player to achieve both a ten-wicket haul and a fifty on an England tour, joining cricket legends like Hugh Trumble, Shane Warne, Imran Khan, Keith Miller, and Richard Hadlee.
The nightwatchman’s innings included 12 fours, and he formed a crucial 107-run partnership for the third wicket with Jaiswal before being dismissed by Atkinson just before lunch.Deep’s achievement was even more remarkable considering his first-class batting average of just 11.48 before this Test. He became only the fourth Indian to score a Test fifty at No.4 in England this century, alongside Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli, and Shubman Gill.The partnership between Jaiswal and Deep marked the 18th hundred-run stand in the ongoing Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy, setting a record for the most century partnerships in a Test series this century, surpassing the 17 achieved in the 2003-04 Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
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Deep is also the first Indian nightwatchman to score more than 50 runs since Amit Mishra’s 84 against England at the same venue in 2011.This performance follows Deep’s outstanding bowling achievement last month at Edgbaston, where he took 10 wickets to help India secure their first-ever Test victory at the venue by 336 runs. His match figures of 10/187 set a new record for the best bowling figures by an Indian in England, breaking Chetan Sharma’s previous record of 10/188.India started Day 3 with a score of 75/2, with Jaiswal unbeaten on 51 and Deep on 4, holding a lead of 52 runs.At the time of the latest update, England had scored 247 in their innings, with Zak Crawley contributing 64 and Harry Brook making 53, while Prasidh Krishna took 4/62. India had scored 224 in their first innings and were at 263/5 in their second innings.
