Akash Deep ten-for seals statement win for India
After leaving out Jasprit Bumrah, losing the toss, and waiting out a storm on the morning of day five, India beat England by 336 runs in this second Test, squaring the series 1-1 and winning their first Test at Edgbaston.Fittingly, it was Akash Deep, Bumrah’s “replacement”, who capped off India’s dominance. A maiden five-wicket haul of 6 for 99 dismissed England for 271 in their second innings. He took ten in the match, becoming only the second Indian bowler since Chetan Sharma in 1986 to use English conditions to such devastating effect.Related
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The glory of a record-breaking Test for Shubman Gill has been enhanced ten-fold. His remarkable batting exploits – centuries in both innings, the first a double, 430 runs all in – have come in his first win as Test captain. Fittingly, Gill took the catch for the final wicket, off Akash Deep, both celebrating wildly themselves before meeting for a hug before they were engulfed by gleeful team-mates.The scale of defeat made a mockery of the notion England might have fancied chasing a target of 608. At no point were they in with a shout.Akash Deep’s 21.1 overs were an exhibition of unerring accuracy, use of the crease, and some devastating seam movement, stating his case for a starting berth of his own come Lord’s. Arriving into Sunday with Ben Duckett and Joe Root already in his back pocket, both bowled from the Pavilion End, he skittled a third from the City End when Ollie Pope defended onto his stumps 19 balls into a delayed morning session.A handful of storms pushed the start time to 12.40pm, losing ten of Sunday’s allotted 90 overs. By 1.04pm, India had the second of the seven wickets they arrived needing, when Harry Brook was pinned on the inside left knee, plumb in front.The nip off an amenable final-day surface was vicious enough to have the England No. 5 limping out of his crease having been given out lbw by umpire Chris Gaffaney. Encouraged by Ben Stokes, Brook reviewed, which only served to offer a few slow-motion close-ups on the big screen of just how far Akash Deep had decked the ball in. Five days of cricket had created enough wear and tear on a pitch that had produced 1692 runs and Akash Deep kept hitting the cracks ruthlessly to gain the kind of movement that left the batters looking terribly unprepared. Brook was a case in point.4:11
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It was then that Jamie Smith arrived, with the score 83 for 5, one run shy of the score when he walked in on day three on his way to a staggering 184 not out. Yet again, he put his team-mates in the shade, top-scoring with an 88 that was controlled, even with its pockets of assault, right until an attempt to strike Akash Deep for a third consecutive six on the leg side fell into the hands of Washington Sundar at deep-backward square-leg.That was Washington’s second involvement on the fourth innings scorecard. His first came at the back end of a settling partnership between Smith and Stokes. A sixth-wicket stand had made it to 70, and almost to a very late lunch, before the tall offspinner struck. Around the wicket to the England captain, on 33, gorgeous drift was followed by enough turn to clip the edge of the left-hander’s pad as he pressed forward to defend. Stokes’ review of umpire Sharfuddoula’s on-field decision was more out of hope than expectation.England did at least successfully overturn one decision, with Smith given out to Prasidh Krishna on 71, only for the projected path to show the ball was expected to clear the top of the stumps by a distance. Prasidh, nevertheless, had a first wicket of the innings when Chris Woakes failed to keep a pull shot down.
Smith would fall three overs later, having already pulled the chord on some retaliatory boundaries. With 272 in the match, he now has the record for the most runs in a Test by an England wicketkeeper.The real glory, however, was with those donned in Indian creams, and the majority of the 18,000 strong crowd, who by now were partying in the stands knowing the end was nigh.It might have come sooner had KL Rahul hung onto a chance at slip off Brydon Carse, or Mohammed Siraj hung on to a skier from the same batter, even though Siraj had taken a spectacular catch at midwicket to see off Josh Tongue six balls earlier. Shoaib Bashir then successfully reviewed a catch to slip off Ravindra Jadeja, who, like Akash Deep earlier in the day, was making use of the uncertain bounce from the City End. But that only allowed the ideal finale of ‘caught Gill, bowled Akash Deep’ as Carse holed out to cover.India were smarting after they had done the running for the first four days in Leeds, only to lose on the day that mattered most. Here in Birmingham, they nailed every single one.