India pacer Akash Deep faced criticism for his friendly gesture towards Ben Duckett after dismissing him. The England opener took the send-off well.
Not always do you see a bowler getting severely criticised for his arm around an opposition batter, that too with a smile on his face. Then again, not often does a bowler do that immediately after dismissing him in a hard-fought series. The bowler in question here is India pacer Akash Deep. The batter to receive Akash Deep’s arm was Ben Duckett.
It happened in the 13th over of the England innings when Duckett, in his attempt to play another reverse ramp, got an outside edge to wicketkeeper Dhruv Jurel. This was the fourth time Duckett was dismissed by Akash Deep but for the first time, it was after the left-hander had given a fair bit of tap to the Indian pacer. Duckett hit four fours and a six off Akash Deep in his blazing innings of 43 off 38 balls before getting dismissed.
Akash Deep had the last laugh for sure but what he did after getting the wicket of Duckett became a talking point. The Indian pacer wrapped his arm around Duckett’s shoulder and had a few words of wisdom, which were not received well by former cricketers Ricky Ponting, Michael Atherton and Dinesh Karthik.
Ponting, in fact, agreed that he wouldn’t have shied away from landing a right hook if Akash Deep had done something similar to him during his playing days.
“I can think of a few batsmen down the years that would take umbrage at this, and I’m looking very much in your direction. That would have been a Ponting right hook, wouldn’t it?” asked sports presenter Ian Warnd in a Sky Sports Lunch break show on Day 2.
“Probably yeah, probably,” replied Ponting.
Thankfully, Duckett didn’t see things like Ponting. The England opener took Akash Deep’s send-off rather sprotingly before walking off.
Ponting said his respect for Duckett grew after seeing how the attacking opener handled things after getting dismissed. “Although I mean, when I saw it, I just thought they must have been mates or played against each other somewhere or together. I would like to have something like that. I mean, you don’t see that every day, maybe in a local park game or not in a test match that’s been played as fiercely as this series has been played. I love the way that Ben Duckett plays his cricket. I think I like him more now to not to be able to react to that,” Ponting added.
Yashasvi Jaiswal’s fortuitous half-century turned India’s slender first-innings deficit into a 52-run lead on a dramatic second day of the fifth Test against England at The Oval.
On a pitch offering unpredictable bounce, 15 wickets fell on Friday as bowlers held sway. India, resuming at 219-7, added just five runs in the morning to be bowled out for 224. England responded with an explosive start, racing to 100 in just 13 overs, but collapsed to 247 all out, taking a slim 23-run lead.
