Who doesn't like watching some pure old tail-end slogging once in a while? The sight of a fast bowler getting pumped 15 rows beyond the cow-corner boundary by supposedly the worst batter in the team - also a fast bowler - in fading light as the game hangs in the balance is enough to bring out visceral feelings of unadulterated joy which makes people take up the game as kids in the first place. All analysis gets thrown out of the window. Teammates jump around in delirium, even opponents try to contain their laughs and smiles.
Akash Deep, playing his first game of the series, provided a moment just like that on the fourth evening in Brisbane.
In a move that surprised many, he came in to bat at No.11, with Mohammed Siraj pushed up above both him and Jasprit Bumrah. With Ravindra Jadeja, the last recognised batter, dismissed, and India still 32 runs behind the follow on mark, Akash and Bumrah had a tough task on their hands.
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They mixed caution with aggression. Bumrah hooked a six off Pat Cummins, Akash upper cut Mitchell Starc for four, and guided one over gully off Cummins as India crossed 245. By then, the partnership had lasted 50 balls. With the weight of avoiding the follow on off, Akash cut loose. Two balls after the stroke that took India to safety, he cleared his front leg for an almighty heave across the line and ended up depositing the ball well into the stands, much to the joy of the Indian dressing room and fans.
Almost immediately after, umpires took the players off for bad light. As if the cricketing gods had decided that peak entertainment for the day was achieved.
When India's ninth wicket fell, they still needed 33 runs to avoid a follow-on.
— Wisden India (@WisdenIndia) December 17, 2024
Akash Deep and Jasprit Bumrah safely took the team through 💪 pic.twitter.com/foVVjeL1J9
No mug with the bat
At 27 not out off 32 balls, this is currently Akash Deep's highest Test score. In first-class cricket, however, he has scored more than this six times. Across formats, that number rises to 10. His most famous outing with the bat, though, came in 2022, when he scored an unbeaten 53 off just 18 balls, the only half-century of his career so far.
In the 2021/22 Ranji Trophy quarter-final against Jharkhand, Bengal were put in to bat, and they made merry. More than merry, in fact. Each of the nine batters that came out to bat scored at least a half-century, a feat never achieved before in first-class cricket. Two scored hundreds. Bengal scored 773 after batting for 218.4 overs.
Also read: Nine fifties in one innings – Bengal break records in Ranji Trophy quarter-final run-fest
In that game, Akash had come out to bat at No.9 with the score reading 714-7. His partnership with Shahbaz Ahmed lasted 28 balls, fetching 59 runs. Of those, 53 came out of Akash's bat, in a whirlwind knock that included no fours and eight sixes.
With an 18-ball fifty, Akash broke the world record of the fastest fifty in the first innings of a first-class match, going past Lendl Simmons' 20-ball effort.
His six off Cummins today was the fifth of his Test career in just his eighth innings with the bat. VVS Laxman had that many in his entire Test career.
India would be hoping he could add to that tally on the fifth morning and narrow down the deficit further before turning up with the ball and potentially enforcing a collapse to set up a very improbable chance of victory. Even if he does none of that, he might just have done enough to save the game for India.
