[WATCH] Akash Deep celebrates maiden Test half-century during ENG vs IND 5th Test

Going into the third day of the fifth and final Test of the series between England and India at the Kennington Oval, the discussion was around how much the nightwatchman, Akash Deep, would survive before the captain, Shubman Gill, would take things into his hands. But the Bengal pacer proved them wrong with a fine half-century as he enjoyed his time in the middle.

On the third ball of the morning, Deep smacked Jacob Bethell’s left-arm spin into the mid-wicket region for a fine boundary. When Gus Atkinson missed his mark, trying to go for a yorker, the batter swung across the line wide of mid-on to get his second boundary of the day. That lifted the Indian crowd, who went mad.

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Yashasvi Jaiswal also kept attacking from the other end, while Deep opened up slightly to bring the bat face and found the gap for another four. In between, the luck favored him, as Zak Crawley, at the slips, dropped the catch of the batter after he dived right to the second slip as the ball popped off his hands.

Watch: Akash Deep notches up maiden Test half-century during ENG vs IND 5th Test

When Josh Tongue went short at the ball, Deep stayed tall and whipped it over the mid-on region for another boundary. He heaved across Atkinson over the mid-wicket region for another boundary before Jaiswal joined the party in using the pace and guiding it through the gully region.

Words fall short for a memorable knock! 👏🏻#TeamIndia's nightwatchman, #AkashDeep raises his first-ever Test fifty & the timing couldn't be better! 🙌🏻🇮🇳#ENGvIND 👉 5th TEST, DAY 3 | LIVE NOW on JioHotstar 👉 https://t.co/3V6YCy3sHy pic.twitter.com/QPlnTUA5wy

— Star Sports (@StarSportsIndia) August 2, 2025

Atkinson again made the mistake of giving the Bihar-born width, who found the gap at the backward point and slapped the short ball up and over the backward point for two boundaries in three balls. With another boundary on the leg side, he celebrated his maiden fifty in the longest format.

Akash has also now scored the second fifty for India, coming as the night-watcher after Amit Mishra got 84 runs in 2011 at the same venue. With more edges, Deep crossed his highest score in the first-class format as India’s lead got to 150 runs. The third-wicket stand also got their century as the game slowly looked to drift away from the home side.