A player down one day into the Oval Test, England’s openers came out all guns blazing on the second morning, including a thrilling passage of play between Ben Duckett and Akash Deep.
It started and ended with a reverse-scoop.
The still image of Ben Duckett and Akash Deep, walking together with one’s arm around the other, might well be misconstrued years later as a moment of camaraderie. It was anything but that: across thirteen overs of supercharged cricket, garnished by a bit of an ego poke, Duckett (and England) landed blow after blow on India in the first session, even if Deep had the final jab.
When India’s lower order was crumbling earlier in the morning – losing four wickets in six overs – the wicket looked green and spicy. It jagged around when Duckett and Zak Crawley started out, but slow-burn survival has never been the duo’s MO.
Deep, absent to injury from the last Test, shared the new ball with Mohammed Siraj, not too long after the BCCI’s belated advisory confirmed that Jasprit Bumrah had been released from the squad. His first over went by quietly, just a run off it. His strategy was simple and repetitive, bowling it on the stumps and seaming it away, squaring Duckett up. But it quickly went out of style.
Next over, first ball, Duckett got knocked on the box, a sight, uncomfortably, not too uncommon across this series. A short break and a sip of water later, Duckett survived an lbw review, one that Deep implored Shubman Gill to take. A play and a miss later, Duckett had another close call, a lobbed edge off his bat just falling short of two slip fielders.
Deep took the opportunity to walk up to Duckett, and tell him what he felt.
It flicked a switch somewhere.
Next ball, Duckett jumped to a mirrored stance at the moment of Deep’s release. Out came the reverse-scoop, and the ball sailed over the slip cordon’s head for a six.
After that, the tack changed. He decided to play with Deep’s lengths, waltzing down the wicket at anything remotely short and wide. He swatted deliveries through the covers, repeatedly making Deep check his lengths. It didn’t come off all the time, but the overarching idea was crystal clear. Keep counter-punching. Deep’s stained shirt was looking browner.
By the seventh over, he brought up the team fifty with another scoop, this time off Mohammed Siraj.
With Siraj leaking runs, Gill exchanged ends for Deep, bringing Prasidh Krishna in. It didn’t really matter. He went for 23 off his first three.
Deep’s next over brought a rare sequence of quiet. He mixed it up: full, short-of-length, length, and Duckett’s shots didn’t quite come out like they were. Off the final ball, he resorted to the reverse-scoop once again, but that was it. A feather edge trickled to the wicketkeeper, bringing a tame end to the onslaught.
Deep added a memorable coda: he clutched Duckett’s shoulder as he walked off – an uncomfortably fake-friendly arm around – whispering in his ear what he felt, again. KL Rahul pulled him away, and the umpire told Deep what he felt too, an unofficial tap on the shoulder before a possible sanction came his way. Another day, another passage full of drama. Keep the needle going.
This could have been the knockout blow, even as India kept fighting.
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