Ponting Would’ve Punched Akash Deep If He Gave Him A Send-Off: “Local Park..”

The second day of the fifth India vs England Test at The Oval was a particularly heated one when the hosts came out to bat in their first innings. The Indian bowlers riled up the England players. Two incidents – one in which Prasidh Krishna aggressively sledged Joe Root and the second one in which Akash Deep gave Ben Duckett a cheeky send-off – were the most talked about. After India was quickly bundled out for 224 runs in the opening overs of day two, England dominated the first session with some fine hitting from Duckett and Zak Crawley, who spared no one in their sight and went hard against a Jasprit Bumrah-deprived Indian team. The duo stitched a 92-run opening stand, and the session ended with England scoring in excess of 100 runs.

During the first session, Duckett tried getting under Akash Deep’s skin, saying, “You cannot get me out in here”.

In response, while Akash did not say anything, Duckett hit him with a reversed ramp shot to the delight of the English crowd. The next few deliveries by Akash saw Duckett struggling, and the seamer eventually got him caught behind by wicketkeeper-batter Dhruv Jurel for 43 in 38 balls, with five fours and two sixes, breaking the 92-run stand.

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Akash Deep’s gesture was not taken well by several ex-players.    

“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?” sports presenter Ian Ward asked Ricky Ponting on Sky Sports during the Lunch break on Day 2.

“Probably yeah, probably,” replied the former Australia captain.

Ponting went on to laud Duckett for handling the incident calmly. “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.

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