Birmingham, July 6 (IANS) Akash Deep and Washington Sundar picked crucial scalps after a long rain delay as India inched closer to a famous victory after reducing England to 153/6 in 40.3 overs at lunch on day five of second Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy Test at Edgbaston.

With 455 runs still left for England to make, the responsibility lies on Jamie Smith, who’s unbeaten on 32, to try and not let India secure a series-levelling win, which will also be their first-ever Test victory at Edgbaston. With 55.3 overs left in the day, India will fancy their chances to take the remaining four wickets.

Akash kickstarted India’s path of victory by removing overnight batters Ollie Pope and Harry Brook in the early phase of morning session, before Washington’s dismissal of England skipper Ben Stokes on the stroke of lunch meant the visitors’ are well set to get a huge win.

Akash, who took out Ben Duckett and Joe Root in a scintillating spell on Saturday, gave India the perfect start in his second over of the day when he got extra bounce on a back of the length delivery and hit Ollie Pope on his elbow before deflecting onto his stumps.

He then got one to jag back in sharply off a length into Brook and it also kept low to trap Harry Brook lbw, with the review not coming to his aid as ball tracking said it would have hit top of middle stump on ‘umpire’s call’.

Smith, who hit an unbeaten 184 in first innings, took three quick boundaries off Akash, while Stokes showed some authoritative strokeplay by hitting Mohammed Siraj for four boundaries. Ravindra Jadeja got some turn to trouble Smith and Stokes, who doesn’t have a great record against the veteran left-arm spinner.

After Jadeja completed the 40th over under 100 seconds, it proved to be decisive, as Stokes was trapped lbw while doing a forward defence against Washington. Stokes went for the review, but the ball, having some late drift, dip and turn in it, struck his pad first and showed it would hit the stumps, leaving him and England devastated, as India inched closer to the finish line.

Brief Scores: India 587 and 427/6 dec in 83 overs (Shubman Gill 161, Ravindra Jadeja 69 not out; Josh Tongue 2-93, Shoaib Bashir 2-119) lead England 407 and 153/6 in 40.3 overs (Ben Stokes 33, Jamie Smith 32 not out; Akash Deep 4-58, Washington Sundar 1-2) by 455 runs

–IANS

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