WATCH | Akash Deep Rocks England With Early Double Strike on Day 5 of 2nd IND vs ENG Test After Rain Finally Abates in Birmingham

There was plenty of excitement around Day 5 of the second India vs England Test at Edgbaston, because it seemed like the visitors had a great chance to level the series before heading into the third Test match at Lord's as only 7 wickets stood in the way of them sealing an unprecedented victory at Birmingham. 

However, the rain Gods had other plans early on as a torrential outpour just before the start of the day's play meant that over an hour - and crucially 10 overs of play - were lost as a result. Suddenly, India needed to get wickets at an ever quicker rate than they anticipated. 

The good news for the Indian cricket team was that Akash Deep was in no mood to let the delay affect India's plans of going for a victory. 

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Watch Akash Deep's Wicket Balls Here

The pacer, who came into the playing XI in place of Jasprit Bumrah, got rid of two batters who could have potentially caused plenty of damage to India in the form of Ollie Pope and Harry Brook. 

Pope was dismissed when a ball that nipped back from a good length missed everything but the stumps, castling the under-pressure England batter and sending him back to the hut. 

As for Brook, he too fell victim to an in-swinger and one that was arguably even more vicious as it swung sharply and rammed into the batter's pads, trapping him plumb in front of the stumps. 

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England's Impossible Situation

For the hosts, Day 5 presented them with arguably the biggest test to their uber-attacking ‘Bazball’ style of cricket. They needed more than 500 runs to get the victory but only had 7 wickets in hand. 

The loss of 10 overs due to rain meant that, coming out to bat at the start of Day 5, they needed to score at an economy of 6.7 to be assured of a victory. 

The question therefore was simple - should they play for the draw or go hard in the hopes of an improbable win? 

The early signs suggested they went for the win but Akash Deep's double strike put the breaks on any charge for a win in the short term.