After going 14 IPL matches without a half-century, Rishabh Pant notched one up in the warm-up match between India and Leicestershire at the Grace Road Stadium, Leicester.
Pant, along with Pujara, Bumrah and Krishna, had been drafted into the Leicestershire eleven so that the 15 available members of the touring party – KL Rahul has been ruled out while Ashwin arrived late due to covid – get match practice before the all-important Edgbaston Test starting July 1 against Ben Stokes‘ England side.
The conditions at Grace Road have been favourable for the pacers, with the ball swinging a decent amount in the air and nipping in and away sharply and big from the surface. On Day 1 from the Indians’ eleven only KS Bharat crossed 50 – 70* battling for 111 balls – while on Day 2, Pujara, batting at number 3 for Leicestershire bagged a duck.
Rishabh Pant played a brilliant knock
Leicestershire found themselves in a precarious position at 44/3 when Pant arrived at the crease in the 14th over, the red ball moving healthily. Rishabh Pant wasted no time and straightaway went after Indian pacers Shardul Thakur and Mohammed Siraj, at least one of whom, or even both are expected to play in the Edgbaston Test, and creamed them three fours combined.
Senior pacer Mohammed Shami, who had bowled Pujara for a duck, too wasn’t spared by Pant’s attacking instincts as he also got walloped for a total of six boundaries in his returning spell by the left-hander.
Pant got into his mood as he took upon climbing into short deliveries off Umesh Yadav after he had brought up his fifty with a scoop six off the veteran seamer! A couple of boundaries whacked to Umesh and Siraj each before Ravindra Jadeja dismissed Pant, caught by Shreyas Iyer as he hit one too many.
Pant ended with 76 runs off 84 balls in an entertaining knock wherein he smashed 14 fours and a six.
Netizens were thoroughly entertained by Pant’s pyrotechnics in the warm-up game that will keep him in good stead going into the Test match.
Here are some of the Twitter reactions to Pant’s blitzing knock:
Fifty by Rishabh Pant in 73 balls against India in the warm up game. A great knock by him! pic.twitter.com/pU2nGgfQaO
— Mufaddal Vohra (@mufaddal_vohra) June 24, 2022
Glorious Rishabh Pant, one of the best in Tests in last 2 years. pic.twitter.com/Nwg7OxkdZu
— Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns) June 24, 2022
Rishabh Pant’s been on-field with a Leicestershire team for all of a session, and this morning he walked in cracking jokes with them like he’d known them his whole life.#IndiaTourMatch#LEIvIND
— Nakul Pande (@NakulMPande) June 24, 2022
Well played, Rishabh Pant – 76 runs from just 87 balls – top scorer of the Warm-up match so far. pic.twitter.com/3MH6T18uh0
— Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns) June 24, 2022
Rishabh Pant treating it like a warm up match
pic.twitter.com/pH4o8PRv8X
— India Fantasy (@india_fantasy) June 24, 2022
Rishabh Pant completed his fifty in just 73 balls in the warm up match. He reaches his fifty with a SIX. pic.twitter.com/DBT0gI76XQ
— CricketMAN2 (@ImTanujSingh) June 24, 2022
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