(Football news) elegant. tasteful. Without effort. When you picture a typical left-hand batter, these are the qualities that immediately spring to mind. Someone who turns the ball on the leg side with a delicate touch and caresses it through covers.
It is not that left-hand hitter, Rishabh Pant. He is the complete opposite of that. He still captivates you with his distinct, nearly original approach. When he’s at his best, as he demonstrated against the Gujarat Titans when he hit an undefeated 88 off 43 balls, he gets into these geometry-defying postures and throws his entire body—including his bat—at the ball.
Consider the third ball of the 20th over of Delhi Capitals’ innings. Mohit Sharma went for a wide yorker. Rishabh Pant, who was already standing on the off stump, reached out for it, got it on the full and made contact just outside the wide guideline, with his head falling towards the point region.
By the time he completed the shot, he was balancing on his left hand, left knee and left foot. His right leg was stretched far away with the toe pointing down the wicket. As if he was a contortionist first, and a cricketer later.
In the meantime, the bat swing had completed a full circle, and he was able to generate so much power that the ball flew almost all the way to the deep point boundary. On the next three balls, he smashed three sixes to make it a 31-run over.
“Some blokes are batting like it’s a PlayStation game,” Tristan Stubbs said on the official broadcast before the match. Rishabh Pant just demonstrated what his team-mate stated. His onslaught lifted Capitals to 224 for 4, which turned out to be just enough in the end.
Things were not so rosy when Pant walked in. After Titans opted to bowl on a pitch that was initially two-paced, Sandeep Warrier picked up three wickets to reduce Capitals to 44 for 3 in the sixth over.
In the middle with Pant was Axar Patel, who was promoted to No. 3. “The only conversation between me and Axar was: ‘Let’s keep going, let’s get eight or nine every over’,” Pant said after the match. “We knew if we targeted their main spinners, because that’s how Gujarat play…their two spinners [Rashid Khan and Noor Ahmad] handle the game very well in the middle overs. And that’s what we talked about, that if we get something, we would take it on, [otherwise] will keep rotating the strike.”
It could not have panned out better with the duo taking Rashid and Noor for 22 each in their respective first two overs. That put Capitals in a much healthier state: 93 for 3 after 11 overs. The pair found at least one boundary in every Rashid and Noor over.
While Axar was more aggressive against spin, Pant took it upon himself to take down pace. When Mohit was introduced in the 12th over, Pant welcomed him with a pulled four. Later in the over, Mohit bowled a slower ball, his go-to delivery in this format. Rishabh Pant was waiting for it. He smacked his lips and cut it past point for another boundary.
When Mohit returned in the 16th over, Rishabh Pant hit him for two sixes. Axar fell in the 17th but by then the two had added 113 in 11.2 overs.
Rishabh Pant reached his fifty in 34 balls, with yet another six off Mohit. In all, he hammered Mohit for 62 runs in 18 balls – the most for a batter against one bowler in a T20 (where ESPNcricinfo have data). Of his eight sixes, seven came off Mohit’s bowling.
Every move Rishabh Pant has made after his recovery from a potentially fatal vehicle accident has been closely monitored. Although he appeared shaky at first, he has improved with each subsequent game. And he looked to be back to his best on Wednesday night.
Rishabh Pant was questioned if he agreed with this after the game and whether there was any evidence of it. “Whenever I hit a six in a match, it pleases my heart,” he replied. “At the same time, I am loving being on the field for each and every match and trying to do the best I can from my side.
“The only thing I can say is the more I stay on the ground, the better I feel. Coming off a long break, every day matters to me. Every hour I spend on the field, I just love it.”
Jay Shah, the secretary of the BCCI, had stated prior to the IPL that Pant might be included in India’s T20 World Cup team provided he could maintain wicket. Shah is not involved in the choice, but considering what happened last night, nobody would hold it against him if what he said came to pass.
