Former Indian all-rounder Sanjay Bangar hailed wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant’s scintillating half-century against Australia at Sydney, saying that the 27-year-old’s “bravery” has put India in a position from which India can win the Test match and draw the series. Pant scored his fifty in just 29 balls during day two of the Test match at Sydney. The half-century came after a frustrating wait to convert his fine starts into something more meaningful that lasted four Test matches. However, he lost his wicket to Aussie skipper Pat Cummins and India ended at 141/6, with a lead of 145 runs.
Speaking on Star Sports, Bangar lauded Pant for tackling pacers Mitchell Starc’s swing and Scott Boland’s length well during his knock.
“The kind of bravery that Rishabh Pant portrayed with his bat, that is the only reason I think that India is in a position where we are still thinking that we can win this match. If you keep this innings aside, the way he played, the calculative risks that he took, the way he played those shots, because Mitchell Starc’s deliveries swing in when the ball gets a bit old so he played the shots towards the square-leg. Scott Boland who hits the length, he stepped out and played him, where there was no fielder in the point region he played those cut shots.”
Bangar said that it was a “composed innings” and hailed Pant for his diversity, having played a hard-fought knock of 40 in 98 balls, with three fours and a six in the first innings and endured plenty of blows to the body.
“So it was quite a composed innings, it was not that he came out and started playing shots without even thinking anything about it. When he plays like this, he has shown that he is quite diverse and you also expect that when a player has played 40-45 test matches, the way he played in the first innings where he took those blows on his body, sometimes you will have to play like that and you’ll have to respect the conditions. And today situation of the match was such that a strategy a was put in place where he played counter-attacking innings and it is quite pleasant to watch when he plays those counter-attacking innings,” he concluded.
During the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy, Pant has not been at his absolute best but still made 255 runs in five matches and nine innings at an average of 28.33, and a strike rate of 59.02, with one half-century. He has been unable to convert the most of his starts during the series into big knocks. He is the sixth-highest run-getter in the series.
Coming to the match, India won the toss and elected to bat first. India was off to a disappointing start yet again as the top order threw away their wickets, especially Virat Kohli (17) who continued his struggles with outside off-stump deliveries.
However, the fight by Pant (40 in 98 balls, with three fours and a six), Ravindra Jadeja (26 in 95 balls, with three fours) and skipper Jasprit Bumrah (22 in 17 balls, with three fours and a six) pushed India to 185/10 in 72.2 overs.
Boland (4/31) was the pick of the bowlers for the Aussies and once again a thorn in the eyes of Indian batters. Mitchell Starc took 3/49 while Pat Cummins got 2/37.
In their first innings, Australia lost wickets at regular intervals even when Jasprit Bumrah (2/33) walked off the field due to an injury scare. Under the stand-in skipper Virat, India continued to dominate the Aussies, skittling them out for just 181 runs and taking a four-run lead. Debutant Beau Webster (57 in 105 balls, with five fours) had a fine showing with the bat and Steve Smith (33 in 57 balls, with four boundaries and a six) showed some attacking intent.
Prasidh Krishna (3/42) and Mohammed Siraj (3/51) were the top bowlers for India.
In their second innings, despite a promising start by Yashasvi Jaiswal (22 in 35 balls, with four boundaries) and KL Rahul (13), Indian batters fell to trap of Boland’s (4/42) impressive lines and lengths, with KL, Shubman Gill (13), Virat (6), Nitish Kumar Reddy (8) falling cheaply to consolidate Australia’s position in the match. At the end of the day, India made 141/6, with Jadeja (8*) and Sundar (6*).
Topics mentioned in this article
