During the 55th match of the 11th season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) between Delhi Daredevils (DD) and Mumbai Indians (MI) at Delhi, Delhi Daredevils’ Rishabh Pant continued his exception form in the season by playing another whirlwind innings.
After Shreyas Iyer won the toss and chose to bat, Delhi Daredevils struggled to make the optimum use of the powerplay. Having lost their openers, they scored 46-2 in the powerplay.
Pant came in to bat at No. 4 in the fifth over. As had been the norm of the season for the Daredevils, Pant came in with his team in a spot of bother. Rohit Sharma introduced Mayank Markande into the attack right after the powerplay. Daredevils scored 14 runs in Markande’s first over as Pant scored a four and a six to get going in his innings.
The next two overs saw Pant scoring a couple of boundaries as runs started to come for the hosts. With Iyer dismissed in the ninth over, the onus was on Pant to play a substantial innings. At the halfway mark, the Daredevils had scored 83-3 and looked set to post a handsome total. At this point in time, Pant had scored 34* (20).
Pant did not score a boundary for the next four overs as Mumbai restrained Delhi’s batsman to some extent. In the next over, he hit a one-handed six off Mustafizur Rahman to break the shackles. On the penultimate delivery of the same over, with a single to long-on, Pant completed his fifth half-century of the season, eighth overall.
Pant took on Hardik Pandya in the following over, scoring a couple of innovative sixes. On the penultimate delivery of the 17th over, Pant hit a Krunal Pandya delivery to Kieron Pollard at long-on. He ended up scoring 64 (44) with the help of four fours and four sixes. In the process, Pant also got hold of the orange cap, scoring 684 runs in 14 matches at an average of 52.61 and a strike rate of 173.60.
Watch the full highlights:
https://twitter.com/videos_shots/status/998186090992320513
Watch how Twitterati reacted on Pant’s innings:
Rishabh Pant now holds the record for scoring most runs by wicket keeper in an IPL season…
Pre best: Uthappa 660 Runs
— Broken Cricket (@BrokenCricket) May 20, 2018
Pant is making sure he finishes the season with yet another brilliant knock & make all #MumbaiIndians fans sweat in their pants.#MIvsDD #IPL2018 #AlrightTerribleHumour
— Nakuul Mehta (@NakuulMehta) May 20, 2018
https://twitter.com/GappistanRadio/status/998158297692884992
Rishabh Pant's right hand making his left hand look useless. One hand six! #IPL
— Silly Point (@FarziCricketer) May 20, 2018
I'm loving Pant's innings.
— 😷 (@iamsriram98) May 20, 2018
I love to watch Pant bat 😂 #Mad
— arfan (@Im__Arfan) May 20, 2018
Plz get the wicket of danger man pant, otherwise it is bowling pitch if he stay at crease for long time he take away match from MI… Plz get his wicket as soon as possible.. 🙏#MIvsDD
— Meera45 (@immeera45) May 20, 2018
https://twitter.com/5_3shivani/status/998171899355156480
Pant destroyed Peak Fizz. This should be child's play for him.
— Alagappan Vijayakumar (@IndianMourinho) May 20, 2018
