During the third day of the second Test between India and South Africa, the Indian wicket-keeper batter, Rishabh Pant threw his wicket away with a poor shot against Kagiso Rabada. Pant ran down the track and tried to hammer a short-length delivery from Rabada, but the southpaw only managed to have nicked the ball to Kyle Verreynne.
India was off to a great start to the day as the experienced duo of Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane batted fluently to put together a century partnership to increase the tourists’ lead. But their good work was undone as Kagiso Rabada sent the duo back into the pavilion in quick succession. India was suddenly under pressure at 163/4 and all eyes were on the pair of Hanuma Vihari and Rishabh Pant to take the lead beyond 200 runs.
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But the Indian wicket-keeper batter decided to go after Rabada without spending any time on the wicket and ended up losing his wicket in the process. Pant gave Rabada the charge but the pacer bowled a short delivery and Pant’s attempt to get bat on ball led him to get a faint edge, which was pouched behind the wicket, as the southpaw departed for a duck. However, legendary Indian cricketer, Sunil Gavaskar came hard on Pant for playing such an irresponsible shot.
During the live commentary of the match, Sunil Gavaskar said, “No excuses for that shot. Absolutely no nonsense about his natural game about this one. There has to be some sense of responsibility. Guys like Rahane have taken the blows. Guys like Pujara have taken it on their body, so you also fight it out.”
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Sunil Gavaskar went on to add that there won’t be “any kind words” for Rishabh Pant in the dressing room as well. India was down to 167/5 at the time after the dismissal of Pant, with an overall lead of just 140 runs. There was further damage done by the South African pacers as Lungi Ngidi sent back Ashwin, who was looking good with the bat again. India went into lunch at 188/6, leading by 161 runs.
Here is the video of the dismissal:
https://twitter.com/LoduLal02410635/status/1478664507798941697?s=20
Here is how the fans reacted to the same:
Can we give a chance to KS Bharat /Ishan Kishan just to see if we get better output. If they perform better ,there is no harm in going for better performing player..#RishabhPant#INDvsSA https://t.co/BNxOte4fF5
— Abhinav Singh (@27_abhinav) January 5, 2022
https://twitter.com/itspawanhere/status/1478664662853951488?s=20
If we lost this match surely it's on rishabh pant. First dropped the catch of KP and now played a T10 shot of his 3rd ball and get out like a club player.
— Arjun (@Arjun_Archer1) January 5, 2022
That was irresponsible shot by Rishabh Pant given the context of the match.
Hope he understands his role & score valuable runs for the team to win the test match. These kind of shots isn’t necessary especially at the start. #FreedomTestSeries #SAvsIND
— Sharat Chandra Bhatt (@imsbhatt0707) January 5, 2022
In next match shreyas Iyer should be given priority instead of rishabh pant
— Shubham Verma🇮🇳 (@vshubhamv488) January 5, 2022
https://twitter.com/Priyesh_py29/status/1478664318237376512?s=20
https://twitter.com/somnath20094585/status/1478664218593628164?s=20
