Rishabh Pant slams an incredible one-handed six against Windies

He also scored his maiden T20I half-century.

Published - 12 Nov 2018, 13:19 IST | Updated - 12 Nov 2018, 13:19 IST

2 Min Read

Indian wicket-keeper Rishabh Pant has a knack of hitting maximums. He had slammed the second ball he faced in Test cricket out of the park at Trent Bridge in England. On Sunday, the 21-year-old hard-hitting keeper displayed once again his ability to hit the big shots and this time around, he cleared the boundaries with just one hand in the final T20I against the Windies in Chennai.

Pant, who is being seen as the successor of the legendary MS Dhoni, was not in the best of form since the Test series against the Windies in which he scored a couple of 90s following his maiden century in the longest format at the Oval in September. He played in the five-match ODI series as a specialist batsman as Dhoni did the glovework but could not score big in the two matches he batted. In the first two games of the T20I series in which he was picked ahead of Dhoni as the wicket-keeper, too, Pant was not impressive with the bat as he managed 1 and 5.

Pant slams maiden T20I fifty when it mattered

However, he had a different day in the middle in the third T20I which went down to the last ball to be decided. He came out to the middle at No.4 during India’s chase of 182 in 20 overs and added 130 runs in just 13 overs with opener Shikhar Dhawan (92) for the third wicket after two went down for 45. When Pant departed on his individual score of 58 (38 balls; five fours and three sixes), India required just seven runs in 10 balls. India won the game in the final ball of the match to clinch the series 3-0.

It was Pant’s maiden half-century in T20I cricket, a format in which he made his international debut in February 2017. He has played only seven T20Is since his debut but his fifty in Chennai will definitely do his confidence a world of good ahead of the challenging tour of Australia. India will play Australia in the first of the three T20Is in Brisbane on November 21.

Talking about his one-handed six, it was the last ball of the 13th over which was bowled by Kieron Pollard. Although Pant didn’t negotiate with the slow pace of the ball too well, he nevertheless had enough power in the one-handed stroke to send the ball out of the ground over deep mid-wicket. His bottom hand came off while executing the shot but the result was still a happy one for the Indian fans.