CHENNAI: While all the focus has been on Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli's performances in the ongoing Vijay Hazare Trophy, another player that may also garner sizeable amount of attention is Rishabh Pant. The wicketkeeper-batter's high-risk, high-reward approach has made heads turn in Test cricket, but he has not had a similar impact in white-ball cricket. That lack of influence has put him in the background for some time now. When the national squad for the upcoming men's T20 World Cup was announced, Pant was clearly not part of the equation and it was far from a surprise to see his name missing. Such has been his predicament in the shorter formats in recent times.
The last time he featured in an ODI match was August last year. He was part of the Champions Trophy that India won at the start of the year but he didn't feature in a single game. Likewise, it was the same story during the recent ODI series against South Africa. His below-par shows in recent outings in the Test format has also not helped his case. And his last T20I match came in the same year in July. He's clearly down the pecking order in the short formats of the game.
For that reason, his 79-ball 70 for Delhi on Friday in the ongoing domestic competition is a welcome balm for the 28-year-old. Thanks to his contribution, Delhi registered a seven-run over Gujarat in their Group D meeting at the BCCI Centre of Excellence on the outskirts of Bengaluru. Just a couple of days back, he had been dismissed for 5 against Andhra in the first outing. While Pant might have a lot of catching up to do, this knock could give him the confidence going forward.
Before Pant walked onto the pitch, it was Virat Kohli who orchestrated Delhi's quick start. He rallied to a 29-ball half-century — his 84th in List A format. He scored 77 of Delhi's 108 runs before getting stumped by Urvil Patel off a beautiful delivery from left-arm spinner Vishal Jayswal.
Walking in at 98/3 in the 20th over, Pant took a conservative approach. According to partnership statistics, he was at 5 off 10 balls (4th wicket with Kohli), 26 off 26 balls (5th wicket with Badoni), before taking 62 balls to reach 50. He was stuck to his crease, and avoided any extravagant shots. But that eventually changed, post his fifty. It began when Ravi Bishnoi — who was brought back to the attack — saw his deliveries slammed to long on. From thereon, it seemed like Pant was in his natural habitat — shots-off-the-crease, sweep shots deep towards backwards square leg as he rushed to 20 in his next 16 balls after reaching his fifty. But the pick of the lot would be the shots deep from the crease, where he swivelled his bat to a ball moving outside off and the result being the ball on the covers' boundary.
With more innings like this, he could give selectors something to think about ahead of future series.
Rohit goes for duck
Days after he slammed a 94-ball 155 against Sikkim, former India captain Rohit Sharma suffered a golden duck in Mumbai's win against Uttarakhand in Jaipur in a Group C tie. Put to bat first, the lanky medium fast bowler Devendra Bora (3/74) scalped the most memorable victim of his career when he dug one short and Rohit instinctively went for a pull shot. Jagmohan Nagarkoti, stationed at deep fine leg, juggled before taking it on the second attempt.
That did not impact Mumbai's innings though, as useful contributions from keeper-batter Hardik Tamore (93 n.o, 82b), Sarfaraz Khan (55 of 49b) and Musheer Khan (55 off 56b) guided them to 331/7.
Elsewhere, Devdutt Padikkal continued his good run with another ton in defending champions Karnataka's 8-wicket-win against Kerala in Ahmedabad. Karun Nair was the other centurion, as he remained unbeaten at 130 runs in as many balls.
Select brief scores: Group A: Tamil Nadu 280 all out in 49.3 ovs (Mohamed Ali 57, Narayan Jagadeesan 55, Sai Sudharsan 51; Kumar Kartikeya 3/62) lost to Madhya Pradesh 283/8 in 49.2 ovs (Yash Dubey 92, Himanshu Mantri 90; Govinth Ganesh 4/54) by 2 wickets; Kerala 284/7 in 50 overs (Mohammed Azharuddeen 84, Baba Aparajith 71; Abhilash Shetty 3/59) lost to Karnataka 285/2 in 48.2 ovs (Karun Nair 130 not out, Devdutt Padikkal 124) by 8 wickets; Jharkhand 301 in 50 ovs (Shikhar Mohan 129, Anukul Roy 52; Khaleel Ahmed 4/49) bt Rajasthan 228 all out in 50 ovs (Karan Lamba 102; Shubham Singh 6/50); Group B: Uttar Pradesh 367/4 in 50 ovs (Aryan Juyal 134, Rinku Singh 106 not out; Taranpreet Sigh 2/74) bt Chandigarh 140 all out in 29.3 ovs (Manan Vohra 32; Zeeshan Ansar 4/29) by 227 runs; Group D: Railways: 266/9 in 50 ovs (Ravi Singh 76, Ansh Yadav 59, Satyanarayana Raju 3/41, Narasimha Raju 3/68) lost to Andhra 271/4 in 44.4 ovs (Ricky Bhui 76, Nitish Kumar Reddy 55 not out; Karn Sharma 3/46).