I just look to keep scoring runs and records follow: Rishabh Pant

Hard-hitting wicket-keeper batsman Rishabh Pant has celebrated his IPL retention by slamming the second fastest T20 century. Earlier, the Delhi lad was retained by his IPL franchise Delhi Daredevils for ₹ 11 crores.  The destructive opener has made it into the record books for hitting a century in just 32 balls. He achieved this feat in the ‘Zonal T20 League’ while playing for Delhi. He is second only to the Universe Boss, Chris Gayle who has got there in 30 balls.

Pant was handed over the responsibility of leading Delhi in the Ranji Trophy 2017-18. He has managed to take his team through to the finals. Delhi ended runner-up in the tournament. However, added burden of captaincy resulted in a dip in his batting numbers. Being the prolific run-scorer that he is, Pant has failed to score a century till this one in this season. Removing the burden of captaincy has helped him fare better with the bat.

‘I just look to keep scoring runs and records follow’

Speaking to BCCI.tv on this tremendous achievement, Pant had said “It was like I bat every day. Today, I came in with a bit more positive mindset. I was thinking that I have to bat long and score big. The wicket was good for batting. I started off normally and even left two-three balls when I got a good delivery. But then, I was middling the ball well and runs began to flow and I capitalised on that. I felt I had played 40-45 balls but later came to know that I had played 32 balls only for the hundred.”

“(Yes) It is my first century of the season. (While) every run that I score is important, I have been trying to score big for some time (now). I was only getting to 30/40/50/60 runs but wasn’t getting a big score. It was going on for some time like that. I was batting well but wasn’t able to convert it into big scores so that is what I was trying to do; to convert the knock into a big one and that happened today,” said Pant about the significance of this century.

Also, Pant said that he went back to his club (Sonnet Club) to meet his coach. His coach had given him one or two significant insights about his technique. Practicing in his club in front of his coaches in his club made him feel comfortable and boosted his confidence. He felt that this could have helped in this innings. Pant has scored 116(38) while chasing a target of 145 against Himachal Pradesh.

Here is the list of fastest centuries in T20 Cricket: