SL vs IND 2024: Rishabh Pant takes too long to dislodge bails as stumping chance goes begging

India and Sri Lanka are squaring off in the third ODI at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo on Wednesday, August 7. Rishabh Pant and Riyan Parag replaced KL Rahul and Arshdeep Singh in this must-win encounter for India, who are trailing by a 0-1 margin in the three-match series.

During the penultimate over of the first innings, Pant made an uncharacteristic error behind the stumps, giving Maheesh Theekshana a reprieve. The incident occurred off the last ball of the 49th over bowled by Kuldeep Yadav.

The Sri Lankan spinner stepped out and attempted a wild swing across the line. Kuldeep saw him coming and tossed the ball wide outside off-stump. The ball kept low and went through to Pant, who had to maintain a low base to collect it. However, after doing the first part of his job commendably, Pant took too long to take dislodge the bails as Theekshana made his way back to the crease.

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Even Theekshana thought he was stumped as he started walking before the third umpire made his call. Theekshana's bat was in the air when Pant took off the bails but it didn't matter as the former had grounded it inside the crease before it bounced.

Sri Lanka got off to a fantastic start after winning the toss and opting to bat first for the third time in the series. Pathum Nissanka and Avishka Fernando added 89 runs off 119 balls before the former departed for a well-compiled 45. Avishka, however, continued to mix caution with aggression en route to a 102-ball 96. His partnership of 82 off 94 balls with Kusal Mendis put Sri Lanka in a position of strength at 171/1 in the 36th over. However, the tourists bounced back nicely to take the next five wickets for just 28 runs.

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Kusal Mendis and Kamindu Mendis batted well in the death overs and helped the hosts get to a good score of 248/7 on a challenging track. Riyan Parag was the pick of the bowlers for India on his ODI debut as he finished with figures of 3/54 in nine overs.