Twitter Reactions: Rishabh Pant demolishes the West Indies in Visakhapatnam

Rishabh Pant scored his maiden T20I half-century at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai, but missed out on converting it into a ton. Despite him scoring big, there were questions regarding whether he would be able to carry on with his form or not. It was because, he has been inconsistent in his short career for Team India owing to which he has been a recipient of severe criticism.

However, in the second T20I in Visakhapatnam, Pant showed that his fifty in Chennai didn’t happen by fluke by any stretch of the imagination. Unlike the game in Chennai, the southpaw didn’t have much time to make a big impact. He came to bat with only 39 deliveries left in the Indian innings. Sheldon Cottrell got rid of Rohit Sharma after which the left-hander took charge in the middle.

Rishabh Pant goes hammer and tongs

He announced himself with a colossal six off Alzarri Joseph and went on to smack another over-boundary in the same over. In the next over, Pant laid into Cottrell and hammered him for 24 runs with three scorching fours and a couple of sixes. By the end of the over, Rishabh was on 38 off a mere 13 balls. He had Shreyas Iyer, who was looking equally dangerous, for company.

The duo put on 73 runs off a mere 24 balls to fizzle out the spirits from the West Indies bowlers. Pant didn’t have the fear of getting out and he expressed himself without nurturing any inhibition. At one stage, it seemed as if he will go on to break Ajit Agarkar’s record of the fastest ODI fifty by an Indian off 21 balls. The onslaught also helped India cross the 350-run mark without much fuss.

However, just when Pant was seeming to give India the final kick to their innings, Keemo Paul cut short his knock. The speedster dug the ball on the pitch and also kept it away from the batsman. The batsman didn’t get any sort of timing and Nicholas Pooran, who was at sweeper cover, took a simple catch. Though he got out, Pant put the Men in Blue in a commanding position in the game.

Here is how Twitter praised Pant for the whirlwind knock