When Rishabh Pant bats, it feels like he is capturing the thrill of life. He is endlessly fascinating, mostly exhilarating, occasionally staid and never boring.
Yet, for all the razzmatazz he brings, his presence in the middle is uniquely comforting. No Indian batter in recent times has played as many match-turning knocks as Pant in Test whites.
Day four of the opening Test against England at Headingley provided another opportunity for the dashing batter to showcase his worth.
The southpaw did not disappoint, scoring his second ton of the match (118, 140b, 15×4, 3×6) to join a select band of six other Indians to have achieved the feat (Vijay Hazare, Sunil Gavaskar, Rahul Dravid, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane and Rohit Sharma).
With Rahul (137, 247b, 18×4) – whose style and methods are in direct aesthetic confrontation to Pant’s but no less effective – he combined for 195 first-rate, fourth-wicket runs (in 280 balls).
The partnership helped India leave England with a 371-run target to chase. The hosts reached 21 for no loss at stumps, setting up a mouth-watering last day even as the threat of rain looms large. Curiously, Leeds is the only ground in the world where targets 350 or more have been chased successfully twice.
Earlier on Monday, Shubman Gill had fallen off the seventh ball of the morning, and under typical English bowling conditions, Pant, alongside overnight batter Rahul, had to ensure that India did not crumble in the second essay and allow England a solid hold. The duo managed that superbly.
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Pant started in typical fashion. He tried to hoick Chris Woakes the second ball he faced, but the cherry flew over the slip cordon. His next two boundaries were also streaky, an imbalanced slap down the ground and a top-edge.
An attempted falling ramp shot over short-fine nearly cost him, but the ball hit the bat before thudding on to his pads. But he soon buckled down, perhaps influenced by Rahul’s stoic, but towering, demeanour.
As Brydon Carse bowled a menacing line, Rahul conducted a batting clinic. He left the ball outside off supremely well and played those coming in with the softest of hands. The drop by Harry Brook at gully on 58 off Josh Tongue was the one jarring note, but Rahul was unaffected. In the first two hours, he added 25 runs, but by consuming 82 balls, he had thwarted England’s advance.
India’s Rishabh Pant reacts as he leaves the field after losing his wicket on day four of the first cricket test match between England and India at Headingley.
| Photo Credit:
AP
India’s Rishabh Pant reacts as he leaves the field after losing his wicket on day four of the first cricket test match between England and India at Headingley.
| Photo Credit:
AP
After the break, as Pant gave himself the license to break free, Rahul played the ideal foil. While Pant cut Tongue for four, caned offie Shoaib Bashir for two sixes in an over and pulled Carse in front of square, Rahul was unflappable, attacking only the bad balls, like the short one he pulled off Bashir for a boundary to move into the 90s.
A steer to the third-man fence took Rahul to 97 and soon he completed his ninth century – seventh outside the subcontinent – with a hard-run double. Nearly seven overs passed with Pant in the 90s – an inordinately long time by his standards – but he too soon tasted ecstasy with a quick single to point.
Before Pant was out caught at long-on off Bashir, he smashed Joe Root for two fours and a six. A symbolic knock-out punch? Time will tell.