Rishabh Pant and MS Dhoni. (Photo Source: Twitter)
The final delivery of the 37th over in New Zealand’s first innings saw Rishabh Pant being forced off due to enduring a blow to his right knee due to the ball hitting an unprotected portion of his leg. However, Pant’s knock in India’s reply to the Kiwis posting 402 was an embodiment to the age-old proverb – the comeback is always greater than the setback. Barring the first two boundaries coming courtesy off a streaky outside-edge and a lofted shot which just about cleared mid-on, every other shot which he scored was something he was in total control of. His form continued as he brought his half-century in 55 deliveries.
The one-legged sweep which soared 107 m saw Pant just four runs short of his seventh Test ton. He was at 99 runs until William O’Rourke’s delivery saw him chop-on a back-of-a-length delivery from around-the-wicket back on his stumps, leaving him blank. The crowd did send him off with a standing ovation, but it did not really matter to Pant who had his eyes fixated on the ton and batting for more time than he eventually ended up doing.
With this, he joined MS Dhoni in a regrettable list of Indian batters getting out on 99 in the red-ball format. Notably, it was 12 years back during the fourth and final Test of the series against England which saw Dhoni attempting to steal a quick single to bring up his century saw him run-out by a whisker via a sharp throw from opposition skipper, Alastair Cook, running in from mid-off. Interestingly, as many as three players from the XI in that match in Nagpur are featuring in the ongoing match in Bengaluru – Virat Kohli, Ravindra Jadeja, and Ravichandran Ashwin.
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Lower middle-order, tail offer neglible resistance as India get bowled out for 462
Only KL Rahul and Ashwin reached double digits with the other four batters barring the top-5 contributing to only 11 of the 462 as India set a target of 107 for New Zealand to chase down.
The Kiwi openers did make their way out to the middle under gloomy conditions. However, the on-field umpires decided to call it a day after an unsatisfactory reading on the light meter was calibrated. Rohit Sharma was seen having a long chat with the umpires, but to no avail. Soon after, it started pouring heavily which saw the remainder of the day getting called off.