5 bat-losing moments in IPL ft. Rishabh Pant
Rishabh Pant was involved in a bizarre dismissal two nights ago in the IPL 2024 match between Delhi Capitals and Lucknow Super Giants. Batting for Delhi, Rishabh scored 41 off 23 balls and guided his team closer to a win against Lucknow.
On the fourth ball of the 16th over bowled by Ravi Bishnoi, Rishabh Pant charged down the track and tried to whack the ball past the boundary line, but he misjudged the ball and even lost grip of his bat.
The end result was KL Rahul executing a comfortable stumping to send Pant back to the pavilion. Pant's bat was near Rahul, while the Delhi skipper was way out of his crease when Rahul took the bails off the stumps.
In this listicle now, we will look at five such similar instances where the batters lost grip of their bats in IPL like Rishabh Pant.
#1 Karun Nair
Karun Nair was a teammate of Rishabh Pant in his debut IPL season in 2016. During a match between Delhi Daredevils and Rising Pune Supergiant at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in 2016, Nair tried to hit a big shot off a free hit against Ashok Dinda.
However, Nair could not hold his bat properly while trying the big hit off a wide full-toss. His bat flew and went towards the square leg umpire.
#2 Rishabh Pant
Two years ago, when Pant played against Kolkata Knight Riders, he played a magnificent reverse sweep off Varun Chakravarthy's bowling. He timed the shot well and earned four runs.
However, as soon as he connected with the shot, Pant fell on the ground and lost grip of his bat, which went flying behind the wicketkeeper. Luckily, the bat did not hit the stumps, otherwise Pant would have been dismissed hit wicket.
#3 Rishabh Pant (Again!)
Pant seems to have a habit of losing his bat while playing in the IPL. Back in the 2021 season's Qualifier 1 match against Chennai Super Kings, Pant attempted a shot over the thirdman region against Dwayne Bravo.
While playing the shot, Pant lost grip of his bat and it went towards the square leg umpire. After Pant completed a single, the umpire took the bat and gave it to Shimron Hetmyer, who handed it over to his skipper.
#4 Hardik Pandya
Hardik Pandya led the Gujarat Titans to their maiden championship win in IPL 2022. During the league round of that season, the Titans took on Royal Challengers Bengaluru at the Wankhede Stadium.
On the final ball of the 10th over, Pandya made up his mind to smack a big shot against off-spinner Glenn Maxwell. However, he missed the shot as his bat went flying towards the square leg region. Pandya's wife Natasa Stankovic was a little surprised to see what happened on that delivery.
#5 Rishabh Pant
Surprise! Pant makes his presence felt on the list, again!. The Delhi Capitals captain lost his bat while trying a cut shot off a short wide delivery bowled by Sunrisers Hyderabad's Rashid Khan in IPL 2021.
Pant could not connect that hit, but he managed to send his bat towards the midwicket region. Looking at how often Pant loses grip of his bat, it should not be a surprise if he does it again in IPL 2024 soon.