"Rishabh Pant Era has started"- Twitterati erupts as southpaw slams best ODI score
Rishabh Pant continued his sensational form with a blistering knock of 78 in the third ODI against England in Pune. The 23-year-old went past his previous best ODI score of 77 which he had racked up in the last game.
The youngster once again looked all set to reach his maiden ODI hundred. But this time he was undone by a one-handed stunner from stand-in England skipper Jos Buttler. Rishabh Pant tried to work Sam Curran's outside off-stump delivery towards the leg side, but edged it behind, departing for another impactful knock.
Twitter hails Rishabh Pant for another carnage in Pune
Rishabh Pant was gutted and looked livid with himself for playing across the line. Some fans on Twitter resonated with the 23-year-old's emotions as a century was there for the taking. But they also hailed the swashbuckling left-hander for yet another knock that changed the course of the Indian innings.
Here's what the fans had to say about Rishabh Pant's blitzkrieg:
Rishabh Pant walked out to bat when India had already lost two quick wickets, despite the openers putting on a century-stand. Wickets kept on tumbling at the other end and in no time, the hosts were reeling at 157-4. All eyes were on Pant to see how he was going to approach this mini-collapse.
England's Adil Rashid was the chief destroyer with two wickets up to that point. By clobbering England's best bowler of the day over mid-wicket, Rishabh Pant made his intentions pretty clear. Twice in two innings, Pant came out with a counter-attacking brand of cricket that England certainly didn't anticipate.
Be it Rashid, Moeen Ali or even part-timer Liam Livingstone, Pant didn't let any of the England spinners dictate terms to him. He just found a way to get a big shot at regular intervals and didn't let the visitors put any kind of pressure on him.
Pant's 99-run stand with Hardik Pandya put India in a strong position to score close to the 350-run mark. However, with both the set batsmen having perished now, a lot will depend on how the likes of Krunal Pandya and Shardul Thakur bat.
England's belligerent batting in the second ODI proved that anything below 350 could well be within their reach.