Watch: Rishabh Pant hits a stunning one-handed six off Sam Curran
Indian wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant smashed a brilliant one-handed six off Sam Curran’s bowling in the second ODI against England.
On the third ball of the 46th over, Curran decided to decrease the pace. Even though Pant was beaten by the slower ball outside the off stump, the batsman still trusted his instincts and attacked it one-handed. Rishabh Pant managed to get enough power into the stroke and launched it over the long-on boundary for a maximum.
The 23-year-old played a scintillating innings of 77 from 40 balls, which featured three fours and seven sixes. The first of his sixes came off a googly from Adil Rashid, which was deposited into the midwicket stands.
The left-hander then hammered Ben Stokes for back-to-back sixes in the 41st over, with one over square leg and the other over long-on. When Tom Curran came in to bowl the next over, Pant attacked him as well, slashing him over midwicket in what turned out to be a 22-run over.
The big hits continued and Rishabh Pant was looking set for a hundred when he perished against Tom Curran. The southpaw sliced one to Jason Roy at third man, who took a low catch after seemingly misjudging it.
India ended up with an impressive 336 for 6 in their 50 overs in the second ODI. Shikhar Dhawan, the Man of the Match in the last game, fell for 4, caught in the slips off Reece Topley.
Rohit Sharma again got a start but fell for a run-a-ball 25 to Sam Curran. Skipper Virat Kohli and KL Rahul then built a solid platform for India, featuring in a century stand for the third wicket. While Kohli perished for 66, Rahul went on to complete his fifth ODI hundred before being dismissed for 108.
Rishabh Pant and Hardik Pandya (35 from 16) then provided the finishing touches to the innings as India put up an impressive total.
Rishabh Pant picked over Suryakumar Yadav
Earlier in the day, Kohli confirmed that Pant has been picked in the playing XI for the second ODI as a replacement for Shreyas Iyer.
The latter has been ruled out of the series due to a shoulder injury he picked up while fielding in the first game of the series.
It was widely being predicted that Suryakumar Yadav would be handed his ODI debut on Friday following his T20I exploits. The Indian think-tank, however, decided to go in with the attacking left-hander.
And Rishabh Pant did nothing to let his captain down, coming up with a stupendous knock.