Former Indian opener Gautam Gambhir has hailed Rishabh Pant after the wicket-keeper batter scored a sublime century against South Africa at Newlands, Cape Town on Thursday.
Pant joined forces with Indian skipper Virat Kohli when the team lost two early wickets of Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane in the first two overs of the third day’s play.
Team India was under the cosh at 58-4 however Kohli and Pant were able to get their team back in the contest. The duo added a fine alliance of 94 runs as Kohli played a second fiddle to Pant’s aggressive knock.
The southpaw, who had come under the scanner for his rash shot in the second Test match, mixed his aggression with caution as he was precarious in the early stage of his innings. Pant also took the attack against Keshav Maharaj and smashed him for two consecutive sixes.
The left-hander scored his runs at a healthy strike rate and there would have been no contest between the two teams had Pant not played the blistering knock of 100 runs off just 139 balls. This was Pant’s fourth Test century and he deserves all the credit for keeping India in the game.
Gautam Gambhir said on Star Sports, “I feel it is one of the best hundreds overseas by an Indian. The sort of situation that was there, it is necessary to remember that he [Pant] had come into bat when India had lost two wickets in the first two overs. It is not that he had come when a platform had been set.”
“If he had gotten out there, the game might have become one-sided. So despite that, such an attacking hundred, with so much control and to play till the end and remain unbeaten – amazing knock.”
Meanwhile, Gambhir added that Pant will remember this hundred for a long time. In fact, out of Pant’s four centuries, three have come on the foreign shores.
“He [Pant] will remember this hundred for a very long time because he has scored more than 50 percent of the runs and on a wicket where every batter has struggled, from Virat Kohli, who didn’t look in that much rhythm in the second innings, to KL Rahul.”
The former KKR captain added that Pant would have scored more runs had he received support from Ravichandran Ashwin and Shardul Thakur. Ashwin was dismissed for seven runs while Thakur could only add five runs.
“Despite that, the attacking cricket he played and he could have scored even more runs if Ashwin or Shardul Thakur had given him support. We are seeing 100 off 139 deliveries, but this hundred could have become 140 or 150 if someone had batted with him.”
India needs another eight wickets while South Africa need 111 runs more to win the third Test match.
