RISHABH PANT: Pant’s innings against Bangalore was one of the great IPL innings. His father died earlier in the week and for him to play that innings, on that stage, in that match, at just 19 years of age, after all that had happened to him, was simply staggering.
Pant displayed a mental toughness in that innings that makes the power of his batting all the more exciting. A week of grief but an evening of brilliance indeed.Pant’s very first ball, from slow left-armer Abdulla, was plucked off leg stump, elevated by his whiplash wrists, and sailed serenely over the fence at corner. Pant looked exhausted and a touch bewildered as headed back with 57 off 36 to his name.