IPL 2018: Rishabh Pant hammers

seventh fifty, leads Delhi

Daredevils fightback
Rishabh Pant struck his seventh IPL half-century with a flurry of attacking shots against pace
and spin against Royal Challengers Bangalore in an Indian Premier League match
Updated: May 12, 2018 21:35 IST

N Ananthanarayanan
Hindustan Times, New Delhi

Rishabh Pant hammered a 27–ball half-century to pull Delhi Daredevils

out of early trouble against Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian
Premier League at the Ferozeshah Kotla ground on Saturday. The 20-year-
old left-handed batsman struck his seventh IPL half-century with a flurry
of attacking shots against pace and spin. It was Pant’s fourth fifty of IPL
2018, beside a century. His fifty included four fours and four sixes. Delhi
were 99/2 in the 12thover with skipper Shreyas Iyer batting at the other
end.

Pant, in red-hot form after smashing 128 not out, the highest score of IPL
2018, against Sunrisers Hyderabad on Thursday in a losing cause, took off
from where he had left.

He dealt purely in the pull shot early, taking on Kiwi pacer Tim Southee
and then Umesh Yadav before hoisting Mohammed Siraj over long-on and
long-off for sixes in the eighth over.

He dominated the 37-ball fifty stand for the third wicket with skipper
Shreyas Iyer, to rotated the strike to let Pant go after the bowling.
The Delhi wicketkeeper, who experts led by former India skipper Sourav
Ganguly say must be consistent to come into India reckoning, went past
Kings XI Punjab opener KL Rahul as the highest scorer of IPL 2018 when
he got to 19.