Cape Town: Extremely impressed with the way Rishabh Pant batted in India’s second innings, teams’ bowling coach Paras Mhambrey on Thursday said that Pant’s innings was the key behind India being in a position to potentially win this Test match.
Pant produced a stellar hundred in face of some hostile bowling by the home bowlers in difficult conditions. India set Proteas a 212-run target, thanks to Pant’s fearless approach. “It was a fabulous innings that really got us back in the game. From a personal perspective there is pressure on him (Pant), obviously in a couple of innings didn’t get runs but getting runs at a crucial stage for the team, that is important,” Mhambrey said after the end of third day’s play.
Pant faced criticism for his poor shot selection in his previous innings, but with this brilliant innings he has answered all the critics on Thursday. This is the fourth century of Rishabh Pant in Test career. “And it really set the game (up) nicely for us and I think really happy with the way he played. It wasn’t an easy wicket to bat on but (he) showed a lot of character out there, really pleased,” Mhambrey added.
The coach was pleased that Pant responded to the situation in the best possible manner as he did not play any rash shot and stayed focused on building partnerships. As Pant and skipper Virat Kohli’s 94-run stand for the fifth wicket could certainly be one of the turning points of the Test if India go on to win it and clinch the series.
“At that stage, you wanted a partnership ideally and you have someone like Virat (Kohli) at the other end, you wanted to stitch a nice partnership, which was going on. At that stage, as a batsman, you will (have to) sometimes take a back seat as well and assess the conditions and say what is the right thing at that stage. In terms of going ahead for the game and in that sense he (Pant) batted very well.”
With his unbeaten 100 the wicketkeeper-batsman became the first wicketkeeper from India to score a Test century in South Africa. Before him the record for the highest individual score by an Indian wicketkeeper against Proteas belonged to MS Dhoni, who hit 90 in a Test match in Centurion during the 2010/11 tour. Pant’s score is also the highest score by an Asian wicketkeeper batsman in South Africa. Besides Dhoni former Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara had scored 89 in 2002/03 while Bangladesh’s Liton Das had played a knock of 70 at Bloemfontein in 2017/18.
Mhambrey said Pant realised that after the skipper was dismissed, he took it upon himself to take the leader’s role at the crease. “Once you lost Virat, he had to take that leading role and which he did and then stitched partnership with the tail-enders as well. He batted very sensibly, giving us a great opportunity to win a Test from here.”
Mhambrey was hopeful that conditions will allow Indian pacers a fair chance for a fight and all they need is to just hit the right lengths. “It is not an easy wicket, I think there is a little awkward bounce on a patch, which has been created, but it is not going to be an easy wicket. We still know that even today in the later stages, a couple of balls did kick up, hit the glove, hit the chest. Keep it simple, hit the right areas and be patient about it,” the bowling coach signed off.
