India vs Sri Lanka: Rishabh Pant blasts 96 in first Test; Twitter lauds gusty performance

India’s Risabh Pant smashed an outstanding 96 in the first innings of the ongoing series opener against Sri Lanka at the PCA IS Bindra Stadium in Mohali.

Batting aggressively, the wicketkeeper played a crucial knock of 96 runs off 97 deliveries, missing his Test ton by just 4 runs.

Pant hit a half-century in 73 balls and switched to assault mode then onwards, hitting back-to-back fours off Sri Lanka’s Dhananjaya de Silva.

With India four down on 175, Pant and Shreyas Iyer kept the scoreboard moving to help the team reach 199/4. Iyer fell to Dhananjaya de Silva and Pant then stitched a 100-run stand for the 6th wicket with Ravindra Jadeja. The left-hander blasted 4 sixes and 9 glorious boundaries before being bowled for 96 by Sri Lanka fast bowler Suranga Lakmal.

On the first day of the first Test, India won the toss and chose to bat first. However, the team failed to fire in the beginning of the first innings as Rohit Sharma departed for 29 and Mayank Agarwal perished for 33. Hanuma Vihari struck a solid 50 for the team whereas Kohli too departed soon for 45 in his 100th Test.

Pant’s almost a run-a-ball innings and gutsy batting took India past 300, but the wicketkeeper was heartbroken after getting bowled for 96.

Nevertheless, the left-hander won millions of hearts on Twitter for his outstanding innings and the star batter received plenty of accolades for stealing the show today.

The 24-year-old wicketkeeper was praised by the Board of Control for Cricket in India for his brilliant knock of 96.

Former cricketer Irfan Pathan called Pant “one hell of an exciting” cricketer for his aggressive batting.

Former Captain of the England cricket team, Michael Vaughan tweeted that he loved watching Rishabh Pant and called him the greatest modern day player.

Cricket analyst Akash Chopra was the next to praise the left-hander for his stellar knocks.

Rishabh Pant was lauded by fans for an entertaining and thrilling match and for keeping everyone on the edge with his quickfire knocks.

Take a look at some more tweets here:

Meanwhile, India posted a good 357/6 after 85 overs on the 1st Day of the first Test of the the two-match series.

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