Rishabh Pant on Sunday surpassed legendary India cricketer Kapil Dev to become the fastest Indian to score a Test fifty. He reached the milestone in just 28 balls at M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru.
Notably, Kapil held the record since 1982. He had scored the fifty against Pakistan in Karachi in just 30 balls.
After more than 39 years to the day, a young and swashbuckling Pant wreaked havoc on the Sri Lankan bowlers to break the record. On Day 2 of the ongoing second Test between India and Sri Lanka, Pant raced to his 9th Test fifty, an innings that was laced with 7 fours and 2 sixes. What hogged more limelight was the fact that it came off just 28 balls.
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The southpaw didn’t waste much time on the bowling-friendly pitch of M Chinnaswamy Stadium and tore the Sri Lankan bowling apart with his heroic fifty. India were already in a dominating position of 139/4, leading the game by 282 runs when Pant came in to bat.
He hit the first ball for a single and then came out all guns blazing. On the very next ball he faced, Pant came down the crease and tonked Praveen Jayawickrama delivery into the deep midwicket stand for a six. There was no respite for the Sri Lankan bowlers as Pant hit back-to-back boundaries in the next over too and this time Dhananjaya de Silva was the victim.
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India even lost the wicket of Virat Kohli during Pant’s knock, but nothing seemed to be stopping the southpaw who kept scoring at a brisk pace from the other end and eventually surpassing Kapil’s record.
Pant walked back to the dugout after getting caught and bowled by Jayawickrama but not before scoring a destructive 50-run knock off 31 balls.
