Rishabh Pant smashed a blistering century to close out play on the second day of India’s pink-ball warm-up game against Australia A.
His sensational late flourish took the visitors to 386/4 with an overall lead by 472 runs on Saturday. Hanuma Vihari made a fine 104 off 194 balls while young Shubman Gill scored 65 off 78 balls on a day dominated by India.
The wicketkeeper-batsman was batting on 81 off 67 ball as the match entered the final over of the day and needed 19 runs to get to the three-figure mark. He ended up getting 22 off it as he clobbered Jack Wildermuth for 4, 4, 6, 4, 4 off the final five balls to remain unbeaten on 103. His ton came off just 73 balls including nine fours and six sixes.
Watch: Rishabh Pant smashes 73-ball century during warm-up match – with 22 runs off the last over
Pant came into his own in the final session of the day, smashing the Australia A bowlers to all corners of the Sydney Cricket Ground and making a strong case for himself to be picked as wicketkeeper in the first Test at Adelaide ahead of Wriddhiman Saha.
Pant, who wasn’t in the best of form during the IPL, was a man transformed and received a lot of praise on Twitter:
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