Mumbai: Indian wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant went on to score the fastest half-century for the hosts against New Zealand during Day 2 of the third and final Test of the three-match series at the Wankhede Stadium on Saturday.
Pant completed the 50-run mark in just 36 balls. He went back to the pavilion after playing a brilliant knock of 60 runs off 59 balls which was laced with eight boundaries and three maximums in his innings. The southpaw’s runs came at a strike rate of 101.69.
Before this, the record was with opener Yashasvi Jaiwal who achieved this landmark in the second Test of the ongoing three-match Test series against the Kiwis.
Other than these two layers, two more players have done the same thing earlier. Harbhajan Singh did it in 2010 when he scored a fifty in 42 balls. Sarfaraz Khan is the other player who also completed fifty in 42 balls while playing against the Blackcaps in the first Test of the ongoing series at Bengaluru.
Recapping the Day 2 of the Mumbai Test, India were bowled out for 263 after taking a lead of 28 runs. In the Indian innings, the scores came from Shubman Gill (90 runs off 146 balls, 7 fours and a six), Pant (60 runs from 59 balls, 8 fours and 2 sixes), and Washington Sundar (38* runs in 36 balls, 4 fours and 2 sixes).
For New Zealand, five wickets were grabbed by Ajaz Patel, and one wicket each was taken by Matt Henry, Glenn Phillips, and Ish Sodhi in their respective spells.
Earlier on Day 1, New Zealand skipper Tom Latham won the toss and elected to bat first.
Batting first, the visitors were bundled out for 235 runs which came with the knocks from Daryl Mitchell (82 runs off off129 balls with three fours and sixes each) and Will Young (71 runs from 138 balls with 4 fours and 2 sixes).
The pick of the bowlers for the Rohit Sharma-led side was Jadeja who snapped five wickets in his spell of 22 overs where he conceded 65 runs. This was his 14th five-wicket haul in the longest format of the game.
Sundar bagged four wickets in his 18.4 overs where he gave away 81 runs in his spell. Right-arm seamer Akash Deep took one wicket in the five overs he bowled in the innings.
(Source: ANI)
