Rishabh Pant, the Delhi Capitals captain, delivered a magnificent stumping in Match 2 against the Punjab Kings at Mullanpur Stadium on Saturday (March 23). The teenager took the crucial wicket of Jitesh Sharma, while Kuldeep Yadav claimed his second of the innings.
Jitesh Sharma was dismissed in the 12th over of the innings after attempting to reverse sweep a length ball going down the leg side but missing entirely. Jitesh failed to get to the crease on time, so the Capitals skipper lunged low, retrieved the ball, and smashed the stumps.
The stumping also reminded netizens of former Chennai Super Kings captain MS Dhoni.
Jitesh had already escaped another stumping opportunity, but he was unable to do so again as Rishabh Pant delivered his first stumping since returning to top-level cricket after 15 months.
Rishabh Pant fails to contribute with the bat as Delhi Capitals go down by 4 wickets
While Rishabh Pant’s captaincy was good on the night, he struggled with the bat, scoring only 18 runs until Harshal Patel got the better of him.
The Capitals were on the verge of finishing with a low score when Abhishek Porel hit 25 runs in the penultimate over, propelling them to 174 in the allotted 20 overs.
The Punjab Kings’ openers began in high gear as Shikhar Dhawan and Jonny Bairstow unleashed a furious assault on Khaleel Ahmed, plundering 17 runs from the first over. But Ishant Sharma struck back, dismissing the aggressive pair. Prabhsimran Singh and Sam Curran then forged a resolute partnership, consolidating the innings.
Curran and Liam Livingstone had another good stand, but the Kings lost two fast wickets. Nonetheless, Liam Livingstone hit a six to take the Kings beyond the goal, which required four runs from the last five deliveries.
