 "Rishabh Pant celebrates his half-century in second innings of Edgbaston Test. Image: Reuters")
Rishabh Pant had the perfect reply when England’s Harry Brook tried to throw him off during Day 4 of the second Test at Edgbaston on Saturday, 5 July. As Pant was batting confidently in India’s second innings, Brook tried a bit of mind games to break his rhythm by talking about records.
The cheeky moment was caught on TV. Brook said, “What’s your fastest hundred? The fastest ever is 55 balls. You could have done that today.” It looked like Brook was trying to get Pant to play a rash shot. However, Pant didn’t fall for the trap as he simply replied, “It’s okay. Not very greedy for records. If it happens, it happens.”
Interestingly, Brook got his stat slightly wrong as the fastest Test century is off 54 balls by Brendon McCullum and not 55 as stated by the England batter.
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Pant showed great maturity and didn’t let the comment affect his game. He continued playing his natural attacking style and reached 65 off just 58 balls. His innings was a crucial part of India’s charge on Day 4. Captain Shubman Gill also played a brilliant knock of 161, while Ravindra Jadeja added a solid half-century.
Thanks to these knocks, India set a huge target of 608 runs for England to chase down in the final innings. After declaring their innings on 427/6, India called England to bat in the final session of Day 4. The visitors then managed to take three wickets for 72 runs on the board. India need seven more wickets to win on Day 5, while England have a mountain to climb as they are still 536 runs behind.