‘I would have definitely tried to hit a sixth four or six’: Sehwag on Pant’s five fours in Willey’s over – Firstcricket News, Firstpost

Former Indian batter Virender Sehwag has taken a cheeky dig at wicketkeeper batter Rishabh Pant, saying that he would have tried to hit the sixth ball of David Willey’s over for a four or a six.

Pant hit five consecutive boundaries in the 42^nd over, bowled by Willey in the third ODI at Old Trafford on Sunday. The last ball of the over was a Yorker and hence Pant could only score a single.

India needed 24 runs at the start of that over, but Pant managed 21.

Talking at the post-match show on Sony Sports Network, Sehwag said, “If he had hit a four in that over, the match would have gotten over and an extra run would not have been scored. If Rishabh Pant wanted, he could have finished it not only with a four but a six. If I was there, I would have definitely tried to hit a four or a six.”

Sehwag wished for Pant to hit six consecutive boundaries. However, he praised Pant, stating that he finally hit a century after quite a lot of criticism for his white-ball performances.

“The good thing is that he only finished it, he only hit the last four to finish it. It was enjoyable to watch, we all were expecting that Rishabh Pant will play such innings in ODI cricket, he has played only 27 matches and an amazing knock like this has come in that now,” Sehwag said.

The southpaw’s 125 runs were his first century in ODIs. He also registered the highest score for an Indian wicketkeeper in SENA countries.

Read: Pandya joins elite club, Pant’s maiden ton and other interesting stats from 3rd ODI

Pant eventually hit a reverse-sweep of the first ball of the next over and still finished the match with a boundary.

Albeit, Sehwag didn’t expect Pant to stay till the end and finish the match. Pant was also proved to be lucky when Jos Buttler missed a stumping chance of Moeen Ali’s bowling, in the 16^th over when he was batting on 18.

“It has come at the right time when four batters from the top had been dismissed. I didn’t expect that he will play till the end because a time was going to come when his back was going to be broken and it would have been broken as well when he stepped out to Moeen Ali,” Sehwag added during the discussion. The swashbuckling opener said that Pandya released the pressure off Pant’s shoulders by playing some aggressive shots.

“After that Hardik Pandya probably controlled him as there was a period when he was between 18 to 30 runs, he could have gotten out there, but he didn’t get out because Hardik Pandya released the pressure from him. Then he batted intelligently, when a batter scores 30-40 runs, his shot selection becomes better, which Rishabh Pant showed.”

Pant won the man of the match award for his match-winning batting.

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