VIDEO | KL Rahul responds to Pat Cummins' sledge with a big hit

This was a make or break chance for Rahul and in order to keep his position safe, he had to break the self-imposed shackles. He did that by going for repeated drives, and not a single one was expansive. His innings had a purposeful fluidity and one that gave him the confidence to go over backward point to clear the boundaries. In order to get him out, Tim Paine brought in Pat Cummins with three slips on and asked his bowler to keep bowling short balls.

That ploy almost worked for them when on the last ball of the 11th over, Rahul decided to play a cut shot, but thanks to the excessive bounce that went above the head of second slip for a boundary. Seeing the plan of drawing him was working, Cummins came forward to have a word or two with the Indian opener and even gestured to ask “was he sweating by his pace” to which Rahul didn’t say anything. Nor did he look at him despite Cummins keeping the words flowing.

Rahul hadn’t forgotten that though and he decided to answer in his own style. When Cummins came to bowl the first ball of his next over, Rahul lofted the overpitched ball over sweeper cover to clear the distance. Cummins wasn’t happy by that and even though he gave a wry smile, he continued his bouncer tactic once again. After giving respect to his next delivery, the Karnataka opener took a big stride forward on the third delivery of the over to cream it through the covers for a four.