VIDEO | Rishabh Pant executes Dhoni’s start-stop stumping to perfection

Apart from his unparalleled ability to read batsmen and bowlers’ mind the world’s best wicketkeeper has some other minor attractions as well, like the no-look stumping or even more eye-catching, the start-stop stumping. And Pant, who was easily Delhi’s best player against Rajasthan Royals, didn’t flinch while pulling off that stunt.

Batting first, Delhi managed to put up a mammoth target of 196 in 17 overs, thanks to Pant’s blistering knock of 69 off 29 balls. And after rain forced the game to cut short even further in the second innings, the revised target for Rajasthan stood at 151 in 12 overs. The duo of Darcy Short and Jos Buttler started opened the innings and the Englishman started off brilliantly.

With Shreyas Iyer being restricted use just two of his bowlers for three overs, the young skipper kept rotating his strikes with Trent Boult, Liam Plunkett, Avesh Khan and Amit Mishra in the powerplay overs. Mishra got just one over in the first six overs with Butler making the maximum of it, hitting Delhi’s pacers all over the park for four boundaries and seven sixes. 

The onslaught needed to be stopped and Iyer had to bring back the veteran spinner in the seventh over. After Short and Butler managed to get three singles in Mishra’s first three balls, the England hitter had to go for the biggie and Mishra knew what he had to do to sopthe Englishman. He brought his length back against a charging Butler to pitch a wide leg break that the batsman missed totally. 

Standing behind the stumps, Pant was waiting for it and delivered it stylishly. As Buttler was far down the track, Pant waited for the batsman to stop, turn back and try a desperate attempt to come back. However, no sooner did he start to come back, Pant quickly nicked the stumps careful enough not to scramble the wickets.