VIDEO | ‘Dhoni-lite’ Rishabh Pant feeds himself to trolls with failed ‘helicopter’ crashing half-way
For the major part of his career, fairly or unfairly, Rishabh Pant has always been touted to fill in the huge shoes of MS Dhoni and more often than not, he has fallen prey to the trap. Today, after trying to hit a helicopter shot like MS Dhoni, the Delhi batsman was left to rue it within seconds.
After Prithvi Shaw and Shreyas Iyer set the base for Delhi Capitals to score above 250 runs, hope was hinged on Rishabh Pant to take them off to the desired plane and he started the innings on that note. During his 17-ball 38 run innings, there were multiple mishits but none of that mattered as runs kept coming.
On the penultimate delivery of the 18th over, Andre Russell landed a near-perfect yorker to Rishabh Pant who went deep into the crease to play the helicopter. While the execution was perfect, the shot didn’t have enough meat in it to cross the distance. It went towards long-on and Shivam Mavi didn’t have to move much from his position to get hold of the catch.
As the cameo came to an end, Pant was seen kicking himself for not being able to stand in for another couple of overs and help the side over the 250-run mark. But more than that, the context made it a sad affair for Pant as he is bound to get trolls being on his back for not being able to replicate the former Indian skipper's trademark shot.