This display was just another addition to Pant’s collection of crucial knocks to save the team from dire straits in important games, having done so previously in the tours of Australia and England. However, this was notably the 24-year-old’s first international white ball century, finally overcoming criticism of being unable to translate his red-ball form to limited-overs cricket.

“What he is basically building a reputation of is that ‘when I am in, I am going to finish the game for you’. So that is the kind of character that he has shown not just in white-ball cricket but also in Test matches regularly, and this was his maiden century in ODIs, so this innings is certainly going to give him that boost to go on to make it a habit to get these kinds of runs. And if that happens, then the middle order firepower is going to get even more strengthened,” Zaheer Khan explained on Cricbuzz.

Pant came into the match when India was reeling at 21/2 and was eventually down to 72/4. Joined by Hardik Pandya, the duo put up a mammoth partnership of 133 runs for the fifth wicket, with the latter contributing with a brilliant 71 from just 55 deliveries. Pant took on the reigns once his partner-in-crime departed, scoring his last 60 runs off just 31 balls to lead India to a famous five-wicket victory. Both the batsmen were given their due praise by the ex-Indian pacer for their maturity.