KOLKATA: Will the real Rishabh Pant step up at the Eden Gardens here on Tuesday? The Pant who hammered an unbeaten 128 in 63 deliveries against Sunrisers Hyderabad while playing for Delhi capitals in 2018? Or the one who smashed a 43-ball 97 that took Delhi to victory over Gujarat Lions in 2017?
The Pant that has been on display in Lucknow Super Giants’ (LSG) first four Indian Premier League (IPL) matches this season isn’t the Pant the cricket world is used to. Just 19 runs in four innings at a strike rate of around 60 doesn’t seem to do any justice to the reputation that made him the costliest player ever in IPL.
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On Tuesday, he will have another chance at redemption when LSG visit Eden Gardens here for their contest against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), an afternoon match. The match, originally scheduled for April 6, had to be postponed for technical reasons.
KKR, however, won’t offer Pant an easy passage. The Knights are on a high after a thumping win over Sunrisers Hyderabad in their last game here. Middle-order mainstay Venkatesh Iyer not only found his touch, but also showed how to pace an innings on a wicket that isn’t tailor-made for batting.
KKR assistant coach Otis Gibson said, “If we take wickets with the new ball, then we can be very dangerous in the middle overs, of course, with Varun and Sunil (Narine). And if we don’t take wickets with a new ball, then we’ve still got those guys that we can utilise in the middle-overs.”
An all-round show from KKR in the last game proved that they are not dependant on just a few names to see them through. That’s an ideal situation any coach would want.
With pacer Vaibhav Arora and spinner Varun Chakravarthy getting three wickets each, the KKR attack showed that the Eden track truly has something for everyone.
Ajinkya Rahane, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Rinku Singh all have contributed with the bat. Once Andre Russell starts firing, the KKR package will look complete. Eden will root for KKR, but Pant will have good support too.
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