The Bengaluru Test proved to be very volatile for Team India. Some decisions and actions that sometimes seemed beneficial have landed the team in trouble. Rohit Sharma's decision to bat first after winning the toss was the most damaging. The team collapsed for 46 runs. Whereas Virat Kohli's diving for the second run in the last over of the third day proved fatal. That one run came in handy but after a good innings he was out on the last ball of the day. Something similar happened on the fourth day, where Rishabh Pant made a comeback for the team by playing an excellent innings but one of his surprising shots proved to be harmful for the team.
Sarfaraz Khan and Rishabh Pant made an excellent partnership of 177 runs for Team India on the fourth day of the match at Chinnaswamy Stadium. On the basis of this partnership of both, Team India not only ended New Zealand's lead of 356 runs but also seemed to be gaining a strong lead over it. During this period, Sarfaraz scored the first century of his career and finally got out after playing a memorable inning of 150 runs. Despite the knee injury, Pant also played counter attacking innings. During this period, he hit many amazing shots, the most shocking of which was the six hit on Tim Southee.
After the dismissal of Sarfaraz Khan, most eyes were on Pant who was nearing his century. Then came the 87th over, when Pant was on 90 runs. On the third ball of this over by New Zealand pacer Tim Southee, Pant sat on his knees and delivered an explosive slog sweep, which took the ball straight across the roof of the stadium. This sensational shot of Pant created a stir in the entire stadium. The ball went 48 meters high in the air and fell 107 meters away from the field. Kiwi player Glenn Phillips could not believe his eyes after seeing this shot. His mouth remained open.
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Rishabh Pant smacks a 1⃣0⃣7⃣m MAXIMUM!
Live – https://t.co/FS97Llv5uq#TeamIndia , #INDvNZ , @IDFCFIRSTBank pic.twitter.com/4UHngQLh47
— BCCI (@BCCI) October 19, 2024
Now this shot was so brilliant that it started being discussed everywhere but unknowingly this shot caused harm to Team India. Actually, due to this six the ball was lost and the umpire had to call for a new ball. Although this ball was also only 6.3 overs old, the Kiwi team could not get much success with it. In such a situation, a new ball similar to that ball was brought and it changed the course of the entire match. Kiwi pacer Will O'Rourke took maximum advantage of this, who was getting more bounce from the harder ball. Within his next 3 overs, O'Rourke took the wickets of Rishabh Pant, KL Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja. The other pacer Matt Henry also took advantage of this and took the remaining 3 wickets and reduced Team India to 462 runs.
