Sourav Ganguly’s standing ovation for Rishabh Pant as he does an MS Dhoni during whirlwind knock in DC vs GT match

Rishabh Pant’s return to full fitness has been one of the many sub-stories in the 2024 season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) and on Wednesday, the Delhi Capitals captain showed that he is well and truly back to his athletic best.

Pant smashed an unbeaten 88 off 43 balls in an innings that included five fours and a whopping eight sixes. Most of those shots had the touch of wild-eyed magic that Pant is famous for bringing to the game, particularly in Test cricket.

Pant had started off slowly, steadying the DC innings with Axar Patel at the other end after a flurry of wickets put GT on top. Axar scored his 50 in 37 balls after which Pant also began shifting gears. He started that with a six off the first ball of the 16th over by Mohit Sharma, one of the bowlers GT turn to when they want to stifle batters for runs. Pant whipped the length delivery from Mohit over deep midwicket for a flat six. Such was the power of the bottom hand that the bat turned in his hands, thus becoming the helicopter shot that legendary former India captain and CSK wicketkeeper MS Dhoni had made famous many years ago.

Ganguly stands up for Pant

Dhoni’s helicopter shots would be something quite familiar to DC team mentor Sourav Ganguly, with the former having made his international debut under the latter’s captaincy. Seeing Pant’s shot, Ganguly stood up in the DC dugout and applauded.

Pant goes berzerk

Pant eventually brought up his half-century in 34 balls in the 18th over, also bowled by Mohit, with a six off the fourth ball. Tristan Stubbs then hit two fours and two sixes off Sai Kishore in the 19th after which Pant demolished Mohit in the 20th over. He ran two off the first ball while the second was wide outside off. Then Pant hit a six, a four and then a hat-trick of sixes to take a total of 31 runs, 30 for himself, in the final over. DC scored 224/4 but GT ended up giving them an almighty scare. They finished within four runs of the target and DC kept themselves in the race for the top four.