Leeds: Generational talent Rishabh Pant indulged in self-reproach before becoming only the second wicketkeeper in the game’s history to score hundreds in both innings of a Test, helping India set England a tricky 371-run target in the series opener here on Monday.
Pant, the team’s unflappable maverick with innate confidence in his ability to dominate bowling attacks anywhere in the world, struck 118 off 140 balls and added 195 runs for the fourth wicket with the elegant KL Rahul, who constructed a hundred of his own on the fourth and penultimate day of the first Test.
However, India’s batting crumbled spectacularly for a second time in three days after the dismissal of the two second-innings centurions, as they were all out for 364 on a riveting day.
Ben Duckett (9 batting) and Zak Crawley (12 batting) reduced the target to 350 after England reached 21/0 at stumps.
India lost most of their wickets in the final session.
This was after the iconic ‘Hey Jude’ by The Beatles played softly in the background as Pant closed in on his eighth Test ton, eventually getting there with a single off 130 balls to join Zimbabwe legend Andy Flower as the only stumpers to achieve a remarkable feat.
Having curbed his natural instinct after attempting a flashy shot in the first session, Pant bid his time and switched gears post lunch to reach his second century in the match, following his magnificent 134 in the first innings.
He embarked on an adventure straightaway, but having endured few nervy moments, Pant exhibited a tenacity to stay put at the crease, before cutting loose to dominate the bowlers, who seemed to have run out of ideas in the face of his dazzling array of strokes.
Pant was finally dismissed when he found Zak Crawley at long-on off Shoaib Bashir, who was taken to the cleaners by the swashbuckling keeper-batter, who also became the first Indian to register two hundreds in a Test match in England.
Earlier in the day, Rahul, who was rewarded for his indefatigable resistance, produced a masterclass in timing and temperament, and played some sublime strokes that would have delighted the purists.
Ahead by 96 runs in the beginning, India were off to a disastrous start as they lost skipper Shubman Gill seven balls into the day’s play, but the English bowlers did not taste further success in the first session, though they kept testing the two batters with their probing line and length. On a windy and cloudy morning at Headingley, Gill chopped Brydon Carse’s good-length delivery onto the stumps.