Rishabh Pant led from the front to guide Delhi Capitals to a formidable total of 172 runs against Chennai Super Kings in Qualifier 1 of IPL 2021 in Dubai. He reached his fifty on the last ball of the innings and remained unbeaten on 51 to guide the team to a big score after a mini collapse in the middle overs. Delhi were given a strong start by Prithvi Shaw as he raced to his fifty in just 27 balls, despite the duo of Shikhar Dhawan and Shreyas Iyer falling cheaply.

But Shaw was dismissed for 60 soon after and that brought the duo of Pant and Shimron Hetmyer in the middle. The left-handed pair batted with maturity to first get the innings back on track and then launched a vicious attack in the death overs.

Pant delighted the fans with his trademark single-handed shots, which produced maximum impact.  In the 16th over, he hammered a full-toss off Shardul Thakur over mid-wicket with a one-handed swing of the bat.

Promoted

In the penultimate over, Pant smashed a full delivery from Dwayne Bravo straight over his head and the shot was again played with one hand coming off the handle.

These two shots left Twitter ablaze as fans celebrated Pant’s heroics

Jersey changes but one shot remains same for Rishabh Pant. pic.twitter.com/FoCyry26kv

— Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns) October 10, 2021

Rishabh Pant’s one-handed sixes be like #Qualifier1 | #IPL2021 | #YehHaiNayiDilli | #DCvCSK pic.twitter.com/VJwFE7cURf

— Delhi Capitals (@DelhiCapitals) October 10, 2021

Well played Rishabh pant, what a mature knock champ

Rishabh Pant 51(35) 3fours 2 sixs 145.71#CSKvDC pic.twitter.com/btDFN6dPz0

— Rishabh Pant (@rishabpantclub) October 10, 2021

Rishabh Pant One Handed Six… Never Ending Love story….
.
.#CSKvDC l #qualifier1 pic.twitter.com/KxnYMiDt0O

— A M M A R (@viratian_ammar) October 10, 2021

One hand six by KING RISHABH PANT pic.twitter.com/ZhdzRnADOh

— SURBHI SHARMA (@Imsurbhis) October 10, 2021

Earlier in the match, MS Dhoni had won the toss and invited Delhi Capitals to bat. CSK bowlers managed to get early breakthroughs as Shreyas Iyer and Shikhar Dhawan failed to get going but half-centuries from Pant and Shaw helped last year’s runners up to a target which they would fancy to defend.