Rishabh Pant made his much-awaited comeback to the cricket field in the IPL 2024 as he captained the Delhi Capitals (DC) in their tournament opener against the Punjab Kings. The Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium, Mullanpur hosted their first match ever in IPL.
Punjab Kings won the toss and chose to field first. Delhi Capitals made 174/9 in 20 overs. Shai Hope (33), Abishek Porel (32* in 10 balls), and David Warner (29) were the main run-getters for Delhi Capitals. Rishabh Pant made 18 in 13 balls in his comeback innings after 453 days out of action.
For PBKS, Arshdeep Singh and Harshal Patel picked two wickets each.
In reply, Shikhar Dhawan slammed 22 in just 16 balls before Ishant Sharma castled him with a beauty. PBKS struggled against spinners as Prabhsimran Singh (26) tried his best.
IPL 2024: WATCH- Rishabh Pant gets standing ovation and roaring welcome as he walks out to bat
PBKS vice-captain Jitesh Sharma tried his best to pump some tempo in the PBKS innings, but he was brilliantly stumped by his DC counterpart Rishabh Pant.
On the 3rd ball of the 12th over, Jitesh Sharma tried to reverse sweep Kuldeep Yadav. He missed the ball and lost his balance in the process. Rishabh Pant, in his first match back after 14 months, made a brilliant take stretching his upper body as far forward as he could, and pushed the ball into the stumps.
The replays showed that Jitesh’s feet were out of the crease when Pant broke the stumps and the PBKS keeper had to walk back for 9 runs in 9 balls.
Here is the video:
