The Indian Premier League always gives rise to a friendly encounter between players of the same nationalities and often they are converted into heated debates like the one we witnessed a few years ago between Gautam Gambhir and Virat Kohli. There are several other instances when we saw moments like this but in majority of the cases, the faceoffs are rather sporting and it is more about winning the game for one’s team. The competitiveness of IPL is what makes it so thrilling and Rishabh Pant and Ravindra Jadeja showed it once again in yesterday’s match between their respective franchises Delhi Capitals and Chennai Super Kings.
There was a very competitive duel between the two in the 8th over when MS Dhoni sent in Ravindra Jadeja to bowl and he faced Team India’s current wicketkeeper and Delhi Capitals’ captain Rishabh Pant. The two left-handed players put forward a brilliant show and there was a mood of proving oneself. On the third delivery of the over, Jadeja almost dismissed Rishabh Pant with a leg cutter but MS Dhoni was just not fast enough to stump the youngster. It was ruled as out.
On the very next delivery, Rishabh Pant hit a brilliant straight shot off Jadeja for a boundary and that intensified the things further. The next ball was a dot but Sir Jadeja got his revenge on the very next delivery. Rishabh Pant mistimed the shot and the ball rose high up above and was caught efficiently by Moeen Ali. Ravindra Jadeja thus won the duel and brought Pant’s innings to an end. It was birthday boy Rishabh though who got the last laugh as Delhi Capitals won the match and reclaimed the first position on the league table.
