India's swashbuckling wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant seems to have saved his best for the last. Pant scored his first fifty on the tour and also the fastest by a visiting batter on Australian soil.
The previous record was held by West Indies' Roy Fredericks who scored a 33-ball fifty in 1975 in Perth. Before him England's John Brown scored a 34-ball fifty in Melbourne in 1895. Also, West Indies' Chris Gayle has scored a 34-ball fifty in Perth.
Pant reached his fifty from just 29 balls. This is also the second-fastest fifty for India in the format. The record for fastest Test fifty for India belongs to Pant as well. He scored a 28-ball fifty against Sri Lanka in Bengaluru in 2022.
This is the second-fastest half-century on Australian soil going past Mitchell Starc's 32-ball fifty against South Africa in Perth. David Warner scored a 23-ball fifty against Pakistan in 2017 in Sydney. The record for fastest fifty in Tests belongs to Pakistan's Misbah-ul-Haq who reached the milestone from just 21 balls against Australia in Abu Dhabi in 2014.
After a 98-ball 40 filled with bruises and resillient batting, Pant scored 61 runs from 33 balls in the second innings of the fifth and final Test of the Border-Gavaskar series.
The southpaw was eventually dismissed by Australia skipper Pat Cummins. Pant was looking to flash his bat outside the off stump and edged one to Alex Carey. He helped India go past the 100-run mark. His crucial knock was studded with six fours and four sixes. He made a statement straight away by stepping out against Scott Boland off the first ball and hitting it for a six.
When Pant was not in frame of mind to attack
After facing 98 balls in his previous knock, he said that he was not in a frame of mind to attack and tried to bat as per situation. He was India's top run-scorer in the first innings.
"I think in this innings I was not in a frame of mind where I wanted to take charge of the game because the wicket was doing too much," he said. "And the kind of situation we were in and while playing inside I felt like I could do like play a little bit of defensive cricket yes there is a time to attack but when you have to feel that from inside. I can't just pre-meditate that I'm going to play this way whatever the game asked me to do on that given day that's what I try to do and that was the mindset."