Keeping in with the trendy spirit of comebacks, today’s long-due throwback segment makes a grand return with footage featuring, arguably, the most hilarious runout in the 12-year history of the Indian Premier League. We go back to the 2017 IPL encounter between the Gujarat Lions and the Delhi Capitals (Daredevils then) at Kanpur’s Greenpark Stadium.
The Capitals are chasing a steep 196-run target, and lost opener Sanju Samson just a couple deliveries ago. Rishabh Pant, Daredevil’s new man on strike, looks all set to keep going from his red-hot form; the very first ball of his innings, he shuffles in his crease and smacks pacer Pradeep Sangwan for a boundary over mid-wicket. Lions’ skipper Suresh Raina has a quick-word with his speedster; his team can’t afford a repeat of Pant’s slam-bang batting from the FerozShah Kotla to quash their almost negligible playoffs’ hopes.
Pant’s callousness leads to his dismissal
Fifth ball of the second-over- and Sangwan delivers, trapping Pant’s foot plumb outside his leg-stump. Sangwan and his Gujarat teammates exult in a loud-appeal, but umpire Anil Chaudhary doesn’t seem convinced. Pant, meanwhile, gets caught up in the cross-fire, as he moves out of his crease and beckons at his partner Karun Nair for the confirmation. Amidst all the commotion, he forgets to get his bat back into the crease. Raina, manning the first-slip position, cashes on Pant’s negligence, and deftly dislodges Pant’s stumps with a throw. The Lions go for yet another animated appeal- and square-leg umpire Yeshwant Barde seems interested this time.
Subsequent on-field replays later confirmed an inside edge off Pant’s willow, effectively ruling out Sangwan’s initial LBW appeal. But since Pant’s bat didn’t make ground-contact at the time of Raina’s throw, the umpires ruled him run-out. Here’s a video of the bamboozling dismissal:
Despite the early wickets, Gujarat couldn’t find their way back into the game once Shreyas Iyer found his rhythm going. Karun and Iyer stitched a solid 57-run partnership to set the momentum strong for the visitors’ chase. Although he couldn’t stick around till the end to collect a much-deserved hundred and finished on 96; his composed and collected style of batting put the Capitals in firm control of the match. Australian fast-bowler James Faulkner finished as the hosts’ best bowler albeit in an unsuccessful cause, with figures of 4-0-39-2.
