When life gives you lemons, use them to make lemonade. That’s how you encourage the optimism within you amid all the adversities. And once you reach the summit, that lemonade tastes yummier and refreshing than anything else.

None would know it better than Rishabh Pant who had an unforgettable outing on Thursday against Bangladesh in the 2nd T20I in Rajkot.

The 22-year-old had already been under fire since his misjudged DRS call in the Delhi T20I. The situation turned ugly in Rajkot when he committed a ‘schoolboy error’ and missed a chance to dismiss Liton Das who was charging at the moment.

How did Pant get the lemons?

In the sixth over of the Bangladesh innings, a tossed up Yuzvendra Chahal delivery beat Liton Das all ends up as he went down the track to take the aerial route. The batsman failed to make any contact and Pant whipped off the bails but only for replays to show that he had left a little part of his gloves ahead of the stumps while collecting the ball.

Since the law says every part of the glove has to be behind the stumps, it was given a no-ball and Liton smashed a boundary off the free-hit.

Here’s the video:

This wicketkeeping howler did much more than giving Liton a life. It triggered the proactive netizens to launch a trolling campaign against the young Delhi boy who was completely drenched in guilt. And then came the usual demand, #BringBack Dhoni.














Pant’s lemonade making moment

Somewhere the Delhi story was getting repeated—Bangla batters were in control, sloppy Indian fielding taking over, Khaleel getting beaten badly... Everything seemed rusty to the Rajkot crowd while the social media was on some other level where Pant’s existence was getting dissected.

But the young lad didn’t give up. There came the 8th over and Pant stunned every single viewer with what looked like an epic distraction ploy.

In the 8th over, Liton was struck on the thigh pad by Chahal’s googly. Pant couldn’t collect the ball but loudly appealed for an LBW instead. Meanwhile, the batsman attempted to trick the Indians by stealing a quick single but failed to get any response from Naim who was at the non-striker’s end.

Pant was alert. He raced ahead, got to the ball and fired it onto the stumps at the striker's end. Das was gone and it was a successful redemption for the stumper.

Here’s the video:

This acrobatic act wasn’t enough for Pant as he went another step further to right his previous wrong.  In the 13th over, Chahal was again in the attack and slipped the googly on spotting the batsman. Soumya Sarkar was in a hurry and was beaten in the flight.

This time Pant waited for the ball and once it was placed in his gloves, he had all the time on earth to dislodge the bails as Sarkar had gone miles ahead. The stumper was elated and so was the bowler.

Here’s the video:

But the drama prevailed despite everything being picture-perfect.

The TV umpire gave a few looks to the replay and to everyone’s shock, ‘Not Out’ signal was flashed on the giant screen. Sarkar had started walking back to the pitch, but the signal then changed to ‘Out’.