Two helicopters, two one-handed sixes: The Rishabh Pant show

Rishabh Pant hit seven sixes and seven fours in his innings scoring at a staggering strike rate of 288.89

In an outrageous display of strokeplay, Rishabh Pant blasted 78* off 27 balls to power Delhi Capitals to a massive 213 for six batting first against Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.

Pant hit seven sixes, a couple of them with a switch hit against Bumrah and one using only one hand off debutant Rasikh Salam Dar that landed deep into stands in his blistering innings. Pant scored at a staggering strike rate of 288.89.

Pant swivelled, used the pull shot to perfection and was good straight down the ground too but what stole the show was his twin helicopters off the No. 1 death bowler Jasprit Bumrah. The first one and the ideal one came in the 18^th over and another was hit in the last over of the innings.

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— Maqbool (@im_maqbool) March 24, 2019

Pant started off his innings slowly, scoring only 1 off 5 balls but he added 22 off the next five to make his intentions clear.

The Delhi keeper reached his fifty off 18 balls – the fastest against Mumbai Indians by any player after Shikhar Dhawan and Colin Ingram laid a solid platform with their 83-run stand for the third wicket.

Pant scored 77 runs in 22 balls in the last six overs of the Delhi Capitals innings – the second-best in the history of the tournament. Interestingly, the best also belongs to Pant for scoring 79 against Sunrisers Hyderabad in IPL 2018.

Mumbai Indians started off well with the ball, picking up two early wickets in the form of Prithvi Shaw(7) and Shreyas Iyer(16) before Dhawan and Ingram got together with the repair works. The southpaws – Ingram in particular – kept the scoreboard moving at a rapid pace.

The South African international, scored a 32-ball 47 before being dismissed Ben Cutting in the last ball of the 13^th over. That turned out to be a blessing in disguise for Delhi as it brought Pant in the middle, who made a mockery of the Mumbai bowling attack.