Pant Hits Fastest Test Fifty on Australian Soil by a Visiting Batter

Rishabh Pant smashed the fastest Test half-century on Australian soil by a visiting batter during the ongoing fifth Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series at Sydney Cricket Ground on Saturday.

Pant, who had been struggling with the bat in the series so far, rose to the occasion to unleash his attacking prowess on day two of the series finale.

Pant completed his fifty off 29 balls with a six against Mitchell Starc. He improved the earlier 33 ball efforts of England's John Brown (Melbourne 1895) and West Indies' Roy Fredericks (Perth 1975).

It was also the second-fastest half-century by an Indian batter in a Test match. The fastest half-century record by an Indian batter in a Test match also belongs to Pant which he attained in 28 balls against Sri Lanka in Bengaluru in 2022.

A fighting knock by the wicketkeeper-batter came to an end as Australia captain Pat Cummins cut him off an outside edge to Alex Carey behind the stumps. Pant hammered 61 off 33 balls, peppered with four sixes and six fours. He was also a part of a 46-run crucial partnership with Ravindra Jadeja, which helped India cross the three-figure mark.

Earlier, India's top order could not take advantage of the advantage passed by the pacers who had bundled Australia for 181. KL Rahul (13), Yashasvi Jaiswal (22), Virat Kohli (6), Shubman Gill (13) and Nitish Kumar Reddy (4) failed to convert their starts as Scott Boland claimed four scalps while debutant Beau Webster and Cummins also chipped in with one wicket each to leave India six down.