2nd Warm-up match: Rishabh Pant hits 22 runs off last over to reach hundred in 73 balls against Australia A - WATCH

Pant smashed a total of 22 runs in the final over of day’s play on Saturday. He was batting on 81 off 67 when Australian pacer Jack Wildermuth came into the attack.

After a series of failures with the bat across formats, Indian wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant returned to form on Day 2 of India’s warm-up game at the Sydney Cricket Ground. He presented a strong case of selection ahead of the first Test against Australia with a cracking century off just 73 deliveries.

Photo of Indian wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant (BCCI/Twitter)

Pant smashed a total of 22 runs in the final over of day’s play on Saturday. He was batting on 81 off 67 when Australian pacer Jack Wildermuth came into the attack. With 19 runs shy of his 11th first-class hundred, Pant wreaked havoc at the SCG and hit four boundaries and a six to end the over.

Many would have thought that the wicket-keeper batsman will come the next day and notch up the century. But he had other plans. After taking a blow on his ribs off the first delivery, Pant launched a lethal attack against the pacer to reach the three figures.

Here’s the video:

Pant’s unbeaten 103 included nine fours and six sixes. He combined with Hanuma Vihari, who also scored an unbeaten 104 off 194 balls, to stitch a massive 147-run stand for the fifth wicket. As a result, India took a hefty lead of 472 runs in the second innings by the end of day’s play.

In their first innings, India were all out for 194, which would have been far less if not for pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah’s maiden first-class fifty, but the visitors staged a strong comeback with both bat and ball.

Coming out to bat again at the beginning of the day’s play, all other Indian batsmen, except Prithvi Shaw (3), were among runs. Besides Vihari and Pant, Shubman Gill (65) and Mayank Agarwal (51) scored half-centuries in India’s second innings.

India had bundled out Australia A for 108 after being dismissed for 194 on the opening day at the SCG.