Days after India captain Rohit Sharma disclosed that Rishabh Pant ‘faked’ a knee injury to break the momentum of the South African chase in the T20 World Cup 2024 final in Barbados, the wicketkeeper-batter opened up on what actually transpired on that fateful day in June this year.
Speaking on ‘The Great Indian Kapil Show’, Rohit recalled the moment when South Africa was in absolute control of the chase, needing just 26 runs off the final 24 balls and well-set Heinrich Klaasen and David Miller at the crease. However, just when the India captain was setting the field for the next over and having a word with bowler Hardik Pandya, he noticed Pant was down on the ground with the team physio attending him.
Rohit reckoned that Pant’s injury ploy, which caused a short delay in the game, was key in breaking South Africa’s momentum. And although he did not credit that moment entirely for India’s title win, he did acknowledge Pant’s smarts.
Now, Pant said that he was indeed acting with the idea of doing something to stop the carnage from Klaasen’s bat.
Pant reacts to ‘fake injury’ incident in T20 World Cup final
“I actually thinking what to do because the momentum had suddenly shifted (in South Africa’s favour), they had scored plenty of runs in 2-3 overs, so I was thinking when will that moment come when we will the World Cup final,” Pant said in a Star Sports show.
The video of the incident was flashed on the giant screen when Pant was narrating the story. The 25-year-old revealed, he requested the physio to take his time. When captain Rohit wanted to know if Pant’s knee was alright, he told him that he was just acting.
“I was asking the physio to take time. When Rohit bhai asked if my knee is fine I said, ‘Bhaiya, mast acting kar raha tha‘ (I was acting all this while). Sometimes you have to do these types of things in matches. I’m not saying it works every time, but it does work sometimes and if it works at that kind of a moment, then nothing like it.”
The momentum of the match swung in India’s favour from the 17th over. Hardik dismissed Klaasen, and then Jasprit Bumrah got rid of Marco Jansen with an in-swinger that would get most top-order batters out. Hardik and Arshdeep Singh applied the brakes from the other end as India choked South Africa to win the match by 7 runs. The victory ended India’s 13-year-long quest for a World Cup title.
It was Pant’s first ICC tournament since his return from a long injury layoff.
