Chennai ODI: Rishabh Pant hits maiden ODI fifty

India wicket-keeper batsman Rishabh Pant scored his maiden ODI half-century at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chepauk on Sunday.

Pant, while playing in his 13th 50-over game, played a knock of 71 runs off 69 balls. In the ongoing game against West Indies, skipper Kieron Pollard sent him back to the pavilion in the 40th over.

The 22-year-old batsman built the much-needed partnership of 114-run with Shreyas Iyer for the fourth wicket. India lost KL Rahul (6) and skipper Virat Kohli (4) cheaply as they were dismissed by Sheldon Cottrell.

Opener Rohit Sharma became a victim of Alzarri Joseph after adding 36 runs. Iyer scored 70 runs before losing his wicket to Joseph.

Pant was struggling with the bat in the recently concluded T20I series against West Indies where he just scored 49 runs in three games.

Earlier, West Indies won the toss in the first match of the three-ODI series and opted to bowl first.

At the time of filing this story, India were at 245/5 in 44 overs as Kedar Jadhav and Ravindra Jadeja are unbeaten on 29 and 11 runs respectively.