Vijay Hazare: Rishabh Pant fails to fire as Delhi suffer big defeat at the hands of Odisha

Rishabh Pant in Vijay Hazare trophy 2026

With the national selectors set to announce the squad for the three-match ODI series against New Zealand in first week of January, it was the charismatic India keeper-batter and Delhi skipper Pant, who was the focus of attention.

India keeper Rishabh Pant’s indifferent form coupled with Delhi’s leading batters failing to fire saw their unbeaten run being interrupted by Odisha, who carved out a huge 79-run victory in a fourth-round Group D match of the Vijay Hazare Trophy here on Wednesday.

With the national selectors set to announce the squad for the three-match ODI series against New Zealand in first week of January, it was the charismatic India keeper-batter and Delhi skipper Pant, who was the focus of attention.

But the feisty cricketer could score only 24 as the much-vaunted Delhi batting imploded, managing just 193 in 43.3 overs in the chase of an immensely gettable 272/8 scored by Odisha after being sent in to bat first.

Delhi’s innings have largely been built around one solid batting performance so far this season. But the absence of one on Wednesday cost them not just the match but also their top position on the points table, which could come back to haunt them as the tournament progresses.

Odisha went top of the table with 12 points and a healthy net run rate (NRR), while Delhi, despite being on the same number of points, slipped to fourth, with even Railways and Haryana getting ahead of them on better NRR.

It was also the first time so far this season that Delhi could not cross 200, something which looked so easy when Virat Kohli slammed a century against Andhra in the opener, and opener Priyansh Arya scored a fine 78 in the previous game against Saurashtra.

Pant, following scores of 5, 70, 22 could only manage 24 off 28 balls before he was dismissed by pacer Debabrata Pradhan (3/28), who along with young right-arm pacer Sambit Baral (3/34), hastened Delhi’s collapse.