WATCH: Rishabh Pant survives close call as ball lands just behind stumps after shoulder blow

Rishabh Pant survived one of the narrowest escapes seen in recent cricket when a leg-stump bouncer struck him on the shoulder and the ball looped up before landing just behind the stumps, millimetres away from a played-on dismissal during Day 2 of the second Test between Sri Lanka and India at the SSC Ground in Colombo.

The incident unfolded when Pant found himself caught between ducking and swaying back against a well-directed short delivery on the leg stump. Unable to fully commit to either movement, he took the ball flush on the shoulder. The ball then lobbed up into the air and dropped agonisingly close to the stumps, only to land just behind them. Had it fallen a fraction earlier, Pant would have been dismissed in the most unfortunate fashion, with the ball ricocheting off his body and onto the woodwork.

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The moment drew immediate attention for the sheer fortune involved. Pant, who is known for his aggressive and unconventional batting style, was fortunate that the ball did not clip the top of the stumps on its way down. The margin between survival and dismissal appeared to be a matter of centimetres at most, and the reaction from those watching underlined just how close the call truly was.

What made this delivery so difficult for Pant to handle?

The delivery by Asitha Fernando, who had already completed a four-for at the time of writing, was a good leg-stump bouncer, meaning it was well-directed and rose sharply into the body. Fernando tried to cramp the Indian wicketkeeper-batter for room and force an uncomfortable response, leaving the batter with very little time to pick the length and commit to a clear evasive movement.

Pant's predicament was that he was caught in two minds, neither fully committing to a duck nor a swayback, which left him exposed to the ball striking his shoulder. This indecision is precisely what a bowler hopes to achieve with a well-targeted short ball on leg stump. When a batsman is hit in this manner and the ball lobs upward, the trajectory can carry it back towards the stumps. In this case, the ball followed exactly that path, creating a genuine threat of a played-on dismissal. The fact that it landed just behind the stumps rather than on them was a matter of pure fortune for the Haridwar-born cricketer.