Lucknow Super Giants captain Rishabh Pant admitted they failed to execute their plans with the ball after their six-wicket loss against Royal Challengers Bengaluru at Lucknow in the ongoing IPL 2025 on Tuesday.
LSG posted a par score of 227 runs on the board after Pant finally got back amongst the runs. The LSG skipper scored a blistering knock of 118 runs off just 61 balls as he batted at the top of his game.
However, LSG bowlers could not defend the total as RCB chased down their highest total in IPL history and overall third highest in the tournament. While Virat Kohli and Mayank Agarwal scored 54 and 41* runs respectively, the match-changing knock was played by RCB stand-in captain Jitesh Sharma, who smashed 85 runs off just 33 balls.
The wicket-keeper bat clobbered eight fours and six sixes as he scored his runs at a blistering strike rate of 257.58. This was the maiden IPL fifty for Jitesh Sharma and his knock ensured that RCB finished at the second place in the points table and thus secured their place in the first qualifier against Punjab Kings.
Rishabh Pant said after the loss while talking to the official broadcasters, “Eventually you got to play 40 overs of good cricket. 20 overs will definitely not save you in a T20 game and that’s been our story. There were a lot of injury concerns before the tournament, that’s something that hurt us going through the season.”
Speaking about his century, Pant said he learned from his experience and wanted to play with intent once he got the confidence at the start of his innings.
He added, “I was feeling well with each and every match but sometimes it just doesn’t come off. Today I made sure that if I am starting well I should make a big one. Like all the experienced players do, learning from the best always. Whenever you get a start, try to make it big as possible. I was trying to play the field, how they were going to bowl, that was something I kept in mind. Playing through the line and looking for the areas and the gaps and kept it very simple. Played every ball with the same intensity and kept on playing with the same intensity throughout the innings.”
LSG ended their IPL 2025 campaign at seventh place in the standings with six wins and eight losses.
