Rishabh Pant, who played an explosive inning of 118 runs in 61 balls against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the last league match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025, said that this time he was focusing on converting the starts into big scores, which he could not do in the earlier matches. However, despite its brilliant innings, Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) had to face defeat even after scoring 227 runs. Pant said on this defeat, “We could not play good cricket for 40 overs.”
In the post-match presentation, Pant said, “I was feeling good with every match, but sometimes things don’t go your way. Today I had decided that if I get a start, I have to convert it into a big score, like experienced players do. I have learned from the best players that when you get an opportunity, take it.” Pant’s season was very dull with the bat. Before this match, he could score only 151 runs in 12 innings. He said that in this match he had adopted the strategy of playing straight and finding holes, which did not work earlier.
He said, “I thought about the angle from which the bowler would bowl and tried to adapt accordingly. Playing straight, finding the wicket, keeping everything simple and playing every ball with equal seriousness.” LSG’s bowling could not make much impact in this match. Will O’Rorke and Shahbaz Ahmed together gave 113 runs in just 7 overs. At the same time, a fielding lapse and a backfoot no-ball by Digvesh Rathi, on which Player of the Match Jitesh Sharma got a lifeline, became the reason for the team’s defeat.
Pant said, “It is not enough to play well for just 20 overs in T20. You have to play well for the entire 40 over match and this has been our story. Many players had injuries before the tournament, the impact of which was visible throughout the season.” The performance of some bowlers was praiseworthy. LSG won 6 out of 14 matches this season and stood seventh in the points table. However, Pant also drew attention to some positive aspects.
He said, “There have also been some special bowling performances. Digvesh Rathi’s performance was praiseworthy, Avesh Khane also bowled important overs. Akash Singh and Akash Deepe also performed well. We kept getting chances, but we could not hold on to them for long and this became the reason for the defeat.
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