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Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) in their first home game of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 suffered a comprehensive eight-wicket defeat at the hands of Punjab Kings (PBKS). After the defeat, LSG owner Sanjiv Goenka was seen having an animated chat with captain Rishabh Pant. Later, he was seen taking to PBKS captain Shreyas Iyer with a smile on his face.
In the previous edition, LSG made headlines for wrong reasons as Goenka was livid with his team and KL Rahul's captaincy after a demoralising defeat to Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) which put their playoffs qualification in jeopardy.
This year, LSG have lost two out of their three games. Their first defeat was by just one wicket in a thrilling encounter against Pant's former franchise Delhi Capitals (DC). Pant missed a stumping in the last over after deflection from Mohit Sharma's pads and then Ashutosh Sharma finished the innings in style. In their second match, LSG outclassed SRH and won by five wickets.
Pant, who became the most expensive player in IPL history at Rs 27 crore, is struggling with the bat. In the first match, he was dismissed for a six-ball duck. In the second match, he departed for a run-a-ball 15 in the run chase against SRH. In the first home match as LSG captain, he was dismissed for just two runs by Glenn Maxwell.
Easy win for PBKS
On Apirl 1, LSG managed to post 171/7 on the board with the help of in-form Nicholas Pooran's 30-ball 44, Ayush Badoni's 33-ball 41 and Abdul Samad's 12-ball 27 cameo. LSG got the early wicket of Priyansh Arya but half-centuries from Prabhsimran Singh, captain Iyer and impact player Nehal Wadhera's unbeaten 25-ball 43 helped PBKS get over the line with 22 balls to spare.
Pant expected a slow wicket
After the defeat, Pant rued not putting enough runs on the board. He felt LSG were 20-25 runs short. Also, he blamed the pitch curator for not preparing a slow wicket.
"It (the total) wasn't enough, we were 20-25 runs short, but that's part and parcel of the game. Still assessing the conditions at our home ground. It's always going to be difficult to get a big total when you lose early wickets, but each and every player is trying hard to take the game forward. The idea was to get a slow wicket. I think the slower balls were sticking in. We got to learn from this game and move forward. There are a lot of positives, can't say much," Pant said in the post-match presentation.
LSG's next match is against five-time IPL champions Mumbai Indians (MI) at home on April 4.
