Rishabh Pant-led Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) took on the Axar Patel-led Delhi Capitals (DC) in the reverse fixture of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 on Tuesday, April 22.
Lucknow Super Giants lost against the Delhi Capitals by 8 wickets in the 40th match of IPL 2025 at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow.
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Yes, toss is playing a huge part here, but as a team, we are not looking for excuses -Rishabh Pant
Being invited to bat first in the match, LSG had a terrible outing as they got restricted to 159/6, and then with the ball as well, they were poor and allowed the run-chase to be completed in 17.5 overs.
Speaking just after the match, Rishabh Pant said that losing the toss is a major disadvantage in Lucknow, but they won’t use it as an excuse. He said:
“We knew we were 20 runs short. In Lucknow, the toss played a big part. Whoever is bowling first, they get a lot of help from the wicket. We just had to stay back, we just couldn’t get it away. It always happens in Lucknow, in the second innings, the wicket gets better and batter to bat on, that’s how the game goes and you can’t be complaining. Yes, toss is playing a huge part here, but as a team, we are not looking for excuses.”
That is one idea why we are impacting Ayush, to get Mayank some game time – Rishabh Pant
When asked about the status of Mayank Yadav, Rishabh Pant said that they are using Ayush Badoni as an impact player to find a way to get Mayank Yadav into the playing XI, but have been unsuccessful in their attempt. Rishabh Pant said:
“That is one idea why we are impacting Ayush, to get Mayank some game time, just trying to find ways to get him early in the season because it’s already halfway around. He came from NCA now, just trying to fit him in.”
Rishabh Pant shockingly came to bat at No.7 against DC in the 20th over when two balls were remaining. Talking about this, he said that the idea was to capitalise on momentum by sending in-form Abdul Samad above the order, but after that, things didn’t go their way. Rishabh Pant said:
“(On him batting down the order today) Idea was to like capitalize. We sent Samad to capitalize on a wicket like that. After that, Miller came in, and we just really got stuck in the wicket. Eventually, these are the things we got to figure out and try to find our best combination going forward.”
“(On the upcoming matches away from home) I haven’t thought about anything as of now, just finished the match, we are gonna regroup, realign and refocus again. Just going to be playing the next match from a fresh start.”
How did LSG perform in the previous IPL match against DC?
On March 24 at Visakhapatnam, Lucknow Super Giants suffered a heartbreaking one-wicket defeat against Delhi Capitals in their IPL 2025 opener. Despite scoring 209 runs, LSG couldn’t defend the total as Ashutosh Sharma pulled off a heist for DC.
Batting first, Nicholas Pooran smashed a 30-ball 75, and Mitchell Marsh slammed 72 off 36 to lay a foundation for a colossal score. Their exceptional batting and an 87-run partnership off just 35 balls had LSG cruising at 161/2 by the 14th over. However, they suffered a batting collapse and lost six wickets for just 48 runs in the last 6.2 overs to fall short of 230 runs, which looked possible at one point in time.
With the ball, LSG made early inroads as Shardul Thakur (2/19) and Manimaran Siddharth (2/39) reduced Delhi to 7/3 within two overs and 113/6 by the 13th.
At that stage, LSG appeared in full control, and it looked like the victory was around the corner. However, that didn’t happen as DC’s Vipraj Nigam’s 39 off 15 and Ashutosh Sharma’s 66 off 31 led to the run-chase being completed in 19.3 overs, and LSG faced a shocking loss.
