Lucknow Super Giants assistant coach Lance Klusener and captain Rishabh Pant, on Monday, found themselves at loggerheads over the reason behind the team’s loss against Delhi Capitals in Vizag in their IPL 2025 season opener. Lucknow lost by just one wicket in a last-over drama after Ashutosh Sharma struck a sensational 66* off 31.
Lucknow set a target of 210 runs, riding on a partnership between Mitchell Marsh (72) and Nicholas Pooran (75). The Aussie toyed with the hosts while Pooran feasted on the Capitals spinners as their explosive combination laid the foundation for LSG to cross the 200-run mark.
Although LSG’s innings crumbled towards the end, Pant was more willing to draw positives from the batting. “I think our top-order batters played really well, and I think it was a pretty good score on this wicket. As a team, we are looking to take positives from every match, and as a team, we are looking to learn from it (every match.) The more basics we do right, the more it is going to be better for us in the future. We got early wickets, but we knew it was a good wicket to bat on. We had to keep doing the basics right more often than not,” he said in the post-match presentation.
The former South African international, however, contradicted Pant’s assessment of the defeat, saying that the team was 20-30 runs less, which added more pressure on the bowlers.
“If I have to put a finger on it, I would like to say we’ve probably left 20 or 30 runs with the bat out there. That was probably why we ended up being under pressure with the ball,” said Klusener.
“I thought they [DC] finished well with the bat, but the reason why we’re in that position is because we didn’t score enough runs, which we should have. I thought when the bowlers got it right, there was a little bit of spin, so I thought it was a very good wicket. There was a little bit in there for everybody.”
