 "Captain Rishabh Pant was dismissed for 7 off 9 balls during Lucknow Super Giants' opening game of the 2026 Indian Premier League in Lucknow. Reuters")
Lucknow Super Giants captain Rishabh Pant rued his team’s poor batting performance following their six-wicket defeat at the hands of Delhi Capitals in their opening game of the 2026 Indian Premier League on Wednesday. The Super Giants were off to a promising start despite Pant getting run-out in an unfortunate manner early in the innings, and were poised for a competitive score after racing to 48/1 towards the end of the powerplay, thanks primarily to Mitchell Marsh (35 off 28).
Pant rues LSG’s lack of partnerships against DC
The home team, however, lost wickets in a heap thereafter and were reduced to 71/5 at the halfway stage. Abdul Samad (36 off 25) briefly rekindled their hopes of posting a score in the range of 160-170 but with 34-run partnership with debutant Mukul Choudhary (14). LSG, however, once again lost wickets at regular intervals towards the end to get bowled out for a modest 141.
“The way we batted, we couldn’t get a partnership for long. The plan was for (Nicholas) Pooran to take on the middle overs from No. 5. We had to get someone who could add a few runs as the Impact Player because we didn’t have enough, on a good pitch. We had a role defined for (Ayush) Badoni, when we lose early wickets, that’s the time he can make a mark. We wanted to explore left-right at the top as to stop them from bowling from the left-arm spinner,” Pant said in the post-match interview.
DC, however, were off to a disastrous start themselves, getting reduced to 26/4 inside the powerplay with Prince Yadav striking in successive deliveries and Mohammed Shami and Mohsin Khan collecting a wicket each.
Unfortunately for LSG, they were always one big partnership away from defeat . And for the Capitals, it was the middle-order pair of Sameer Rizvi (70 not out) – the Impact Sub – and Tristan Stubbs (39 not out) who came to their rescue with an unbroken 119-run partnership for the fifth wicket.
“There was enough help with the new ball. But you can’t put pressure on the opposition with 140. 20 extras hurt, at the same time, you try too much on a wicket like this and are trying to restrict them under 140,” Pant added.