It wasn't the first time LSG owner had a post-match discussion with his team's captain.
Close defeats, that too a loss by a single wicket, are a bitter pill to swallow. For Lucknow Super Giants (LSG), that’s what happened on Monday as they let Delhi Capitals (DC) come back from the brink at 65/5 and chase down a target of 210 in Visakhapatnam.
The defeat would be much more embarrassing for Rishabh Pant, who was a Delhi Capitals man for all his career before making the switch to LSG for the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025.
The keeper-batter, given reins of the team straight away, was left red-faced as he let his former team flip the script on his current one.
Pant was seen having a conversation with team owner Sanjeev Goenka after the defeat to DC. It was much like his predecessor, KL Rahul, who was dragged into an argument last year.
The conversation in the footage is tough to decipher, but it is clear that Goenka wasn’t happy with the result. However, it didn’t look like a spat like the argument that happened in IPL 2024 after LSG had lost to Sunrisers Hyderabad by 10 wickets.
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In that clash, LSG were listless as they were restricted to 165/4 by Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s 2-12 in four overs. The opening pair of Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma blew away the target within 9.4 overs.
Rahul admitted later that the spat being in the public eye had affected the team morale.
On Monday, LSG weren’t as bad as they were back then. But they did let a win slip away with some bad field placements and timid bowling. Ashutosh Sharma breathed life into DC’s chase with a brilliant 66 not out off 31 balls. His confidence grew with every passing ball as he clobbered five boundaries and five sixes to help DC score 62 off the last five overs.
Spinner Vipraj Nigam also played a big part in it with a scintillating 39 off 14 balls. His knock included a six and a four against experienced Shahbaz Ahmed and two boundaries off Prince Yadav.
Despite tumbling wickets at the other end, Ashutosh stayed calm to finish the job with three balls remaining.
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