Memories Of KL Rahul-Sanjiv Goenka Exchange Refreshed As LSG Owner Speaks With Rishabh Pant After Poor Show Vs DC
Rishabh Pant made a forgettable debut for Lucknow Super Giants after scoring a six-ball duck and missing a decisive stumping during stunning defeat to Delhi Capitals.
With Delhi Capitals reeling at 65/5 in chase of 210 on Monday night, nobody would’ve blamed Lucknow Super Giants for assuming the match is all but over. However, a stunning comeback led by a fiery half-century from Ashutosh Sharma and a quickfire 15-ball 39 from Vipraj Nigam engineered a dramatic turnaround for the DC as they won the IPL 2025 contest with three deliveries to spare.
It thus culminated a forgettable LSG debut for captain Rishabh Pant who came under scrutiny following his six-ball duck and questionable tactics besides missing a stumping chance in the final over that would have proved decisive.
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Right after DC’s one-wicket win, visuals of LSG owner Sanjiv Goenka having a chat with captain Pant and head coach Justin Langer went viral on social media with users reminded of an incident from the last season.
Drama Started 🍿pic.twitter.com/yytRwAFE0T— Tarun (@saddapunjab10) March 25, 2025
After LSG suffered a hammering at the hands of Sunrisers Hyderabad during IPL 2024, Goenka had a heated exchange with the then captain KL Rahul resulting in a major controversy. Later that year, LSG released Rahul ahead of the mega auction.
At the two-day mega auction, LSG then broke the bank to secure the services of Pant for a record-breaking Rs 27 crore making the wicketkeeper-batter the most expensive signing in the history of IPL auctions.
During the post-match presentation, Pant said luck played a part in LSG losing the match they should have won.
“Definitely luck plays a part in this game and if it could have missed his (Mohit Sharma’s) pads, it was a chance for stumping. But these things happen in the game of cricket, you can’t focus on these things, but rather you need to play better cricket," Pant said.
Interestingly, the decision to not have Shardul Thakur bowl his quota of four overs also raised eyebrows. Thakur, roped in as a last-minute replacement for the injured Mohsin Khan, took two wickets in his two overs including that of Jason Fraser-McGurk and Abishek Porel.
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