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Lucknow Super Giants came into IPL 2025 with their entire Indian fast bowling group out because of injury but a timely replacement ensured they are now second on the points table.
Rishabh Pant has maintained that MS Dhoni is his mentor (Picture credit: BCCI)
Star India wicketkeeper-batter and Lucknow Super Giants captain Rishabh Pant has said that it is about keeping one’s feet on the ground despite emphatic wins, adding that his mentor has asked him to focus on the controllable, in a reference to former India captain MS Dhoni.
Shardul Thakur‘s four-fer and a brilliant display of power-hitting from Nicholas Pooran set up a five-wicket victory for Lucknow over the Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Shardul continued his dream comeback, returning with figures of 4/34 to help Lucknow restrict a power-packed Hyderabad to 190/9 before Pooran (70 off 26; 6x4s, 6x6s) displayed his 360-degree hitting skills.
“Big relief, but as a team, we talk about the process. It is not about getting too high when you win and not about getting too low when you lose. As a team, we can’t focus on uncontrollables; my mentor said to focus on controllables, and that is what I did,” Pant said while speaking after the match.
“Good to see the way Prince bowled, and also, Thakur was really good. I think we just want to give him (Pooran) the freedom. You’ve got to give someone the charge when he is batting well, and he has batted brilliantly for us,” Pant added.
Lucknow had lost by just one wicket in their opening match to the Delhi Capitals and desperately needed the win on the day against Hyderabad.
Playing with a depleted bowling line-up against the marauding SRH batters, there were chances that Lucknow were up for another beating, but Thakur’s four-wicket haul restricted Hyderabad.
Pooran shared quick-fire match-winning 116 runs for the second wicket with Mitchell Marsh (52 off 31) to help Lucknow chase down the target in the 17th over. They are now second on the points table, with two points from as many games and a net run rate of 0.96.
Lucknow did not have the best start to their chase as they lost Aiden Markram early. But thereafter, it was the effortless hitting from Marsh and Pooran that helped Lucknow surge ahead.
Pooran, in particular, was at his attacking best as he dealt in sixes, clobbering Simarjeet and Abhishek Sharma for massive sixes during his innings towards the square boundary.