Rishabh Pant, who is the captain of the Lucknow Super Giants and also a wicketkeeper-batter for India, shared some insights after their recent win. He talked about how important it is to stay humble even after they secured a solid victory, nodding to the wisdom he picked up from his mentor, the legendary MS Dhoni. Pant stressed that the focus should be on things they can control, rather than getting too caught up in the highs of winning or the lows of losing.
In their latest match against Sunrisers Hyderabad, Shardul Thakur shone by taking four wickets, while Nicholas Pooran lit up the game with a fantastic display of power hitting, leading Lucknow to a five-wicket win. Thakur had an impressive performance, finishing with figures of 4 wickets for just 34 runs, helping to restrict Hyderabad to a score of 190 runs for 9 wickets. Then Pooran took the game by storm, smashing 70 runs off just 26 balls, including six fours and six sixes.
After the match, Pant said, “It’s a big relief, but we focus a lot on the process as a team. It’s important not to get too high when we win or too low when we lose. My mentor always tells me to stick to what we can control, and that’s exactly what I did.” He went on to commend Thakur’s bowling and the performance of Pooran, saying, “It was great to see Prince (Thakur) bowling well, and we want to give Pooran the freedom to play his game. When someone is in the zone like he is, you just let him go for it.”
Lucknow desperately needed this win after narrowly losing to Delhi Capitals by just one wicket in their season opener. Facing a tough match-up against a strong Hyderabad batting lineup, there were worries they might face another defeat. Thanks to Thakur’s stellar four-wicket haul, Lucknow held Hyderabad to a manageable score.
Pooran played a key role in the chase, teaming up with Mitchell Marsh, who scored 52 runs off 31 balls, to form a powerful partnership of 116 runs for the second wicket. Thanks to their efforts, Lucknow managed to reach the target in the 17th over. Now, they sit in second place on the points table, having played two games and earning two points, with a decent net run rate of 0.96.
The start of their chase wasn’t smooth as they lost Aiden Markram pretty quickly. But once Marsh and Pooran got into a rhythm, they began to take control of the match. Pooran, in particular, was hitting with remarkable aggression, smashing huge sixes off bowlers like Simarjeet and Abhishek Sharma, which kept the momentum firmly in Lucknow’s favor.
