Lucknow Super Giants captain Rishabh Pant finally came good with the willow with a blistering century but unfortunately for LSG, it came right at the fag end of the competition with the franchise already out of playoffs contention. Pant, a record Rs 27 crore buy at the IPL auction last year, hadn’t really delivered with the bat this season but he was at his devastating best against Royal Challengers Bengaluru at the Ekana on Tuesday.
Pant, who came in to bat at No.3 reached his century in 54 deliveries in an innings peppered with 10 fours and 6 sixes. He was duly supported by the ever consistent Mitchell Marsh at the other end.
A few days ago, Pant had said that there were various points of the season where they could have qualified for the IPL playoffs but the inability to take these opportunities cost the team in the long run. LSG has had a rather inconsistent season but they showed what they were capable of when in full flow when they defeated Gujarat Titans by 33 runs on May 22 .
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“We talk about playing good cricket, we’ve shown on occasion we can do that. There were times in the tournament where we had our chances to make the play offs (but didn’t make it), but it’s part and parcel of the game,” Pant after the GT match.
“Coming into the tournament, there were lot of injury concerns. We made sure it’s something we wouldn’t talk about it. The whole batting unit has played, we lacked a bit on the fielding side. We can’t make excuses, just want to learn and move on,” he had added.
Meanwhile, coming to national duties, Pant was selected as deputy to new Test captain Shubman Gill for the upcoming 5-match Test tour to England. This was after Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Ravichandran Ashwin hung up their boots in the past half a year.
