May 27, 2025 09:48 PM IST
As Mitchell Marsh and Rishabh Pant showed no mercy to the RCB bowling attack, Virat Kohli was exasperated.
Lucknow Super Giants captain Rishabh Pant may have had a horrid IPL 2025 season, but he saved his best for the final league game. On Tuesday, in front of the home crowd at the Ekana Stadium in Lucknow, Pant pulled off a somersault to celebrate his stunning century, off just 55 balls, as the hosts set a colossal target of 278 runs against the Royal Challengers Bengaluru, who have a top-finish at stake after having qualified for the playoffs earlier this month.
RCB dearly missed Josh Hazlewood in the match as the bowling attack looked completely haywire, allowing the pair of Pant and Mitchell Marsh to settle and then dictate the terms. The second-wicket pair added 152 runs in just 73 balls to decimate the RCB attack, en route to which Pant recorded his second career ton in IPL and first since 2018.
Amid Marsh and Pant showing no mercy, former RCB captain Virat Kohli was left exasperated on the field. At the moment of strategic time-out, after the end of the powerplay, by which LSG had raced away to 55 runs for the loss of one wicket, Kohli was seen having an animated chat with head coach Andy Flower, before team mentor Dinesh Karthik stepped on the field to have a word with the strand-in skipper Jitesh Sharma.
After the four had a talk near the boundary ropes, Kohli addressed the team in a huddle, hoping to spark a turnaround by injecting some inspiring words. But RCB’s fortune remained unchanged.
Pant ton powers LSG to 227/3
It wasn’t just the bowling where RCB failed to make an impact against Lucknow. Their fielding, too, was sloppy.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar eventually ended the 152-run stand by dismissing Mitchell Marsh, but Pant carried the momentum, while being ably supported by his deputy, Nicholas Pooran. The wicketkeeper-batter completed the century in 54 balls, en route to an unbeaten 118, his second-highest score in IPL. Pant had scored his first IPL ton against Sunrisers Hyderabad while he was with Delhi Capitals in the 2018 season.
