LSG owner addressed the team’s defeat inside the dressing room filled with glum faces.
Lucknow Super Giants were on course to beat Delhi Capitals before running into Ashutosh Sharma, who snatched victory from the jaws of defeat and took the Capitals over the line in their IPL 2025 opener in Visakhapatnam on Monday by chasing down 210. The two points that, for the longest time, seemed to belong to LSG eventually went into DC’s kitty, but franchise owner Sanjiv Goenka didn’t read too much into it and rather lifted the morale of his players.
LSG coach Justin Langer (L) looks on as Sanjiv Goenka addresses the players(LSG-X)
After Goenka addressed the defeat with Pant in post-match visuals, the owner made his way inside the team dressing room. His speech went a long way in replacing the glum look on players’ faces with smiles. Goenka admitted that the end result was disappointing, believing LSG could well have defended the total, but it’s still early days, and the fact that the players fought until the end augurs well for the team environment.
“Lots of positives that I take away from this game. The way we had the Powerplay in both batting and bowling was brilliant. These things happen. We are a young team; let’s look at the positives and look forward from tomorrow to the 27th. And hopefully, we’ll have a better result. Disappointing result (tonight), yes. But a great game. So well done,” Goenka said, followed by a huge round of applause.
Watch the clip below:
How the game turned out
As the owner pointed out, LSG were impressive in their first match of the season. After finishing IPL 2024 at the seventh position, Lucknow showed sparks of brilliance, a result of a wonderful mega-auction that they enjoyed in November. Mitchell Marsh and Nicholas Pooran’s explosive half-centuries – they combined to hit 13 sixes – propelled LSG to 209/8 after Pant, the most expensive player in IPL history – fell for a six-ball duck.
Even with the ball, LSG had things under control, reducing the Capitals to 168/7 in 16 overs. But the little-known Ashutosh had other plans. Shikhar Dhawan’s protege, Ashutosh, 24, took the wind out of LSG’s sails, blasting an unbeaten 66 off 31 balls featuring five fours and five sixes. Ashutosh’s assault was one of the best exhibitions of clean hitting seen in a long time, allowing DC to complete their highest-successful IPL chase of all time.
LSG have little time to regroup from their narrow defeat, as they next take on the dangerous Sunrisers Hyderabad on Thursday, who put up quite the batting show against Rajasthan Royals, plundering 286/6 on Sunday.
