LSG won the toss and opted to bowl first in their second game of the season.
Lucknow Super Giants captain Rishabh Pant was unfazed at all the talk around the possibility of Sunrisers Hyderabad chasing a 300-run total at home in the lead-up to the IPL 2025 game at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium as he openly challenged the Pat Cummins-led side at the toss. LSG won the toss and opted to bowl first in their second game of the season.
LSG won the toss and opted to bowl vs SRH
Sunrisers have been a beast at home. In their opening game of the season against Rajasthan Royals, they scored 286 runs, one run short of their own IPL record for the highest team total. Hence, in the build-up to the match against Lucknow, the only talk around whether the side could emerge as the first IPL team to breach the 300-run mark.
However, Pant seemed least bothered about the outside noise as he openly challenged SRH saying that Lucknow are ready to chase down any total in a bid to secure their first win in the season. They had earlier lost their season opener against Delhi Capitals by one wicket on Monday in Vizag.
“I think we got to get them out early and look to chase the target. It depends on the team combination, that’s why we want to bowl first. We have the batting to chase it down,” Pant said after winning the toss.
After confirming Lucknow’s only game in the playing XI for the game – Avesh Khan replacing Shahbaz Ahmed, he was asked what total he would like to chase. The India star replied, saying: “We are going to chase whatever they score, it doesn’t matter.”
SRH, on the other hand, remained unchanged.
“It doesn’t change the way our boys go about it, we always try to be positive. It’s great fun. You know what you are signing up for coming into this tournament. Even going for 10 or 11 runs in an over, that can be match winning on somedays. We want to win games as a team and do well as a bowling unit. Hopefully we score big. We are playing with the same team like the other day…,” captain Pat Cummins said at toss.
Not a 300-total pitch?
Former India cricketer Deep Dasgupta, during his pitch report, reckoned it wasn’t a 300-run track.
“It’s a red soil pitch, so there will be bounce and carry but expect the pitch to slow down a bit once the ball gets older. As far as dew is concerned, there wasn’t any in the last game, don’t expect it be to here either. So, batting first and piling up the runs is the way to go. Last season, this pitch was used in two games and in all four innings, more than 200 runs were scored. Expect a 200-plus total here as well but maybe not that 300 total, maybe not tonight,” he said.
