Rishabh Pant had a slip of the tongue moment after Lucknow Super Giants registered their ninth loss in 13 games in IPL 2026. LSG are out of the playoff race and are at the bottom of the points table, and still have one more league game to play before they sign off the forgettable season.
At the end of the match while responding to a question regarding their upcoming match against Punjab Kings on Saturday, he said: “We are proud as a team regardless of how our situation is right now. You know, the kind of team we have, we know we can win this. Regardless of anything we are confident enough as a team and as individuals. It hasn’t gone our way and everyone knows that but that doesn’t take away the fact that we are a f***ing good team.”
LSG’s campaign this season was hurt by their inconsistent form of their top batters including Pant, who had a very poor outing. Nicholas Pooran never got going, also Mitchell Marsh, who seems to have rediscovered his form, had a slow start. Tom Moody, team director has blamed the middle order being the reason behind LSG’s poor season.
However, on Tuesday, the LSG batters did really well to post 220 on the board. But their bowlers were taken to the cleaners by Vaibhav Sooryavanshi who scored 93 off 38 balls while Yashasvi Jaiswal struck 43 off 23.
“Sometimes, you know, it is hard. On a (flat) wicket like this, there is less margin for the bowlers, you know and just having too many suggestions doesn’t work you know. Sometimes you have to keep a simple plan and keep focusing on that one ball at a time and try to execute that plan,” Pant said.
Pant had the option of using left-arm spinner Shahbaz Ahmed, who came on to bowl the last over when RR needed two runs to win.
“Definitely, the left-handers. They had been batting for a period of time. And exposing a left-arm spinner, I didn’t want that, because (Digvesh) Rathi (4-0-38-0) was in the side. So why take chance on Shabby when Rathi is there, for sure.”
