Rishabh Pant couldn't live up to his reputation of being a bonafide match-winner despite his staggering Rs 27 crore billing and the Lucknow Super Giants skipper would be the first one to admit that he didn't have a great IPL season, teammate Mitchell Marsh said after his team's ouster from the league.
LSG lost to Sunrisers Hyderabad by six wickets and are now officially out of play-offs race with two more matches left.
Pant, on his part, has scored 134 runs in 11 innings and at a strike-rate of 100 with just one fifty in what has been his worst IPL season since he made his debut for Delhi Capitals in 2016.
"He would be the first one to say that he hasn't had a season that he would have liked, but I know for myself personally that that's the way cricket goes sometimes," said Marsh, who has scored 443 runs so far with five half-centuries.
Unless, Pant can turn around his game in the last two matches for LSG, he looks on course for his worst ever IPL season. His previous lowest tally in the IPL was 198 runs in 10 matches in his debut season in 2016.
Pant's record in IPL (Season Wise):
| Season | Mat | Inns | Runs | Highest | Avg | SR | 100s | 50s | 0s | Catch | Stump |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 10 | 10 | 198 | 69 | 24.75 | 130.26 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| 2017 | 14 | 14 | 366 | 97 | 26.14 | 165.61 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 8 | 3 |
| 2018 | 14 | 14 | 684 | 128 not out | 52.62 | 173.60 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 2 |
| 2019 | 16 | 16 | 488 | 78 not out | 37.54 | 162.67 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 18 | 6 |
| 2020 | 14 | 14 | 343 | 56 | 31.18 | 113.95 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 13 | 0 |
| 2021 | 16 | 16 | 419 | 58 not out | 34.92 | 128.53 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 10 | 3 |
| 2022 | 14 | 13 | 340 | 44 | 30.91 | 151.79 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 4 |
| 2024 | 13 | 13 | 446 | 88 not out | 40.55 | 155.40 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 11 | 5 |
| 2025 | 12 | 11 | 135 | 63 | 12.27 | 100.00 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 1 |
| TOTAL | 123 | 121 | 3419 | 128 not out | 32.88 | 146.11 | 1 | 19 | 6 | 80 | 24 |
Marsh hopes that Pant will turn a corner in the last two games for LSG even though it would count for little in the larger context.
"We know that he's a fantastic player, highly skilled and highly talented, so he will be back, but yeah, hopefully the last two games."
Asked about the positives for the season, Marsh said that the balance sheet could be checked after the end of the 14th league game.
"I think the time for reflection is probably after the season and for me personally just focus on trying to contribute to winning the next two games for our team and for our franchise. Like I said, the IPL is a beast of a tournament and the margins are really small.
"We lost a couple of close games throughout the season that now have come back to bite us, but yeah, it's all about finishing off the season as strong as we possibly can now."
Sunrisers Hyderabad had changed the template of T20 batting last season with their attack-only philosophy but it didn't work during this season where they have been knocked out of the play-offs race with two matches still left, head coach Daniel Vettori accepted after winning the inconsequential game.
"People have talked about it, that obviously we came into the year with a reputation of being aggressive, and then the first game we made 280, and there was talk of that continuing on. I think for us it's just learning about conditions and understanding how we play in those certain conditions, and a few times we've been tripped up by them," Vettori said.
Adaptability became a key issue for SRH, the legendary former left arm spinner said.
"Probably (we) haven't adapted as quickly as we want and played a game that wasn't suited to those sort of wickets, so that's the major learning, and today was a good example of that, that we could be aggressive in the power play, but then through those middle stages, we had to bat responsibility and take certain options, so I think that's a really pleasing factor for us." the New Zealander said.
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