Lucknow Super Giants suffered a defeat in their opening game of the Indian Premier League (IPL) season on Wednesday as they went down to Delhi Capitals at the Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow. Even though they lost the toss on a sticky wicket, LSG had enough firepower in their batting to post a massive total on the board. But eventually, they could only reach 141 runs before getting bowled out in the 19th over of the innings.
This turned out to be their worst performance batting first in the history of IPL. LSG made their debut in the cash-rich league in the 2022 edition and had never posted a total below 150 runs while batting first until Wednesday, when they faced the rejigged Delhi Capitals’ bowling unit.
There was a change in their batting order from the last game as shockingly, Rishabh Pant walked out to open the innings while Aiden Markram and Nicholas Pooran batted out of position. Markram came out at the first drop while Pooran, surprisingly, batted at five, even below Ayush Badoni.
On expected lines, both batters struggled, scoring 11 and eight runs respectively, while Pant also got out via an unfortunate run-out as they kept losing wickets at regular intervals. Eventually, it was due to Abdul Samad’s 36-run cameo off 25 balls that they managed to cross the 140-run mark.
As far as their lowest first innings total is concerned, their previous record was 153 against the Punjab Kings in their debut season. The Super Giants would be hoping to come up with a better show soon before time runs out and most importantly, rejig their batting order quickly to make sure, low scores don’t become a regular feature for them this year.
Lowest 1st innings total for LSG
141 vs DC, Lucknow, 2026*
153/8 vs PBKS, Pune, 2022
154/7 vs RR, Jaipur, 2023
158/6 vs GT, Wankhede, 2022
159/8 vs PBKS, Lucknow, 2023
Sameer Rizvi was the hero for DC but their bowlers set it up on tough pitch
Sameer Rizvi deserved to win the player of the match for his unbeaten 70-run mark, but the match was indeed set up by their bowlers earlier in the game. T Natarajan and Kuldeep Yadav picked wickets regularly during their spell to make sure LSG never made a comeback while Lungi Ngidi did his thing too, picking up the most important scalp of Pooran. The South African also made sure that the tail didn’t wag much, nipping out the last two wickets in the 19th over in quick succession.
Meanwhile, DC are slowly stamping their authority over the Super Giants in IPL as they registered their fifth consecutive win over LSG on Wednesday and have not lost to them since the 2024 season.
Most successive wins for DC against a team
5 vs RR (2018-20)
5 vs SRH (2020-23)
5 vs LSG (2024-26)*
Also Read